Reviewer Eric Patterson Interviews Sonnie Trotter, Author of Uplifted
“I’m not sure you can teach someone to love that feeling of pushing their limits above gear, it seems some people are simply drawn to it. I have always loved the exposure below my feet and I don’t know why. I have spent years seeking adventure where I balance too hard and scary, with not hard and scary enough, and when you find it, it’s incredible.’’ —Sonnie Trotter
With its boundless imagination, evolution endowed humans with highlevel performance features to keep us alive: big brains, opposable thumbs, and then, for a very few of us like today’s guest, freakin’ fearlessness. Show Sonnie Trotter a sheer granite wall stretching thousands of feet up a mountain and he’ll crack his knuckles a couple times and start climbing—ropes be damned—while the rest of us cover our eyes.
One of the world’s greatest climbers, Sonnie’s Uplifted: The Evolution of a Climbing Life was recently released by Patagonia and they were kind enough to connect our rock-loving reviewer Eric Patterson with Sonnie to discuss fear (yes, he has faint idea of the stuff), favorite climbers and climbs, and which mountains he dreams about. As a primer, in the interview Sonnie makes mention of the Yosemite Decimal System, a rating system for classifying the difficulty of climbing routes. The 5.15 designation is the hardest, only a few hyper talented climbers have the skills to complete them. The small letters after the number run from “a” to “d”—further designating difficulty short of being impossible to climb.
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You have climbed with some of the best climbers in the world. If you had to choose one to partner with on a dream project, who would that be and why?
Wow, that is a really tough opening question, ha ha. I have so many heroes that are friends in climbing for so many different reasons. Tommy Caldwell has been a friend and mentor for twenty-five years and I respect his approach to life and projecting so much—he is so determined and strong, he’s a big dreamer. Alex Honnold is obviously one of the boldest and most accomplished climbers on earth, he rarely ever rests, and Chris Sharma has been instrumental in pushing the boundaries of the grading system in both bouldering and sport climbing well into the upper end of 5.15’s for decades. In their respective specialties, I’m not sure I could keep up with any of them, but I’ve been lucky enough to enjoy climbing with all of them, and many more too. If I had to pick a dream project, at this stage in my life, it’s probably a climb in Squamish called the Midnight Way, 5.15a, established by the young phenom Connor Herson. If I had to pick one partner to climb with, it will always be my wife, Lydia.
What would that dream project be?
Besides the Midnight Way (mentioned above), my dream project is probably a multi-pitch crack climb in Squamish. It’s two pitches of steep granite climbing in the middle of the Stawamus Chief, both probably 5.14c, in a spectacular setting.
Of all the different climbing disciplines there are, which is your favorite? Which one challenges you the most?
I took a while to think about this, because I wanted to be true to my answer, however, I would honestly say from the bottom of my heart that I cannot choose a single discipline. They all mean the world to me, and I have had deeply rewarding and memorable experiences with each of them. I plan to have many more too.
Of the thousands of climbs you have done, is there a particular moment during a climb that stands out the most?
It’s getting harder and harder every year to pick a single moment or climb that stands out above any other. While writing Uplifted, I tried to do my best to reflect on some of those moments, the ones that were sort of pivotal in my life I suppose, but even then, I barely managed to scratch the surface. Each climb has been meaningful to me, each friendship, relationship, and partnership too. If I had to do my best, and highlighting one climb that I didn’t really put into the book was a climb called the Prophet, 5.13d R, on El Capitan. My partner, Will, and I had a LOT of fun times up there in 2011 and I managed to come away with the second free ascent. We did the climb in a three day push to the summit, and it involved a lot of hard work and scary committing leads. The climb was established by Leo Houlding, and is considered to be one of the spicier lines on the mountain. I was proud of our ability to feel the fear and do it anyway.
Rock climbing is not only physically challenging, but mentally also. How do you overcome the mental challenges of climbing difficult, often dangerous routes?
A lot of it just has to do with mileage, the more miles you do the more confident you feel. It’s as simple as that sometimes. With so much commitment and years of experience you start to learn better systems and methods to control the outcome in a better way. But as much as climbers love to analyze a falls potential, or bad gear, or coarse rock, sometimes you just have to get up there on the sharp end and feel it out too. I’m not sure you can teach someone to love that feeling of pushing their limits above gear, it seems some people are simply drawn to it. I have always loved the exposure below my feet and I don’t know why. I have spent years seeking adventure where I balance too hard and scary, with not hard and scary enough, and when you find it, it’s incredible.
After over thirty years of climbing and pushing yourself to the limits, how do you prefer to climb today?
Truthfully, I still prefer that feeling of pushing, I love it. But life is getting more complicated now—we have a family and kids to raise, I can’t commit my time like I did before, so I opt for climbs that are closer to home, often sport climbing or bouldering, to keep my fitness up and my skills sharp. A day of hard trad climbing requires more time and planning and coordinating with the right team or partner. But a day of bolt protected cragging can be fun, and physical, but often less mentally engaging. I miss that, and I hope to get back to it sooner than later. Our kids are getting older and easier now, and my wife encourages me to seek the adventures that I still long for, even if they aren’t always cutting edge.
Uplifted is a wonderful memoir of a life spent climbing. Outside of the physical act of climbing, what can you share that touches on the more metaphysical/philosophical side of rock climbing?
Thank you. I often refer to it as a collection of short stories because a memoir always sounds so heavy to me, and maybe a bit more complete, but I certainly appreciate the compliment. Philosophically, I can’t say that I offer a whole lot, ha ha, but I will do my best.
I have always looked at adventure as a framework, hence the opening line in the book. A new skill, new job, first date, I always said to myself, “well, at the very least, it’s going to be an adventure,” and this has always calmed me down for whatever reason. I think it helps me approach any situation beyond a win or lose mentality, but rather with a win or learn mentality. And a win or learn mentality is basically the same thing as a win-win. So because of that, I have always felt optimistic about life, and about taking chances, because either way I knew it was going to be an adventure. I think I look at everything with that same lens—my marriage has been a wonderful and deeply rewarding adventure, children too, buying a home, and so much of my climbing life. But literally everything and anything can be an adventure: getting a degree, going for a bike ride, cooking a new meal, or having a hard conversation. I think adventure can keep us younger for longer, the same way it did for Peter Pan and the lost boys in Neverland. I don’t know if anyone will relate to that, but maybe someone will, and maybe someone will read this and be inspired today to have themselves an adventure, that would be amazing.
Eric Patterson
