Zombie Roof at Squamish and the Will Stanhope free solo

Ready for a step back in time, to listen to a great North American climbing story? Well sit back and relax because this one is worth watching: it's the story about Zombie Roof, the difficult horizontal crack first ascended back in 1982 after local Squamish climbers first travelled to the valley, Yosemite. During that autumn of 1976 in Camp 4 the Canadians met up with some of those who were going to guide and shape the future of "free climbing", the likes of Jim Bridwell, Dale Bard, Ron Kauk and John Bachar. The true inspiration came above all by one of the routes destined to forever mark the history of free climbing: Separate Reality by Ron Kauk.

Back at home the Canadians immediately searched for a similar route and came up trumps at the Smoke Bluff Wall. After numerous attempts the extremely powerful Peter Croft managed to free this obvious roof at 5.12d (circa 7c), and even today, 30 years later, these difficult finger-locks remain a sort of rite of passage for all the strongest. Including obviously young Will Stanhope, he who at Squamish has repeated the famous Cobra Crack and who last autumn came extremely close to repeating the fearsome The Prophet on El Capitan with another Squamish local, Sonnie Trotter. Stanhope carried out the first free solo of this legendary climb and this is featured here in the story narrated by one of the pioneers of rock climbing in the Squamish Valley, the great Perry Beckham.