Open Book 

FA - Royal Robins. The first 5.9 in the country, it a classic and must do. For the 2nd pitch there is a number of ways to get through it. The layback options, less secure and harder to place gear, not the options I would take. The next option is to stem it in the wide section then finish with your crack climbing skills. Or just grovel up the offwidth, it secure and is very short.

I always thought that a move about halfway up P1 was the crux, a steep little sequence.

Excellent route. Pitch one has two cruxes. I would have the stronger partner lead this pitch. The moves on the steep offwidth at the top of pitch one may be the crux. The start is tenuous. Take small and big pro. On pitch two, I didn't feel pressed to do much if any liebacking or stemming. There are bomber cupped hand and fist jams with one or two easy offwidth moves. Nothing bigger than the old #4 pink Camalot is necessary. You need red and yellow camalots for the anchor on pitch two. Does anyone know if you can rappel from the top anchor with two ropes?

I personally think that this route was harder than 5.9. Also do not climb this route unless you have big cams (think Size 4 BD)and at least 3-5 of them. This is based on Beta from other climbers since I did not get past the first pitch because of other climbers warning us to bail since we had 1 #3 BD cam. The rap off the first pitch was sketchy as well. The rap rings were hanging off a chock stone from webbing that has seen better days. It was a good route though, just come prepared and you will have fun.

veedublr - you give it 3 stars and a rating of 5.9 when you didn't even do the crux pitch. You rate it 5.9 but you don't think it's 5.9?

You are lucky you bailed, if you need 3-5 cams in the #4 BD range for this route, you shouldn't attempt to climb it.

From a historical gear perspective, I went out and specifically bought one whopping 3.5 WC Friend. Kind of hysterical, in that I placed early during the second pitch, retrieved it and placed a bit further up, and then gave up on placing any more gear until the belay. With a total arm-bar near the top of this "run-out" pitch, I felt secure enough, especially considering the options. As recommended, two #4 Camalots would be perfect for this climb.

The standard 5.9 that all other 5.9's are based on. The first pitch is a little hard to protect after that the gear is great. Standard rack plus one #4 BD Cam.

As the datum 5.9 it can't be anything but 5.9 ;-)

Been a long time since I've done this but I didn't have a big friend or the BD copy.

This climb is the dictionary definition of 5.9!

The notion that you need a bunch of #4 Camalots and larger to do this route is complete nonsense.

My rack consisted of a set of Clogs to #4 (same as friends) plus Green and Red Camalots, 2 Yellow Camalots, and one Blue Camalot. The only piece I wish I had more of was the Yellow.

Many of the places that are wide have small cracks nearby. Sometimes you can get a smaller placement by going deeper. The places that only take really large gear are easy and can be run out.

This route was very difficult for me, so you can't say I was running it out because it was easy.

Brian, gear recommendations are just that. Calling someone else's "complete nonsense" seems benighted at best. You did the route using what you thought was safe, and thats ok. But moreover, you said you employed the #4 Friend equivalent, which interestingly is a only touch smaller than a #4 Camalot.

I think this may be 5.11- now.