James Pearson Climbs Famous Parthian Shot
"These days, when I climb a potentially dangerous route, I need to be fairly certain I won’t fall, or I just won’t set off in the first place..."
On a short but successful visit back to the U.K. this summer, prolific trad-climber James Pearson made a rare ascent of the classic hard-grit test-piece Parthian Shot, E10 6c at Burbage South Edge in the Peak District.
Pearson’s ascent is the fifth since the famous flake broke and the second ascent of this summer, following Jacopo Larcher’s. The flake broke when Will Stanhope whipped onto a piece of gear behind it, Stanhope ended up with serious injuries but made a full recovery.
What’s unique in Pearson’s ascent is that it’s believed to be the first post-break ascent where a climber used the usual side runner in the nearby Brooks’ Crack (HVS 5a), adding a little extra spice to what is already a dangerous route, but enabling him to take a more direct line. James placed all gear in the flake on lead, as opposed to some ascents where this has been pre-placed.
Read what Pearson has to say about Parthian Shot and watch his send below.
Pearson on Parthian Shot
Parthian shot is a route that has lived several different lives, both in the minds of aspiring climbers and through the loss of crucial holds and protection. Parthian might be my longest running Gritstone project, at least for routes I’ve actively been trying. I first looked at it back in 2005, when it still had all of its holds, and remember being blown away boy how steep and pumpy it was! As a younger climber there is just no way I could have done something like this, and even once I had developed the fitness, I always found the top boulder desperate enough to put me off ever wanting to try it above the terrible looking protection. When the flake broke and the high side runner became standard practice, it almost became an easier objective in my mind. Yes, the gear in the flake was even worse than before, but with the extra protection on the right you basically had a “baby bouncer” (2 ropes running through 2 pieces of protection, separated horizontally by a few meters but placed at the same height), and from looking at video of the fall of Ben, it seemed a nicer fall than before.
My approach to trad is fairly simplistic, and I try to play by a basic set of rules. Firstly, I always try to match or improve on what has been ethically done before. Then, start on the ground, climb the route, placing gear wherever you climb, and hopefully get to the top. Obviously, things are never black or white, but side runners and pre-placed gear are two things I really try to avoid. I decided that if I wanted to one day lead Parthian Shot, I’d do it like John Dunne’s original ascent. Gear in the flake alone, placed on lead, knowing I shouldn’t fall.
Parthian Shot has always been climbed starting in Brooks crack, and after a no hands rest in the corner, it traverses for two moves leftwards onto two crimps, and the first big move up into the base of the famous flake. Instead of this traditional start, I chose to start down and left, climbing the same initial arete as the route “dynamics of change”, but on its right hand side, before swinging right onto good holds in the face, placing a couple of friends, and doing the first hard move to join the aforementioned Parthian crimps. Whilst this start is slightly harder than the original, it doesn’t really affect the difficulty of the overall route. I climbed it like this, simply to avoid the possibility of placing the side runner in Brooks crack, and to create an logical and authentic way to find yourself on the head wall with only the poor wires in the flake, without having to follow ambiguous rules It’s worth mentioning that there has been another alternate start to Parthian Shot climbed in the past, which, in theory climbs directly up the slab to join where I placed my first protection. I say in theory, because I’ve never seen any video or photos of people actually climbing this, only some very vague descriptions, and after checking out the slab on a couple of occasions, I still really don’t understand what you are meant to do. Whilst it is possible to climb only using holds in the slab, the holds constantly lead you towards the left arête, and it feels very “forced” not to use it. The line up the slab alone would definitely be harder than what I climbed, but it seems a bit daft to me to force a harder, more dangerous route by eliminating obvious holds.
The day of the lead went well. I climbed the route on my first try of the day, the protection went in quickly and efficiently, and I had plenty to spare on the crux and the upper slab, which really allowed me to enjoy the whole process. These days, when I climb a potentially dangerous route, I need to be fairly certain I won’t fall, or I just won’t set off in the first place. Regarding the danger of Parthian Shot, it’s actually a really hard one to judge. The wires themselves are not too bad, and a couple of them are quite deep, but the flake is undeniably hollow, and since the wires are all pretty small it’s hard to say exactly what will happen when you take a big fall and it expands. I have a feeling that it would probably hold a fall, maybe even a few, but eventually, just like before, given enough abuse it will probably fail again. How many falls this might take is anyone’s guess? All I can hope is that people take a little more care with themselves and the route than they did in the early 2000’s. Perhaps at the end of the day the side runner is actually a good idea?
The most recent hold breakage (2023) has done quite a lot to change the difficulty of the route. Instead of making a static move up to a decent undercut, you now have to dyno from the two crimps just to get into the flake. The good hold at the base of the flake is now a one handed (good) sloper, so it’s a lot more pumpy to place the first few pieces. I actually placed the majority of the gear from the upper part of the flake, which whilst far from a restful position, you can better see where you are placing your gear. All this means that when you set up for the big slap from the flake to the slopers above (now a very hard move since the breakage in 2011), you are already pretty tired. Success in the route comes down to relaxing and recovering enough on these slopers to have enough juice for the crux, and obviously not panicking on the rock-over and final slab.
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