James Pearson's been a busy boy, despite nursing an injured finger he's been on a European tour with Caroline visiting some of the 'out of the way' areas .
One such place is Interprete, in Italy, and here it seems there was a less obscure objective, a famous Euro E9....James mailed us pretty excited about this:
"Some exciting news for you! Yesterday I completed my latest big Trad project, and probably my hardest trad route to date!
Is Not Always Pasqua is THE E9 from Mauro Calibani, the route that made E9. It is a short, beautiful, and hard route on the South Italian Sandstone of Interprete, and was only ever repeated once by Cristian Brenna. Both Mauro and Christian head pointed the route, and both climbed it with all gear pre-placed (ok, its not really a trad route like this, but they are european, and both LEGENDS, we have to let them off;) The route was always quoted as fr8b climbing, with a Fb7C+ crux right at the top!
Yesterday I climbed the route, Ground-Up, placing all gear on lead! It was an amazing moment, and a big surprise, and everything was captured on video! Placing the gear on lead was so much harder than I expected, so pumpy, and definitely made the route a BIG challenge."
Watch the video of this route here:
James Pearson climbs 'Is Not Always Pasqua' - Mauro Calibani's E9 at Interprete, Italy, ground up! from Wild Country on Vimeo.