James, why did you leave the UK? I left the UK after The Walk of Life. I was totally disillusioned with my climbing, with myself, with the UK scene. I really thought, is that it? Maybe that was my climbing career. Maybe it’s time to do something different now. So I left and moved to Innsbruck, to fi nd out just what was in the water out there. Why was everyone so strong?
Did you fi nd the secret?
There’s no single secret. It’s the knowledge, the people, the collective information. In fact, I’d say our UK facilities are often better, but you just need to know how to train. It was in Innsbruck that I realised just how weak I was compared to Caro. She laughed at me. I followed just half her training regime as a World Cup climber, and the results soon spoke for themselves.
What do you think of the UK climbing scene now? We’re very good at producing adventure climbers. People party, they stay up late, they climb dirty trad routes. We have great climbers, people like Leo Houlding and James McCaffi e. But at endurance routes? We’re hopeless.
You came back in 2011 for a trip to Pembroke. What was that like? I came back to the UK to try some trad climbing again. I was so nervous. Would I get scared? Would I fall fl at on my face again? But it was a totally different feeling climbing a hard trad route when you are properly fi t for them. I didn’t fear sections; I always had something in reserve.
You must have felt that you had something to prove? Defi nitely. I didn’t aim to move standards on, but I did want to slay ghosts of the past. I wanted to see just what I could do with my sport climbing fi tness. I started by onsighting Ghost Train (E7). Up to a few years before, I’d have been impressed by that. Then I was like, ah, cool, that seemed OK; it felt so much better than trad routes used to feel. Over the next few days I did some E7s and some E8s, but I hadn’t dared to try anything harder.
Dave MacLeod and Dave Birkett, who downgraded it to E9, and a year later James left the UK. Now James (28) and Caroline (29) – Caro for short – are living the international climber’s dream, ranging the globe new routing and exploring. I wanted to fi nd out just how James had managed to escape the gravitational pull of the Peak District and fl ing himself into international orbit. How a shy, small lad from Matlock had grown up to marry a World Cup climbing star from Reunion Island. What he still thought of the British climbing scene and – most of all – how he’d just managed to arrange his marriage on Kalymnos without Caroline ever suspecting.
R James exploring the Philippines this year.
“I DIDN’T AIM TO MOVE STANDARDS ON, BUT I DID WANT TO SLAY GHOSTS OF THE PAST.”
SUMMIT#74 | SUMMER 2014 | 59
PHOTO: ALEX MESSENGER.
PHOTOS: FRANCISCO TARANTO JR /
FOTOVERTICAL.COM
PHOTO: ALEX MESSENGER.
PHOTO: THE NORTH FACE / LA REUNION / DAMIANO LEVATI.
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