EP 298: Sonnie Trotter — Gunning for 5.15, How He Trained as a Teen, and Stamina vs. Strength

Sonnie Trotter is a Canadian professional rock climber and one of the most accomplished and respected climbers of his generation. We talked about his goal to climb 5.15, my impression of meeting him at Smith Rock, our parallel family histories, treating life as a game, how the Cobra Crack changed his career, how he trained as a teenager, stamina vs. strength, what makes Dave Graham so strong, and his book, Uplifted: The Evolution of a Climbing Life . Free Masterclass (Unlock Your Full Potential in Climbing) 👉 Climb Accelerator (Direct Link to Course) 👉 Show Notes: Nuggets: (00:00:00) – Intro (00:03:38) – Connor Herson’s 5.15a FAs (00:09:35) – Gunning for 5.15 (00:11:49) – Meeting Sonnie at Smith Rock (00:20:37) – His life routine (00:24:43) – Sonnie’s kids (00:29:24) – Time warp (00:33:24) – Family history (00:39:35) – Life is a game (00:42:45) – The business side of Sonnie’s life (00:53:19) – Choices & constraints (01:03:07) – Cobra Crack (01:09:20) – The progression of climbing (01:16:24) – Getting sponsored (01:20:07) – The age of print media (01:24:34) – Rifle in the 90s (01:30:52) – How he trained as a teenager (01:36:04) – Stamina vs. strength (01:45:30) – Sticking to the basics (01:49:31) – What makes Dave Graham so strong (01:54:33) – Writing his book

You can listen to EP 298: Sonnie Trotter — Gunning for 5.15, How He Trained as a Teen, and Stamina vs. Strength online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

EP 298: Sonnie Trotter — Gunning for 5.15, How He Trained as a Teen, and Stamina vs. Strength is an episode from The Nugget Climbing Podcast by Steven Dimmitt.

This episode is 02:07:52 long.

This episode was published on Apr 27, 2026.

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