The Expedition Reports - 2

The Second of our Expedition reports came direct from my pen. The drive was long, so very very long, and after 4 days we were all eager to know what we had come so far for... our first taste

After finishing our rather long drive, and getting our first glimpse of rock, we pulled into an amazingly shady spot on the back side of a giant brown rocky castle. Piero obviously knew of this spot from previous journeys as he came directly here, no detours or backtracks, simply straight to the point.

Having a guide in this place is essential and Piero’s endless knowledge is worth its weight in gold. This place is like a maze- a giant, spread out, incredibly open maze, that looks the same in every location, has perilous traps waiting to catch the unweary, and is hotter than hell for all hours of daylight. After eating a feast of tomato plus tuna our eagerness got the better and we ran from camp like giggling school kids to make a group free solo of our new local cliff.

The next few events past something like this: Shoes on, chalk up, break a hold, crumble a foot, look scary, climb down, begin to cry! OK, so the crying part may be an exaggeration, but the rock was really shitty, genuine choss. We salvaged the day by scrambling up loose gullies to bag the summit which was a f***** stunning place. By the looks the the cairn on top had been enjoyed by brave people unknown, at some point in the past.

This place is stunning, perfect vistas for 360 degrees and the most beautiful sunsets/rises one could ever with to see. At the end of the day Piero drove us to the first area he thought had potential which did not disappoint. After walking for less than 5 minutes I saw the best line of the trip so far: A line that was instantly obvious was become my focus for the near future. The rock on the upper half looked like it could be fairly solid, but to get here requires climbing over two steep roofs made from rock resembling wheat-a-bix!

With 3.5 days drive to the nearest city the consequence of any injury out here doesn’t seem to fun, and so before Europe, I told myself that self preservation would be the order of the game. Unfortunately, part of being a trad climber is convincing yourself that the rewards justify the risks, and by the time we return to camp the wheels had already been set in motion,

Some days things just work, and sometimes they don’t, but fortunately today was one of the former. Written beta about the route is neither necessary or needed as the video and stills will speak thousand of words. What I will say is that the quality fo the climbing was wholly unexpected, and combined with the location and the formation, made for a phenomenal first taste. First route of the trip. First ascent of the tower. First rock climb in the ennedi!

So, so, psyched :)

James Pearson

Check out RealBigPimp.in for more shots...

All Pictures copyright Jimmy Chin, Tim Kemple, Renan Ozturk (Camp 4 Collective)

Chad - The Expedition Reports...

Hello to you all,

I've been a little quiet recently, and for once I have a very good reason... For the last 3 weeks I have been in the middle of the Ennedi desert, amidst a sea of sand and sandstone towers, in north eastern Chad! The expedition was part of The North Face's annual expedition program, which every year sends teams of its athletes to some of the most random and remote places in he world, in search of something magic.

This adventure in particular was the brainchild of Mark Synnott and had been lurking in the dark depths of his mind for the last 10 or so years. Based on some stunning pictures from a photostream on flickr and some information from local hero Piero, who has been guiding out of the Sahara for almost 40 years, Mark decided now was the time to drop the clutch and head off on an adventure.

The team consisted of Mark and myself, Alex Honnold, Tim Kemple, Renan Ozturk and Jimmy Chin. The information available online regarding travelling in Chad is varied to say the least and not one of the team knew what to expect. Ideas ranged from kidnap and torture, to a beach holiday without the ocean - and so it was with a large amount of uncertainty that we boarded the plane from Paris to N'djamena...

The result was an expedition to never forget! Lost among an endless expanse of desert towers, in what felt like the most remote place on earth, yet almost always in view of other humans, we battled through the sand climbing some of the most memorable and iconic routes of our lives. The scenery and sunsets were enough to make believe you were on another planet.

The guys from Camp 4 worked their magic, and by their own admission captured some of the best stills and video they have ever shot. In a place where dropping a camera would likely capture a cover-shot this may not come as so much of a shock, but some of the crane shots and time-lapses are more than just eye-candy - they are works of art.

All will be released in good time, after each of the guys takes a well earned rest with their families for Christmas. The 4 day jeep ride home was the straw that broke the camels back and we all boarded or planes home feeling completely worked, half dead, but ultimately content. Although I am desperate to see the finished piece, I can forgive the guys a little time to wind down and relax before the madness resumes in 2011. In the meantime I am going to release a selection of the expedition blog you might not have seen from NeverStopExploring.com along with some simply beautiful stills.

Here is dispatch 1, courtesy of Alex, who managed to hold his bowls together long enough to type a few words like only he can...

Coming on this expedition to Chad was kind of unnerving. Nothing was really known and all the information I found on the internet made it clear that Chad was not a good place to visit. The whole team met up in Paris, which is always a good start. The only problem was that I had horrible food poisoning and spent the majority of my travel and flights sitting on the toilet vomiting or curled up in agony. Not such a good start for me. But amazingly we all made it to N'djamena without a hitch. Our outfitter met us inside customs and helped us chaperone all our oversized bags out of the airport. We spent the first night in a hotel in the city, then packed up our jeeps the next morning and set out for the desert. And that pretty much brings us up to present. We've driven for 2 days across Chad. We've seen a lot of camels, a lot of nomads, a TON of sand. Let's just say we're all a bit dusty. Everything has gone perfectly. Good food, good company, everyone is in good spirits. Tomorrow we should make it to the Ennedi, where we will hopefully find some decent climbing. Our outfitter is a climber himself so he has a lot of good ideas for things we should climb. Lines that he's scoped over 15 years of visiting the desert. We're all thinking of folks back home. But psyched that this is going as smoothly as it has, and pretty optimistic about doing some amazing new routes. Alex Honnold

RealBigPimp.in

As promised what now seems like a long time ago, my new website is ready!!!

Unfortunately there were unforeseen issues with my original domain name, jamespearsoncliming.com, which postponed the re-launch considerably. I leave for the communication black hole of Chad early tomorrow morning, so rather than make you wait even longer, a good friend of mine has kindly lent me a rather odd domain to use.

Jamespearsonclimbing.com has temporally become realbigpimp.in, so go take a look at all the new content, dressed in shiny new clothes.

I will still be maintaining this blog for the near future until everything on the new channel is up and running smoothly. Let me know your thoughts and feelings, and Ill take a look at them after Chad

Until then...

Climbing Denim

Drum-roll please...

Ladies and Gentlemen, after many, many years of waiting, hoping, and praying, they are finally here... well almost.

I am sat typing this message in a pair of TNF climbing jeans that I have been lucky enough to get my grubby little hands on, and I have to say, they are fu@&ing sweet!!! A mix of thin blue denim and 2% elastane, perfectly baggy with seams in all the right places, these are hands down the best climbing pants I have used - no word of a lie.

Now before you all rush out to break down the doors of your local outdoor store, I have to tell you that these fine threads are still only in the prototype phase, and wont be in production until 2012 at the earliest. Now I know that is a long long time to wait, but believe me, it will all be worth it. Especially when we make a few tiny tweaks to the design, like double thickness over the knees for those spikey knee-bars.

Thank you TNF for giving me what I want - wow, doesn't that make me sound like a spoilt brat!

Keep your eyes peeled over the next few weeks for photos of the jeans from my upcoming Chad expedition...

Progression

For as long as I can remember, I have always wanted to excel at whatever sport I happened to be psyched on at the time. Inline Skating, Rugby, Skiing – they were all the same... I was fairly good to begin with, and I improved quickly with practice. I loved each of them, and a big part of what I loved was being good!

This may sound a tiny bit arrogant ;) but it is really not meant to. When I say “good”, I dont mean it in an “im better than you” way, but instead to describe feeling like you have a high level of control over your body and mind, and you can make them do what you want. If I saw someone else doing something, I knew it was possible and figured that I should be able to do it too.

Obviously the real world is not quite as simple as that, and there are many things in life you will only achieve through practice, training or good luck – usual it’s a mix of the three. Take football for example. At one point I decided I wanted to play; I tried out and sucked, practiced and sucked, got frustrated and sucked, and finally gave up, still sucking just as much as I do to this very day. When I play, it feels like I have two left feet in boots several sizes too big for me, I hate feeling so out of control and disconnected and thus, I really don’t like football.

Climbing also came naturally, and for the first few years I progressed fast and continuously, which fed me everything I hungered for and kept me a happy little chappy. As more years passed, things slowed down as one would expect, but improvement was still there, walking hand in hand with my motivation.

Eventually however, the world stopped turning and I found myself walking through a very big plateau. I could see mountains all around and wanted to be up there, but just couldn’t quite find the way. Working my strengths got me nowhere, so logic suggested I move on to my weaknesses. The path now seemed so clear, and I began running towards the Peaks with fresh enthusiasm; what I didn’t realise is that this particular path lead right into a deep deep gorge!

Progress was slow and frustrating, which I guess comes from starting to try something your body has never done before, and to make matters worse, my strengths started to become not so strong! I was actually going downhill, getting worse at climbing simply from trying to get better. This really sucked!

Thankfully, one of my other personal traits is being a stubborn bastard, especially when it comes to punishing myself. I tried my best to fight, got knocked down time and time again but somehow kept getting back on my feet to fight some more, spurred on only by a blurred and bloody vision of paradise. Then one day, not too dissimilar from all the rest, I got a visit from an angel...

Everything changed, things became clear and I began to move in the right way. It took time, effort, and a helping hand, but a few weeks ago I made it out of the gorge and am heading towards the foothills. The journey is far from over, in fact, it’s barely just begun. But now I can see the sun, it’s just started to rise and I know its going to be a beautiful day

El Forrat!

Today we woke up in Barcelona – thanks to the flights being much cheaper than those to Montpellier, and the hospitality of a good friend, Jaume Oliveras. We were scheduled to take a train at 5pm back to the land of frogs and Foie Gras, leaving us the whole morning for either sightseeing or training...

There are days I like to pretend to be the cultural type, and since this is my third visit to Barcelona without seeing anything arty, today should have been one of those days. But it just wasn’t to be, the second choice won, which should speak highly enough about the quality of the training venue!

I am struggling to find the words to describe both how awesome and unique El Forrat is, you really need to experience it for yourself. Combining simple and effective shapes and structure, with Gaudi-esc sculpted madness; El Forrat is the brain child of an eccentric, obsessive genius - Manolo “El Heavy”, and every square inch has been created with an almost unheard of level of passion and love.

Thanks Manolo for a great session, we’ll visit you again soon J

Mallorca Sport - Another 8b onsight for Caroline

The psicobloc on the island is good, no scratch that, it is great – in my opinion the best in the world! However, if you feel like a break from the water, then Mallorca has world class bolt clipping that you need to check out.

For the last couple of days we have visited a few of the premiere sport cliffs on the island, including Les Pertxas, Gorg Blau and Fraguels. The limestone is very very good – bright orange walls and caves covered in flowstone and tufa’s, and most of the routes we climbed have been exceptional quality.

Caroline on the top of Commando Madrid, just before the final boulder © Mick Lovatt

As time was short, we have both been onsight/flashing routes rather than working projects, which has allowed us to tick a whole load of super classic routes in all different styles. The highlight ascent of the trip was Caroline’s onsight of Commando Madrid – the most famous 8b on the island. She fought hard, dug deep and stuck it out to the chains, with just a tiny scream or two to help her on her way. Voici quelques photos...

The Commando Madrid Cave at Les Pertxas © Mick Lovatt