Three The North FaceŽ climbers—James Pearson (UK) and brothers Eneko and Iker Pou (SP)—recently arrived on the Spanish island of Majorca for the first-ever competition in deep-water soloing (DWS), popularly referred to as psicobloc. The eight experienced climbers participating in the Red Bull Psicobloc will act as both competitors and judges, finally announcing the premiere champion of this new climbing discipline on Sunday, September 14, 2008.

Deep-water soloing combines the best elements of soloing and bouldering: enthusiasts climb cliffs above the sea with no rope and with only the water below to break their fall. Majorca resident and climber Miquel Riera gave the discipline the nickname of psicobloc, as the sport is a portmanteau of two concepts: psico—the calm and focused psyche required to keep the inherent risk and tension under control, and bloc—from block, meaning ‘boulder’ in rock climbing lingo. While the moves in DWS resemble bouldering techniques, psicobloc climbers find themselves as high as 20 meters up, with the waves below serving as their only crash pad.

The three The North FaceŽ climbers competing in Majorca this week are all experts at their particular climbing disciplines, although as inexperienced as all the participants in the relatively new discipline of DWS. Both accomplished skiers and mountaineers, as well as rock climbers, Eneko and Iker are fresh off the final success of their five-year Seven Walls/Seven Continents Tour, which involved climbing some of the planet’s most iconic and challenging routes, including El Capitan, Naranjo de Bulnes, and Totem Pole. On Christmas Day 2007, Eneko and Iker celebrated the climax of their project with the successful free climb of an important new route on the Antarctic Peninsula: the first ascent of Three Pigs via a new route the brothers named Azken Paradisua.

At only 22 year old, James Pearson has already established a bomber foothold in the international climbing scene. In 2005, with only four years of climbing under his harness, he made a lightning-fast ascent of Equilibrium E10 7a, considered the single most difficult traditional route in the world at the time. In 2008, James raised the bar for traditional climbing by making the first ascent of The Groove at Cratcliffe Tor. With the mind-boggling grade of E10 7b, The Groove is now the hardest trad route in England and a contender for the most technically difficult route in the world.

In Majorca this week, Eneko, Iker and James will join their fellow competitors for five days of scouting the best cliff sites on the islands, establishing new routes and refining their own styles in this hybrid sport. On Saturday, September 13, the Red Bull Psicobloc will become an open event, allowing amateur climbers to try out the routes—or to test the waters, so to speak. And after a week of thrills, The North FaceŽ athletes and the five other invited climbers will don their judges’ caps to determine which of them should be proclaimed Champion of the 2008 Red Bull Psicobloc.