James Pearson has just been back in the UK from his new home in France for a visit and we caught up with him to make this fantasic new video and for an exclusive interview:

James you’re back in the UK for a quick hit what are you up to?

I had some meetings with Wild Country and we signed a deal for me to keep using their gear for the next few years. Wild Country was one of my first sponsors, in fact I think it was my very first, in 2004 I think, and so now I’m obviously really, really happy to continue the relationship.  It’s a brand that I really love to work with, they’re very creative, interesting people, and the product speaks for itself – I don’t need to talk about how good it is.    But more it feels very much like a family – I’ve always felt very cared for and looked after by them, and, yeah, you know, and you... you stay true, I guess, to your family and so I’m happy we can continue to work together and hopefully do even more amazing things in the future. So now I have a few days off and I’m going to show Caroline some more of the UK’s climbing.

You had a pretty amazing year in 2011 how would you sum it up?
Last year was certainly a really busy year for me.  At the start of the year I had no fixed plans, and these amazing things just kind of materialised, and it would certainly be one of my most productive years ever.  And maybe in terms of success, I think, yeah, it probably was my best year ever just in terms of a continuous, you know, a continuous mass of ascents.  But the main thing was they were all so fun, so varied, so different – every challenge was making me work in a different way, testing me in new areas – and I think this is very important for me to maintain the motivation and also maintain the level.
The things I did last year, they’re all so memorable for many, many different reasons, like Pembroke, (when James attempted to flash the  E10, Muy Caliente)  for example, because it was the first time I’d been properly trad climbing for a long time, and so before the trip I had no idea of even, you know, how my body would take again to it. Then Chad was incredible just for the sheer beauty of the place, the landscape is like nowhere... nowhere I even imagined existed before. 
And Joy Division, (the 22pitch 8b 800m route that James did the first continuous ascent of) wow, I mean this... I think this thing pushed me more than I think anything else I’d done.I remember my first visit to the wall with such high expectations, you know, of planning on going and making a very fast, maybe on site for sure ground up in a day ascent and just getting completely shut down.  I completely underestimated all that big wall climbing entailed.  For me, I looked at it just as going and climbing a few sport routes, and it’s just... I was so... almost so disrespectful to the whole thing – it just slapped me in the face and I came away from that first trip, I think we made it four pitches up the wall, I couldn’t do some moves on the first pitch and I was just like so down-hearted, so... so shocked at how difficult it was.  And then to finally find the way to go back to make the entire journey in after another month or so of continuous effort, four trips, to be stood on the summit was just... just unreal.  An amazing experience, and one I will for sure, I think, remember for a long, long time.

So what do you think is next for you, James, how does 2012 pan out?
Ok, so this next year actually is pretty busy in comparison to last year where I almost had no plans, this year I’m pretty much full up until the end.  So right now we just came back from a month and a half in Asia where we were essentially exploring new areas, new sport climbing, cliffs.  It was a pretty good trip, I climbed the hardest route in South East Asia, so for me this was nice, it was a goal before I went, and so to achieve it was super-cool.

James Pearson on his 2011 masterwork Joy Division 8b 800m
And now we’re back in the UK for a little while, do a little bit of trad, a little bouldering, show Caro a few of the nice little cliffs before going back to France and then on to Spain for a month of just pure hard sport climbing, really trying to raise the fitness level.
And a big goal of mine that I’ve had for a while is to climb 9A.  At the end of last year I found a nice project in Perles, a route called Esclatamasters.  It’s amazing... amazing time, and it’s the first time I’ve actually been really psyched for a hard route, for a 9A especially, and it’s something I feel like I can invest a good amount of time in before I get bored. Then after Spain we go to Sardinia for some big walls, sport big walls, so pretty chilled but they’re still fun.  After Sardinia it’s on to... maybe a little trad tour in the UK, this is kind of in the work at the minute.  I’m hopeful that this is going to come off, and we can have some fun going to a lot of new areas that I’ve maybe not been to before, hanging out with old friends and just having a laugh. Then the really cool expeditions start – the first one being a trip to Borneo to make first ascents and repeats of some sport routes on the top of Mount Kinabalu.  It’s over four thousand metres high, so it’s going to be kind of quite different.  In fact I think it’s the... some of the highest sport climbing in the world, and certainly the hardest highest sport climbing. There’s one 9A project up there that Yugi Hiryama bolted last year, and so I’m going to return with Yuji this year to try this and open up some new lines, so this is going to be mega.
After this, it’s potentially a big expedition in Brazil to try and open up a... to try and open up a... to try and free an aid line on one of the big like six hundred metre faces, completely trad, completely in the jungle, you have to hike in for one day, there’s absolutely nothing there, it’s going to be, you know, cut and trail, it’s going to be a really different new experience, but I’m very much looking forward to this. And after that, well, that’s probably enough for right now.  It’s busy.  It’s busy.

Essentially, you now have the dream ‘job’of  being a ‘professional climber’ how is that for you?

Life as a professional climber is... is great, I mean this is the best way I can describe it, it’s perfect, it’s my dream and I couldn’t think of anything... anything better.  I think even... even if I was rich, you know, if I’d won the lottery and I didn’t need to, to have sponsors, I still think it’s better to have sponsors because you’re continuously trying to push yourself, trying to evolve, you know, try and stay on top of things, and I think if you were... if you didn’t have to worry about the money side of things, if you could just do what you wanted every day with no care it wouldn’t be, it wouldn’t be as fun.  You know, I kind of like the whole... it’s like a game, you know, you have to... you have your assets and you have to try and learn to piece them together to make the most... to make the best situation.  And I really enjoy this, it’s very creative.

So what have you made of Back Bowden Doors,  I know you’ve only had a few hours but would you like to come back?

Cold.  Especially right now, now the sun’s going!!  No, today was my first time actually at Back Bowden.  I’d been to the other Bowden, I don’t know if you call if Front Bowden? I’d been there once before but in the middle of summer, and so, sure, conditions were not so great.  And here, to day, I loved it.  I think there’s really interesting rock formations, especially at the far end of the crag at Merlin Wall is... it is very nice, it’s something that you just don’t... you just don’t get on the grit stone – these steep overhanging walls covered in positive hold – and so it’s quite fun to climb on a rock that’s quite similar to grit with the friction, you know, the texture, but to have... have this kind of terrain that’s normally restricted to limestone.

So this was great.  I wish my fingers were not quite as injured, and I would have been able to hopefully spend a bit more time on the harder problems, but it’s something to come back to in the future, I guess.

And the trad routes – well I just did one, Charlottes Dream Direct E7 6B, and it was so, so much fun.  I don’t think I’ve done a route with a move quite as wild as that for a long, long time.  Pretty... pretty good gear, small wires, the rocks are a little soft so you’re never quite sure whether they’re going to stay, but I think they’re ok.  And just this crazy... this wild, crazy, awkward dyno over from this scrunch position to a super good hold...but hard to hit.

You can read the full interview with James either here on on the PDF below