Trotter Repeats E11

After extending his UK stay for an extra week, Sonnie Trotter, 28, made the second ascent of Dave MacLeod's UK testpiece. During his stay, Trotter also established Direquiem and proposed 5.14a R for the line.

Sonnie describes Direquiem as "the true direct finish to Requiem". The line of Rhapsody takes the path of most resistance (the hardest moves) up the Requiem headwall and is shaped like an inverted question mark - ¿ - where Direquiem goes direct (almost in a straight line) from the top of the Requiem crack to the top of the cliff.

Sonnie was adamant about the quality of Requiem, in spite of it seeming to be an eliminate. "You see, Rhapsody may be an eliminate, but it is still Rhapsody. There is a tremendous amount of logic behind what Dave did and that deserves a pile of respect I think. He saw the line, and climbed it to the top. The only rule is don't bail left to the arete, (a cop out) stay on the face and the line is very much obvious. And yes, very hard.......Rhapsody is basically a 5.13c/d (8a+/8b) into a V10/V11 (Font7c+/8a) and a cheeky one at that. Not ground breaking terrain, by sport climbing standards....Rhapsody is a good route, actually no, it's a terrific route, it climbs so fucking well, it's actually fun to fall off of. "

To redpoint the line, it apparently took Sonnie "4 and a half HOT and sunny weeks, 14 enduring days, 24 fifty foot falls, 47 snickers bars, and 113 emails to Lydia."

Sending Rhapsody Hot Aches Sending Rhapsody. Photo: Hot Aches.

Cruxing on Rhapsody Hot Aches Cruxing on Rhapsody. Photo: Hot Aches.

Taking the Whip ukclimbing.com Taking the whip. Photo: UKClimbing.

Sources: sonnietrotter.com
ukclimbing.com