James Pearson Repeats Scary Trad Climb in Spain

James Pearson has made a rare ascent of El Ojo Critico, a 400-metre 5.13b trad climb in Spain that could be described as “scary.”

A Critical Eye – Trad . Ordesa isn't that famous. Maybe the Spanish sport climbing is too loud? Maybe the "British trad masters" aren't ready to belive that some Spanish pyreneens have " big cojones"?. Maybe it was a little bit arrogant to start with El Ojo Critico, for which the openers, Ricardo and Josune, keep warning that the route is "engaged". A route opened more than 10 years ago, but that only saw its first repetition last month. Thinking about it, we would have never jumped onto the Llyn peninsula 's toughest challenge. Because we know the British choss masters are mad. But we jumped onto El Ojo Critico. And we got chocked by the dangerousness of it. And at the same time, it made us realize the obvious : the Spanish trad masters are very impressive, and mad,too??. . Hats down to you, the climbers who open in Ordesa! @lasportivagram @thenorthfaceuk @wildcountry_official #pureclimbing #ACriticalEye #neverstopexploring #ordesa

A post shared by Caro&James Ciavaldini/Pearson (@onceuponaclimb) on Jul 5, 2018 at 4:07am PDT

The big route multi-pitch trad climb is in Ordesa National Park, Spain, and was first climbed by Josune Bereziartu and Rikar Otegi in 2007.

It was only repeated once by Unai Mendia and Iker Madoz and Pearson onsighted the entire climb.

Pearson reported loose rock and run-out placements and said after, “It made us realize the obvious, that the Spanish trad masters are very impressive and mad.

“Adventure makes the experience… You need to handle fear, manage your trad skills, your timing, the weather and your topo reading. It take a lot and it gives a lot. Trad at its best really.”

Person also asked the question on Instagram, “Not many places in the world were you get to go on trad multi-pitch on limbstone right? Are you searching for an adventure destination? Can you handle choss? Can you do belays on gear?”

It sounds like he hasn’t visit the steep limestone walls of the Canadian Rockies.

Watch the clip below to see how steep the route is and visit here for a report by Pearson.

A Critical Eye – climbing 1 . How to describe that route so far… Steeeeeep, chossy as hell, airy, scary. And I don't overdo it, really! . @lasportivagram @thenorthfaceuk @wildcountry_official @mossy.earth #pureclimbing #tradclimbing #neverstopexploring #ACriticalEye #ordesa

A post shared by Caro&James Ciavaldini/Pearson (@onceuponaclimb) on Jul 2, 2018 at 12:45am PDT