News Flash: James Pearson makes FA of Bon Voyage, Annot

• Thursday 9th February 2023

Hot news from France is that Climber Magazine columnist James Pearson has made the first ascent of his long-standing, desperate trad project, Bon Voyage at Annot.

In 2017 James made the first ascent of Le Voyage (E10 7a) on the impressive sandstone cliff – click here for our report on that ascent. That has seen a number of repeats since then with Jacopo Larcher, Babsi Zangerl and Siebe Vanhee making back-to-back repeats in June 2021; click here for our report on those ascents.

James’ latest route, Bon Voyage, starts as per Le Voyage, before breaking out left across a blank, imposing wall. Having left Le Voyage, Bon Voyage climbs a series of shallow pockets which lead out leftwards onto the technical finishing arête. The penalty for failure is a massive swinging fall back down the wall and into the gully.

James hasn’t offered a grade for Bon Voyage. Grading top-end routes is always a big issue but the effort to complete routes can be a good – albeit not cast iron -  indication of difficulty. In the last couple of years, James has repeated both Lexicon (E11 7a), Neil Gresham’s 2021 mega line on Pavey Ark, as well as Tribe, Jacopo Larcher’s 2019 testpiece at Cadarese. Larcher didn’t grade Tribe but it was considered to have some of the hardest ever climbing on a trad route with climbing up to F9a/+ on gear. James climbed Lexicon in a handful of attempts spread over a four-day period (ground-up but after abseil inspection) whilst he did Tribe on his 7^th lead attempt after extensive working.

James had this to say about the climbing on Bon Voyage: "I found the line in 2021 and have been actively preparing myself for it since then. It felt like quite a step up from other hard trad routes I’ve tried over the years, but I’ve really enjoyed the process of developing new skills and strengths to be able to stand a chance. After the split with Le Voyage, a first boulder problem takes you to a couple of good pockets (the final protection of the route) and a marginal rest. From here there are 20 hard moves to the finishing ledge, almost exclusively on shallow pockets and tiny crimps. The route is definitely run out, with long falls, but you’d be unlucky to hurt yourself providing the protection is well placed. Annot has some of the blankest rock I have ever seen and the walls can often be sandy and loose, meaning most of the routes stick to crack systems. Bon Voyage follows a diagonal layer of bullet-hard sandstone dotted with tiny pockets… a true miracle of Mother Nature and a reminder why all the years of searching were worth it."

James, as with Larcher after he declined to grade Tribe, has also declined to offer a grade for Bon Voyage. However, talking about the difficulty of Bon Voyage James said,  "At the moment I don’t feel able to give this route a definite grade, which always sounds funny to me as a grade proposal should be just that, a proposal. In theory, I should simply say what I think, leaving future repeaters to give their opinion, and eventually, we settle on a consensus. Perhaps I’m more sensitive than the average person but in practice, I’ve seen and felt that it doesn’t quite work like that. I could go with my gut and remind myself that at 37 I’m really too old to worry about things like this. I could also under grade it, effectively downgrading it myself before anyone else gets the chance, but this has a tendency to lead to grade stagnation like we’ve got with trad routes in the UK and doesn’t do anyone any favours. However, both of these options would rely on me having a fixed grade in my head, which for all the above reasons - I simply don’t, yet."

He continued, “This route took me longer than any other route or boulder I’ve ever tried. Both in terms of days actively trying it and time preparing myself for it (approximately 20 days over 2 years and 10 redpoints). I spent more actual redpoint attempts on this than on Tribe, and all of my other F9a sport routes.”

Climber are talking to James about Bon Voyage and will bring you more details and his thoughts asap. You can read about how he found this project in his latest column in Climber magazine out now - click here to buy).