James Pearson makes first repeat of Shikantaza in Valle dell’Orco, Italy

British rock climber James Pearson has made the first repeat of the bold trad-climb Shikantaza, in Valle dell’Orco, Italy. The route is located on a boulder below Sergent and was originally attempted by Adriano Trombetta. The repeat comes almost exactly 3 years after the route was established by Jacopo Larcher, in autumn 2021. Pearson reports.

SHIKANTAZA IN VALLE DELL'ORCO by James Pearson
I remember seeing the news of Jacopo doing this route and chatting to him about it, afterwards. When we ended up in Orco earlier this year, I definitely had it on my mind to go and try it, but because we ran out of time and I focussed on climbing 29 Dots I ended up not trying it on that trip. However, Shikantaza had been in the back of my mind as something to try the next time I was here.

Obviously, coming to Orco for the festival this autumn was the perfect opportunity. It was a busy weekend, between looking after the kids and doing presentations/workshops for sponsors, but because the route is so short and a very quick walk-in from the car, it seemed like a realistic objective. The route is super accessible, easy to set up a rope on and to work on my own. Due to it being so busy this weekend, finding a belayer was also not going to be a problem.

I arrived in the Valley really late on Thursday night and by first thing on Friday morning, I had already managed to get on the route to figure out the moves and scope out the gear. I managed to link the moves together and do it relatively quickly on a top-rope. Even so, I was still a little apprehensive about trying it on the lead, as a fall could have pretty nasty consequences. It feels very much like a Grit route, where it’s really, really short but there’s only a small section which is particularly dangerous. However, you can very quickly do one move too many and go from feeling very safe, to suddenly realising that if you make a mistake you’re going to hit the floor.

I went back later in the weekend, with my friend Talo Martin, tried it once more on a toprope and decided to give it a go. The gear on the route is small ‘micro Friends’ in a pretty good but slightly hollow flake, which I think would hold. Unfortunately, that gear is a little too low to protect the crux moves, so it’s also possible to place a sky-hook on a higher, and somewhat more sketchy, flake. This one would most likely not hold a fall, but I placed it anyway, just in case it might.

I really appreciate the fact that this route wasn’t bolted (even if it would have been totally acceptable to do so) and that Adriano Trombetta and Jacopo Larcher had the vision to pursue it as a trad line. It’s pretty cool to see a bit of the ‘British’ trad-spirit filtering into other places around the world!