UKC

Canadian Sonnie Trotter attempting Rhapsody E11

© First Ascent
Canadian top climber Sonnie Trotter, 27, of Canmore, first ascensionist of that other hardest crack in the world, Cobra Crack 5.14 at Squamish, is over at Dumbarton Rock trying Dave MacLeod's Rhapsody.

This from Sonnie's blog SonnieTrotter.com

"I've been home in Canmore for three weeks and it's been busy, but then we found these really cheap tickets to Scotland for 500 bucks. So we decided to take a trip.

Nick and I flew into Manchester and got in one good day of Gritstone climbing between rain spells. Dammit, they were not lying about the weather. The only problem is that the rock really is good. We managed a few top rope ascents of E8's and below, we were the only grimpers out on the rock and the sky was beautiful, once I figure out how to attach pics to this blog I will, and you can see for yourself.

After that we picked up our buddy Cory in Glasgow and went to Dumbarton Rock. You know that really infamous place where Dave Macleod keeps putting up all those sick hard trad climbs and boulder problems. Well here is the take. Dave is one of the most motivated climbers I have ever met, he's just jacked about climbing, and he makes climbing look way too easy.

I had a chance to run a toprope up on his new E11 and it's sick. I saw the video they made last year, and he makes the crux look like piss, when in actual reality, it's NASTY hard, BRICK hard. I was able to do all the moves, and link the upper headwall from the last crux move to the top. I can climb the length of the crack and it's all good pro, but the run out headwall is more involved than I thought. It's pissing rain today and motivation is low. We've been sleeping in a park by the beach. I'm not sure yet if it is illegal but we've gotten a few nights sleep so far without problems, it's free and the water is soothing to fall asleep to. So that's a bonus. The downfall is that it rains here 22 hours a day. And climbing for 2 hours with wet ropes is getting really old. We have two more weeks so stay tuned and I'll let you know how things unfold."


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14 May, 2007
Tut, tut. No idea of ethics, these Yanks.....
14 May, 2007
glamerous life of a climbing rock star sleeping in the park in the rain :P
14 May, 2007
)
14 May, 2007
how come you removed the "IT SUCKS ASS" that featured in Sonnie's original blog?
14 May, 2007
Interesting stuff! Will he beat Keenus to it? Will the difficulty be confirmed? P.S. On a vaguely related note: http://www.wdcweb.info/library/displayarticle.asp?ID=12473 - Dave....the jumper....please, NO.
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