Sonnie Trotter – Love at onsight

Now I love a spot of bromance at the best of times…the sultry tones of Sharma as he speaks with his newly adopted Spanish/American accent are unrivalled. Much the same as knowing you’ll never see a display of human muscle and power as brilliant as that of, well, Sharma again I suppose, violently crushing his latest 5.15b project to dust. Furthermore, we all know there’s no better way to cessate your man-crush needs, than watching the hair of your favourite climber; all highlighted and matted, dancing in mid air as you watch the latest Prana or Evolv video…damn, Sharma again.

I think I may have a problem.

Anyhow, this article, as you may have guessed by the title, is not an ode to the magical Mr Sharma. Did you know, Sharma in Sanskrit translates into various meanings such as ‘bliss’, ‘laid back’ and ‘happiness’? It does. Neither is this article an admittance of my undying love for him (which, let’s be honest, man or woman, young or old, you feel it too. You really do.).

This article is dedicated to the other man in my life, so to speak, Sonnie Trotter. You know who I mean? Yes, that’s right. The strong as an Elk, reverse baseball-cap toting, carpentry practicing, incredible van owning, beautiful woman marrying, hard route sending, Canadian. He’s the sort of guy that men want to be, and ladies want to be with. Hero.

I was something of a late bloomer when it came to discovering Sonnie. I’d missed the whole Rhapsody – E11, extended road trip, sending mission, ‘buzz’ and I wasn’t massively into the whole climbing/blog scene back then either. I first came across him in a four part Black Diamond video series documenting a one day ascent of a 28 pitch big wall in Mexico, that he and the then relatively unknown Alex Honnold had been eyeing up. In my ignorance, I thought they both looked a bit like punters (as I said…in my ignorance) and didn’t really understand who they were, or what they were doing. Needless to say, I worked out pretty sharpish that they most certainly were not punters and what they did was … in a word … epic. You can watch those videos here, here, here and here. Alex Honnold then started to get worldwide recognition with his ascents in the Czech Republic, his visits to ‘THE GRIT‘ and his free-solo ascents of various Yosemite big walls.

Where was I going with this?

Ah, yes. Sonnie Trotter.

Sonnie, sponsored by giants like Patagonia, 5.10 and Black Diamond amongst others, is the epitome of a professional climber. His blog is one of the best around featuring stunning photography, beautifully constructed narrative and an unrivalled insight into the mind of the man himself. I have spoken to various people who have had the privilege of meeting him (I haven’t been lucky enough yet) and they have said, without exception, that he is one of, if not the nicest guy they’ve ever met.

Surely this Mr Trotter must be crap at something … surely. Maybe he is appallingly bad at repeating super hard Yosemite lines? Yes, that could be it. The Prophet, for example … the 5.13a death-on-a-stick route that our very own ‘tough as nails‘ Leo Houlding grabbed the first ascent of back in 2010. Oh wait, no. After weeks of hard effort & incredible blogging to match; he bagged the first repeat with the not unmentionable Will Stanhope in late 2011.

Ok, maybe repeating a route isn’t all that hard. It’s been done before, right?! (Wrong).

So, he crushes hard repeats. There must be a possibility that Sonnie doesn’t do first ascents very well? Maybe his vision for a new line, his ability to pioneer, his tenacity to see a project through are all lacking. Apparently not; Cobra Crack, potentially one of the hardest finger cracks in the world. One of the most stunning, unclimbed crack lines a climber could set eyes upon. Sonnie sent it. The Shining, an 18 pitch 5.13c/d (french 8a+/b) on Mount Louis. Sonnie sent it. The list goes on…and so again, The Trotter lays claim to being a ‘super wad’.

I’m swooning.

I recently came across a short video about Sonnie Trotter. Put together by Alex Lavigne, it is a window into the world of Sonnie from the perspective of the people around him. I thoroughly enjoyed it, so much so it inspired me to write this very piece. I think you’ll enjoy it too.

Sonnie, call me.

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Please note…

• Other climbers are available
• Throughout this article you’ll notice various words are highlighted in blue, these are links that will take you to a variety of photos, videos and blogs to further illustrate my point, or relate directly to the sentence & article in general… they make for interesting viewing/reading
• Despite how this article may read; I am not a stalker, Sonnie has nothing to be afraid of
• Sonnie is mine