Tom Pearce has made an ascent of James Pearson's The Walk of Life (E9 6c) at  Dyers Lookout, Devon.

The route is well known for its sustained and technical climbing, as well as for having initially been graded E12 7a, prior to receiving a swift downgrade to E9 6c. The Walk of Life tackles the full height of the main cliff at Dyer's Lookout, taking in sixty metres of slab climbing in what Dave Birkett described as a route that should be 'heralded as a modern extreme classic of the 21st Century'.

Reports from previous ascensionists have described the difficulties of the route as varied, from the precision required on the thin feet, to the psychological challenge of remembering the beta and staying focused, to the feeling that 'the rock is conspiring against you, never pairing reasonable footholds with reasonable handholds', all above less than ideal gear placements, and - towards the end - with considerable rope drag.

'I first heard about the route when little eight-year-old me saw the poster of James Pearson on the FA, with the magical grade of E12 7a labelled above him', Tom told us over the weekend. 'As a kid obsessed with the E grades, it drew me in, that was the pinnacle of British climbing, of world climbing. I was totally transfixed by the route, and even after the whole controversy about the grade had come and passed, the route remained as this vivid memory. I dreamt about what it would be like to climb something like that, to be in such an amazing position on such an amazing wall. I knew it was never going to happen, but a kid's gotta have dreams'.

'Eleven years later, I kinda started trying it by accident. We'd begun driving to Devon for a holiday and got onto the subject of trying it. I decided to give it a quick go on the first day just out of intrigue mainly, which quickly turned into a three hour session, after which I'd linked most of it and had gotten totally psyched. Naturally, a relaxing surf holiday turned into three hours a day on the wall. By day four, I knew the whole route, had decided it wasn't that bold, and felt ready for a lead'.

'I came back from that trip, and spent a week getting even more psyched and collecting extra gear kindly lent by friends. The weather window was on for the coming weekend!'

'My feeling is that the route is pretty safe. The bottom is a bit bold, but not massively, there's a couple of good skyhooks (admittedly on a loose-looking flake) and a decent blue slider/wire/whatever you can get to fit. It held body weight, and the hard move is just above it, so you'd think it would hold. After that, there's good gear most of the way, lots of micro cams and small wires. You might take a decent fall but it's safe. The climbing is brilliant and technical, and there's so much of it!'

'Mike and Helen generously offered to belay me on the lead go. It was forty-five minutes of pure joy! The most nerve-racking part was from halfway up, where I kept thinking to myself, "You better not drop this now". It felt so peaceful to be alone in the same place I'd always pictured so strongly. I was there, in the place of my dreams, in full control and having the time of my life. All I could think when I topped out was how proud that eight-year-old me would have been'.

In climbing The Walk of Life, Tom adds yet another hard trad route to his already impressive trad CV, now with eight ascents at E9 and above.