Fallen Sodas

This weekend Brenna and I went up to Twin Peaks and the Quality Boulder for some great winter conditions. I made it a personal mission to repeat Steve Francis' highball testpiece PJ Tight v10. This problems climbs a tall arete with an odd landing. It has a shouldery crux in the middle followed by commiting climbing up high. After much mental preparation and practice on a top rope I was able to push past the fear and make the second ascent of this 5 star line. It was truely a crystalizing experience, as well as a personal breakthrough for me in highballing. Just afterwards I decided to go for the FA of the link of Pimpjuice Low into PJ Tight. Since I had all the moves of both parts wired , I managed to do the link first go dubbing the new start Pepsi Clear. The problems on this boulder are all named after energy drinks that never really went the distance. One year ago I talked with Steve about this and we agreed that the next line/link up on the boulder should be Pepsi Clear in honor of this fallen soda. So the new link up is named after this and feels about v11 to me. Jason Hogan was out once again and caught these two awesome sends on film. It was an awesome weekend; white scenery, cold temps and high winds made this weekend a full value experience. It feels so good to be climbing again. Next week I go on my second trip to Bishop for this season to hopefully put to rest some of my epic projects.