Sonnie Trotter Frees the Totem Pole’s Ewbank Route (5.13b R) in Single Push
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Watch Sonnie Trotter and Will Stanhope make the first, single-push free ascent of the Ewbank Route on Tasmania’s iconic Totem Pole.
The route, established as a four-pitch aid climb in 1968, was first freed by locals Doug McConnel and Dean Rollins in January of 2009. Their free variation
went at Australian 27 (5.12d). McConnel and Rollins freed the four pitches over separate days and were the first to point out that it could be climbed
in a better style.
Trotter is the first climber to free the route in a single pitch. It was “quite committing,” he says. The 200-foot pitch clocks in at 5.13b R.
“When Sonnie flips the kill-switch, it’s as good as done,” Stanhope says in the video. Check it out.