Superstar climber Sonnie Trotter flies a human flag—because a 5.13a pitch isn’t hard enough when you’re 1,000 feet off the ground.
Photography :: Paul Bride // athlete :: Sonnie Trotter // location :: Siyám Smánit, Squamish.
Paul: “Sonnie is like Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster; he just kinda shows up and disappears at random. Colin Moorhead originally put up this route, Gravity Bong, a 5.13a, and then one day Sonnie appeared and did the second ascent. I didn’t want to shoot it from above, so I rapped down to get this angle and Sonnie just did this human flag move in a very airy spot. We didn’t plan this at all. And watching through the lens, it blew my mind—like 5.13a isn’t hard enough when you’re 1,000 feet off the ground.
We wanted to have good light, and it was summer, so this is like 8:30 or 9 at night. I got a few shots from here that really capture the feel of the location and then Sonnie just kept climbing. Maybe he’s not like Bigfoot, maybe that guy is from another planet. I still wonder that every time I see him climb.”
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Sonnie: “I found a big flake in the middle, and sure, it’s an unnecessary party trick, but the flag is always a fun thing to do when you find the right spot… That’s an amazing place to play.”
Sonnie Trotter’s book Uplifted: The Evolution of a Climbing Life came out in May and features stories of his adventures climbing in Squamish and beyond.
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