James Pearson Climbs the World’s Hardest Traditional Route

by David Simmonite

In an audacious and serious piece of climbing James Pearson has succeeded on one of the UK's most incredible lines and at an equally stunning grade of E12 7a.The route, dubbed The Walk of Life, is located on the dramatic steep slab of Dyer’s Lookout on the North Devon coast and is possibly without peers for a route of this type in terms of commitment, difficulty and danger.

The Walk of Life begins with a very serious initial slab on thin holds and smears to reach better holds and reasonable gear at around 15 metres height. A fall on this first section of the climb would lead to a crippling ground fall onto the jumble of boulders below. James feels that this initial section alone is the most mentally difficult and terrifying piece of climbing he has done.

Above this point the route joins an earlier climb, Dyer Straits, which was first climbed by Ian Vickers at a grade of E8 6b utilising 13 pegs and pre-placed gear for protection. Prior to his lead James made the decision to remove all of these pegs, with many being rotten in any case, and lead the route in a morepure fashion on leader placed protection, adding to the overall seriousness and increasing the sustained nature of the climb much further. Whilst safer than the initial section, the protection on the upper wall is small and awkward to place. The rock is often friable and could crumble at any time.

      James on the upper half of The Walk of Life.                              The immense slab of Dyer's Lookout. James is just

      Both photos: © David Simmonite                                                  visible abseiling down the line of the route.

Success was not without its moments, on a previous attempt to lead it, warm temperatures forced the decision to rise at 4.15 am in the morning and get on the route whilst the slab was still in the shade. All was going well with James brilliantly climbing the dangerous first section of the climb. Unfortunately for James he was to fall on the upper section due to a combination of fatigue and, more crucially, light rain that had began to fall.

Photographer David Simmonite, who was on hand to capture the action, commented, “Watching closely, my thoughts were immediate: would the protection hold and if it doesn’t what would happen, would I see a friend die? Fortunately James's luck was in and after a seemingly endless fall he came to a stop 60 feet below. Phew!”

Happily there was no major drama on the day of the successful lead, James cooly led the dangerous first section, and although close to his limit, he made the moves from where he had fallen before to a good slot. However there was to be one final hiccup when it started raining. Thankfully it was a very brief passing shower and James waited a few moments at the slot until the route had become dry enough to continue. The rest is history and arguably the hardest traditional climb in the world has just been climbed.

The final words are with James, “The Walk of Life pushed me further and made me dig deeper than any other route I've climbed before. The route is the hardest I've ever climbed and far harder than any other route I've tried. When compared to other routes that I've experienced, and my previous first ascents including The Groove at Cratcliffe, which in hindsight I feel I undergraded, The Walk of Life is at a new level."

There will be more to follow including comment from James and exclusive photographs on this website so keep checking back. Plus keep an eye out for a future editon of Climb magazine for more stunning pictures and a full report.

The ascent was filmed by the Hot Aches team for Committed 2, out in November. Hot Aches

You can read James' adventures at: www.jamespearsonclimbing.com and James Pearson at The North Face

James is sponsored by The North Face, Wild Country and Five Ten

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