Trotter Headpoints Eldo 5.13

Canadian Sonnie Trotter has made a second lead ascent of the Eric Decaria testpiece You Must Be High, aka Musta Bin High (5.13c R/X), the hardest of a recent crop of headpoint routes in Eldorado Canyon, Colorado. Trotter toproped the route several times before going for it on lead. “I skipped the kneebar that other climbers use, as well as the yellow ball nut at the crux,” he said. “This kept me fresh for the moves but also runout and scared. Luckily I didn’t fall.” First toproped by Justin Sjong, You Must Be High takes on a gently overhanging line on Eldorado’s Rincon Wall, with powerful squeezing up a thin column and small gear in intermittent seams. “I had climbed most of the lines up at Rincon and this route just stood out — I really wanted to try it,” Trotter said. “The route is absolutely beautiful; there is not a bad inch of rock on it. “At first I only had plans to toprope it, but it felt very doable,” Trotter added. When a partner fell from the last hard move and ripped only one piece of gear, Trotter said, “We convinced ourselves that it was way more reasonable than people think. Not a death route, but still a very serious route.”