“With his shirt off, Stanhope looks more like a kid skateboarder with growing pains than one of the most talented rock climbers of his generation. He’s pale in the way you only see above the 49th parallel, and you wouldn’t say he looks muscular. His limbs are lanky, his abs not of steel. Most noticeable is the cockeyed grin. He will soon to be the fifth person to succeed on the notorious Cobra Crack, but for the moment, he is still deep in doubt and obsession, and he seems to be enjoying it.
Then he floats up the overhanging wall, through those terrible, arduous moves- up to the hardest section, where a single finger he has inverted into a narrow slot pops loose with sudden violence, and he falls and is caught by the rope. He’d been holding the weight of his body on just a few square-centimeters of skin and boot rubber, and the explosive fall has sliced open two of his fingers, leaving flaps of flesh hanging off of each. He shakes his head, looking at the day-ending wounds. ‘Self-abuse, self-produced,’ he mutters, riffing on the lyrics of a local hip-hop band. Then he opens a can of beer with one bloody digit and says to the camera, ‘Stay in school, kids.’ “
-JB MacKinnon, ‘Impossible Boy’ in September 2011 Explore Magazine
One too many burns… Cory Richards Photo.
Not enough burns…yet. The Never Ending Arch Project. Ryan Olson photo.
Wall on fire. Late evening light, and a gentleman’s 8 foot dyno. It’s the Prophet, mate. Paul Bride photo.
Fun facts
Fun Times: The Smoke Bluff Connection 5.10a, Squamish BC.
Ferocious Fingerlocks: The Cobra Crack 5.14 trad, Squamish BC.
Fairly Terrifying: The Southern Belle 5.12d X, Yosemite CA with Alex Honnold
Finicky Wires on volcanic tuff: The East Face of the Monkey Face 5.13d trad
Fourteen and a half hours: Grand Wall, Northern Lights, Freeway and University Wall, Squamish BC, all free with Alex Honnold.
Favorite First Free Ascent: Magical Dog 5.13 trad, Squamish BC.
First time new-routing in the mountains: DNV Direct 5.11+ X, Poincenot, Argentine Patagonia with Jason Kruk.
First forty foot groundfall: Parthian Shot, United Kingdom.
For a more complete list, see link below:
http://www.squamishrockguides.com/will_resume.htm
Awards
The 2009 Jim Baldwin Memorial Award for the First Free Ascent of Cannabis Wall with Jason Kruk
Explore Magazine’s Top 30 under 30. Named top athlete for 2011.