British trad: great Pembroke climbs by Caroline Ciavaldini, Yuji Hirayama and James Pearson

British trad is currently experiencing some important moments with three cutting-edge ascents on the beautiful and wild sea cliffs at Pembroke carried out by England's James Pearson, his French wife Caroline Ciavaldini and by the 45-year-old Japanese climbing legend Yuji Hirayama. While Pearson and Ciavaldini already know these magnificent cliffs in Wales – in 2008 Pearson onsighted E8 and repeated E10 while Ciavaldini made a rare female E8 repeat – for Hirayama this trip marks his first experience with British trad. After some "warm-up" routes to get a measure of the rock and art of placing wires and friends, the results so far are as follows: Mercia Wall E8 at Stennis Ford for Ciavaldini, a flash ascent of the nearby Something's Burning E9 for Pearson and a swift repeat of The Big Issue, E9 at Bosherston Head for Hirayama.

The names of these routes probably mean a lot to only a select few, so we'll try and explain things in other words: female E8 happens very rarely indeed and this ascent places Ciavaldini at the top of female trad climbing once again; Pearson's ascent is probably the first time E9 has ever been flashed before. It is therefore an important step towards what no one has achieved yet and that will, one day, become an extremely important milestone in British trad: an E9 onsight. Hirayama's ascent is worth underlining because it is one of the most difficult trad ascents made in Britain by an overseas climber.

Seeing the class of these three climbers there could be little doubt that they would be highly successful during their brief visit to the UK, but the combination of "technical difficulties and marginal protection" renders trad climbing a mental game which is never banal and which cannot ever be underestimated. It's true that the morphology of Pembroke limestone is particularly suited to ascents of this sort – Pearson knows this all too well and they travelled there for precisely this reason - but to fully understand what it takes to achieve results like these we asked Ciavaldini to tell us more about her husband's climb. Hers is a compelling point of view, that of a foreigner who is relatively new to this trad game, but also that of a "special envoy" who held James' ropes and who attempts to understand and explain the complexities of British trad.

JAMES PEARSON - SOMETHING'S BURNING FLASH by Caroline Ciavaldini

Two years ago James tried to flash Muy Caliente, a very bold E10 in Pembroke. He prepared himself for 6 months for such a crazy goal, getting as fit as possible to minimise the risk of falling in the bold 8a section of the route. In the end he made a quite good attempt, falling off the very last move, from the safe part of the route. I could see his disappointment the instant he fell. There is something very frustrating about preparing for six months for a single flash attempts… a bit like a competition, I'd say☺ He climbed the route on his next attempt and even if this restored most of his usual happiness, I think he wasn’t that interested in reliving a similar challenge again.

Earlier this year we read about Charlie’ Woodburn's great addition to Pembroke, Something's Burning E9 7a at Stennis Ford, and James watched the video. The route seemed like a compact proposition and quite scary as well. For sure he, and I, would be keen on trying it the next time we went to Pembroke…

Yuji Hirayama called a few month ago, asking James if he would show him some "English trad" in September. There is no saying NO to Yuji, especially when he is your hero and your friend, so of course James reserved his early September for Yuji. We headed to Pembroke during the last days of August, without any particular plans other than showing Yuji the best routes without killing him.

On the day before Yuji arrived, James asked me if I would abseil down Something’s Burning and have a look at the gear and moves for him. I don’t believe he was thinking so much about flashing it yet, maybe he was secretly trying to motivate me to do the route. On my first inspection I touched a few holds, found quite a bit of little gear, but was more motivated by Mercia wall, the E8 just next to it.

I am not a very good trad climber yet, I struggle to assess the quality of gear, and in particular lack the experience of falling on micro gear ☺. With micro gear, you have to make sure the nuts are placed perfectly and you never really know if bits of rock might break, taking the gear with it when you fall.

I told James I thought the route was easy, unconsciously setting the ball rolling. I have seen James playing trad before and I know that he is capable of doing some very hard moves, try very hard indeed. Much harder than he would ever try when sport climbing. On Muy caliente there were moves in the 8a bold section that I couldn’t do, but hoped he would be tall enough to. As it turned out, he cruised through that section. Similarly, on Something’s Burning there are 2 moves that I can’t do: a very long reach from the starting undercuts protected by 3 good wires, and a sideways dyno protected by 3 micronuts only. Maybe I am overconfident about natural pro, maybe I just trust in James’ abilities, but I know he is miles better than I am at dynos, and even if he'd get there pumped, I believed he would be fine. James trusts my judgement,and when I told him that he would be OK trying without toprope practice - provided I showed him the micro gear - he decided he would have a go.

I share all of James' climbing moments, I know quite well even if I am far from understanding all of him. For three days James pushed back the day of his attempt. I had the time to do my own project, Mercia Wall, and to refine the sequences on Something’s Burning, while Yuji managed to onsight his first E7, From a Distance. James was still waiting. Part of me wanted to tell him to give it a go, an other part realised that he was preparing himself mentally. It's been two years since he last climbed trad in England, even if he did Is not always Pasqua, Mauro Calibani's E9, last winter.

I think part of James was very worried about "messing up", not so much worried about hurting himself, more about missing out on a good game. There are not that many E9's in UK, and maybe just a handful that you could try flash without really playing with your life. With hindisght, I don’t really know if Charlie’s route falls into the category of safe ones really☺. Anyways there was no way stopping James anymore.

Finally James decided to go for it. I asked him to abseil next to me, so I could show him the micro nuts from up close, how to place them, in very strenuous positions. In fact I wasn’t really sure anymore that they were that good. James decided they were OK and lowered to the bottom. Just before starting he told me he was a bit nervous, I told him to accept the feeling of stress, to welcome it as a way of having better blood circulation…

He placed the first bomber gear, reversed to rest… and started. From that moment onwards there is no stopping until after the dyno, and watching from below him I felt like he was in control most of the time, apart from a dyno where he was really close to falling. What he told me afterwards though was that he was at his very limit on every move, and very surprised to keep on going. There is a micro shake just before the dyno, I watched him take what seemed like ages to find the foothold that would enable him to make the jump... he dynoed and caught the jug with one hand. It was quite funny, his other hand made a weird movement, a sort of micro shake and a "yes" sign at the same time. He'd done it and we were all overjoyed!

Yuji seems to have grasped the weirdness of English trad by now. I think he is quite surprised at how bold some routes are and trying to find the balance between "being brave and not being kamikaze". He has found his project. He is behind me as I write, I'm pretending not to notice, but he is stretching, breathing. I can feel that he is reviewing his route, getting into the mind set that reminds me a lot about the day he sent the hard pitch of Zembrocal (8c+) on Réunion Island. This afternoon he will try his project, quite a scary one apparently… I told him I'd belay him, we’ll see…*

by Caroline Ciavaldini

Notes
* The route Hirayama was preparing for was, as mentioned above, The Big Issue, E9, the historic (and also somewhat controversial) route put up by John Dunne at Bosherston Head. After having tried it on toprope, Hirayama climbed the route clean, placing all gear on lead. Naturally.