Watch Stanhope and Findlay Solo Classic Gritstone

Watch Hazel Findlay and Will Stanhope take to Froggat gritstone to repeat classics climbs without ropes in this film from Hot Aches Production. In 2011, Stanhope broke a hold on the classic Parthian Shot and hit the ground after a big fall. In a blog post, he wrote, “As I climbed higher I got a deep pit-in-my-stomach feel that something wasn’t right.

“The superstitious feeling came too late, though- I was way above the flake without a hope of downclimbing. The next thing I knew I was on the ground, spitting blood, struggling to breathe. I tried to weight my left foot, but I immediately knew it was broken. It felt like the bones were swimming. I suspect I fell somewhere between 35- 40 feet.”

Stanhope recovered and spent many years free-soloing hard rock climbs, including Zombie Roof 5.12d in Squamish and Separate Reality 5.12+ in Yosemite. Stanhope was recently in South America, where he climbed a number of new alpine routes, read here for more.

Stanhope and Findlay on Grit