James Pearson

James Pearson (born 15 December 1985) is an English rock climber who has redpointed of some of the hardest traditional climbing routes in the world, including Rhapsody at E11 and Tribe at E11 . In 2023, he made the first ascent of Bon Voyage in Annot in France which became the world's first-ever traditional climbing route to have a consensus grade of E12 . In 2008, Pearson freed The Groove in Derbyshire, which was considered one of the "last great problems" of English gritstone traditional climbing (and another potential E11/E10, although later downgraded). Pearson's grading became hugely controversial, and was compounded when MacLeod repeated The Walk of Life in 2009 and downgraded it to E9 6c, while Pearson failed to ascend Rhapsody but still dismissed it as an easier route. After the controversy, Pearson went into exile and relocated for France, where he met his wife, French climber , who kept urging him to return to Rhapsody, where he made the fourth ascent in 2014. After the ascent, Pearson commented: "I couldn't take it back, but perhaps I could do something to make up for it? A gesture of goodwill, or perhaps even a peace offering to the UK climbing community?".

Pearson re-established himself as one of the world's leading traditional climbers. In 2020, he made the first repeat of Jacopo Larcher's Tribe in Italy, considered to be the world's first traditional route with a rating (although Pearson declined to grade it). After Bon Voyage, Pearson continued repeating famous traditional routes such as Parthian Shot (E10) in England, and made the first repeat of Dave MacLeod's Echo Wall (calling it "hard E11") in Scotland.

Published works