After The Day, James became a Lilly regular. He thought nothing of loading up his 75-pound boxer, Jesse, in his Saturn and driving three hours from Kingsport to the Obed, only to work on one or two problems and drive home. Over his many visits, I learned that James displays similar passion for anything that sparks his interest. He loved computer science, and when he described to me programs he was designing his eyes would light up. I thought of James as a rock warrior, but soon saw the extent of his closeness with and respect for his brother John, whom he considers the real warrior. John was an Army ranger who had the same wiry physique and mutant strength as James, but who chose to channel it differently. John’s fitness and skill earned him the right to compete in the Ranger Challenge, where he placed in the top five. John also runs marathons and can do a phenomenal number of body-weight exercises. (If the James brothers were both climbers, we’d likely be reading about them as often as we do the Hubers.)

At the same time James was reshaping the Lilly Boulders’ climbing landscape, he also began frequenting a new area called Horsepens 40. There, the name Litz became synonymous with pulling down hard. When climbers heard that James was in the area they gathered round. Long-standing projects and even lines long thought unclimbable yielded under his fingers. Where there were no holds, he seemed to forge holds as he went. James felt that the publicity was nice, and the notion of being a paid professional climber had a certain ring to it... but he was hesitant. James’ mother Katie says he always shunned praise — he just did what he was passionate about at the time and was always good at it. But James was more than just “good.” In the South, climbers watched him do the impossible: God Module (V11) at HP40; Morphine (V12); Manic Aggression (V12), at Obed Canoe Hole; abd Main Event (V12). James was achieving a cult following, and Southerners relished having someone they could brag about while visiting Western crags. Many a conversation started with, “You wouldn’t believe what our James can do.”

James’ work at Lilly did not go unchallenged, as a handful of strong climbers showed up to test their mettle on the “Litz problems” they’d heard rumors about. The climbers came, and they were subdued. Many of James’ problems went unrepeated: Johnson City (V10), Mean Squeeze (V10), Litz Blitz (V10), unnamed stuff, V-who-knows-what, were washed clean in the rain with so few suitors to keep them chalked. Then Dave Hume, a phenom in his own right, came and threw down the gauntlet for James with sick problems of his own, such as the Hume Problem (V10). James repeated that one easily and then added Reclusive (V12).

After his first Lilly blitz, James stopped coming by so much, feeling he’d done most of the gems, and instead traveled to places like Grayson Highland State Park in Virginia or the Obed’s Canoe Hole area, in search of new challenges. But when he returned to Lilly a year later it was with a force refined. His footwork was lighter and his lock-off strength could crumble stone. One day after his return, he was bitching about a rock embedded in the ground under Junior’s Corner Roof, a little-visited spot. The rock made the start of his project harder: he couldn’t avoid swinging out and dabbing as he navigated sliver-like crimps on the opening moves.