James Pearson climbs Parthian Shot without side-runner
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There are few routes on Britain's gritstone that are held in as much awe as Parthian Shot at Burbage South, and James Pearson's recent repeat of this famous line now adds an interesting new chapter to its fascinating history.
The overhanging wall gained legendary status among British climbers even before it was first ascended - not without controversy - by John Dunne in 1989. It had been immortalised in the cult film Stone Monkey which featured Johnny Dawes taking a massive, seemingly endless toprope fall, and seeing the gritstone master fail on his preferred terrain only added to the route’s aura.
Seb Grieve made the second ascent almost a decade later, in 1997, and his repeat caused a considerable stir since prior to his successful ascent he took Britain's first-ever E9 fall. Caught on camera for Hard Grit, the fall was a huge deal at the time as E9 was considered nigh certain death terrain and it was unclear whether the gear behind the famous thin flake would hold a fall. Thankfully it did and further repeats followed in due course, including Kevin Jorgeson who in 2008 made the first ground-up ascent (with pre-placed and pre-clipped protection). Disaster almost struck in 2011 when the all-important flake ripped and Will Stanhope took a nasty ground-fall; the Canadian got off lightly, breaking only foot and vertebrae in the process.
Many believed the route without the flake was now too daunting, but in late 2013 Ben Bransby stepped in and, using a high side-runner in Brook’s Crack, proved it was possibile after all. His bold lead nudged the grade up to E10 and was followed by a flurry of other repeats, most recently only a few weeks ago by Jacopo Larcher, but all (to the best of our knowledge) have made use of a side-runner.
Pearson, who had never led the route before despite his astonishing gritstone pedigree, has now risen to the obvious challenge and done without the gear in the crack. After practicing the moves on toprope, he climbed the route directly, placing all gear on lead. What may appear to make a small difference is actually a considerable step forward in terms of boldness. Pearson's comment, "This one means a lot", underlines the importance of this ascent.
Link: La Sportiva, The North Face
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