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MOUNTAINLIFE
SUMMER2016
“What I think about while I’mworking is how
people will get to enjoy that fabulous rock and
the incredible views,” Stone explains, adding
that he began establishing climbs in 2014,
piggybacking off routes set back in 2009 by
local, Tony PrihatiningJati. Quadra Island has
a reputation as a family-friendly recreational
destination and Stone wants the crags to reflect
this, bringing more tourism dollars to the
community he loves. To this end, he likes to
develop crags with easy, moderate, and difficult
routes so that diverse groups of climbers can all
have a great day.
“I’mmostly concerned with ensuring clean air
so if someone falls on a bolt they won’t hit a
rock,” he says. “And bolt spacing is important.
We don’t want big runouts here. It’s nice to have
a bit of spice if there’s some big clean air or an
overhang, but you need to pay attention to what
the fall potential is. I want to ensure that what I
create for other people to use is as safe as I can
make it. I have a responsibility to the community
and tomyself to do as good a job as I can.”
Stone’s sense of communal responsibility
extends far beyond the crag and he has
dedicatedmuch of his life to creating a better
place for everyone to live. In two federal
elections he stood as the Green Party candidate
and he currently chairs, and is a long-serving
member of the Strathcona Park Public Advisory
Committee. He also sat on the Campbell River
TourismMarketing Committee, the board of the
Discovery Islands Chamber of Commerce, the
board of the Quadra Children’s Center, and the
Quadra Island Community Association. As well,
he publishes numerous community newsletters
and guidebooks, including the influential
Island
AlpineGuide
. Among all of these responsibilities
and obligations, he somehow finds the time to
establish hundreds of new routes at a pace of
two to three a week.
Back at Lakeview Crag, we hike up to find the
new route spot Stone has located from below.
He unpacks his bag and clips, and hangs and
drapes the gear he’ll need: brushes, scrapers,
masonry drill and a hammer. Stone uses a
figure-eight to rappel over the edge and begins
to bang on the rock, listening for a solid thud.
When he finds it, he unslings the masonry drill
and bores a hole into the rock as grey dust
swirls into the sun. Done, he taps a bolt and
hanger into place with a small hammer. This will
be the first of a series of bolts that Stone will
secure into the rock before he scrapes the face
clean of lichens, moss, dirt and the occasional
loose, boom-box sized stone.
As he works, it becomes clear that Stone
doesn’t do this for notoriety. Over the hours
of time we spend together, he does not speak
about himself, preferring to speak about the
Island, his peers, and climbing in general. But as
he describes what he looks for in a route—lines
with big exposure and great views, the same
things he fell in love with when he began to
climb in the alpine as a kid in the UK—more
character details start to emerge.
“Mountains to the climber are both adversary
and friend in a way that few things can be,”
Stone says. “We love and fear them, we respect
mountains all while they intimidate us. They
influence our lives as an obsession. This can
only nurture a relationship with a depth that
few can understand, relate to. Those that do
are other climbers. There is a built-in bond
from those shared experiences, the respect
and love of the peaks themselves, but also the
wilderness that so often surrounds them and
the creatures that inhabit their realm.”
The route clean, Stone slips on his harness and
ties into the rope that I will use to belay him.
Here you must trust your partner with your life—
if he falls, I must arrest it. After watching me
ready myself, Stone decides to trust me.
Stone climbs slowly. He studies the rock for
holds and good clip positions. I can feel the
tension of his body through the rope that
connects us. I admired Stone, in part because
of how his obsessions and his passions have
served his community. He has crafted a life
for himself where his love, his work, and
his community overlap – something to envy,
something to strive for.
Rock solid. It takes a special type of selflessness toput up 120+ routes a year. MATTMILES
It’snice tohaveabit of spice
if there’ssomebig cleanair or
anoverhang, but youneed to
payattention towhat the fall
potential is.
