THE FAIL GUY
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On his epic climbing expeditions around the world, from the sandstone towers of Chad to the overhanging cliffs of Borneo, James Pearson instinctively avoids the one element all climbers fear: water. This life-giving liquid can be lethal for climbers: rain fatally loosens climbing holds, rivers silently erode the stability of rocks, freak storms wash away fixed ropes, and even a trickle of sweat can cause strained fingers to slip from stone. But in August 2018 the 33-year-old professional climber from Matlock rewrote the rulebook by ascending the booming, spray-soaked Shomyo Falls – at 1,148ft, the tallest waterfall in Japan.
Accompanied by his French wife and fellow climber Caroline Ciavaldini, plus elite wall-crawlers Toru Nakajima and Yuji Hirayama from Japan, and Matty Hong from America, Pearson was experimenting with Sawanobori (‘stream climbing’) – a niche Japanese adventure in which climbers ascend a mountain river and climb every
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