James Pearson on The Quarryman
- Sunday 22nd January 2017
Jan 22nd; 2017
In April 2016 James Pearson climbed a childhood ambition, The Quarryman (E8 7a) in Twll Mawr.
Writing on his FB page at the time James summed up his experience and his apprehension; “Yesterday I climbed one of my childhood dreams - ‪#The Quarryman, in the Llanberis Slate Quarries. Since watching the master, Johnny Dawes levitate up the amazing groove pitch all those years ago, it's a route I knew that one day I would have to try. However at the same time that route has always intimidated me - the difficulty, the access, the style - so despite spending many days on the Slate throughout my youth, I never went to check it out."
Of The Quarryman’s four pitches, it’s the third pitch – the infamous groove – that inspires and perplexes in equal measure. James again; “The Groove' is one of the weirdest pitches I've ever tried, but such an interesting process, a real test of imperfect perfection! At first it feels so hard, but then you let go of your usual obsession for holds, and just go climbing, and suddenly it all falls into place!"
Watch a short film by Neil Hart about James’s ascent of The Quarryman below…