Chicago 

This is a great climb. It's rated F9 in the old book, 5.8 in the newer older guidebook and 5.8+ in the Falcon guide. At 5.8 it's probably a sandbag.

The crux for me was getting to a rest with your feet just above the triagle alcove 30ft up.

Near the top there is a roof thing that provides awesome jams and great position.

All in all, a great climb.

HB offsets work very well, and may take some of the sting out of the climb. I got an average-looking #1 Camalot in the niche. It may have held a fall, though I was fortunate enough not to test it.

Small cams help a lot - aliens or tcus.

From "The Climbers and Hikers Guide to Devils Lake" (1970): "If you see a leader on this route, he will not fall, that is, he must not fall. The quality of the protection is unspeakably poor."

I've only climbed Chicago once and on TP, but I watched a 57-year old Professor from UW-Madison lead it back in about 1988, while his student/girl friend looked on with me at the base in awe. It was kind of like when I watched Pete Cleveland in 97 or 98 go up the End (5.10?) barefoot with amazing grace and wearing a swami-belt for a harness.

I'm glad you guys are rating this 5.9 because it was kicking my ass!

With offset aliens you can sew this route up very well. Great movement, and an enjoyable lead with modern gear.

Just thinking back, but in '69 as we were rappelling down this route we passed a very old man with no rope, climbing up beside us. He told me "Why don't you try climbing up instead of rapping down" and out of this, resulted my lifelong passion. The old man was Dave Slinger, my "mentor" and probably one of the greatest climbers of the "Golden Age". He kind of adopted us as his grand kids and took us around showing his favorites and in the process teaching me how to climb. I can still remember how proud he was to send "Thoroughfare" on his 70'th birthday ! I really think this humble, unassuming man was probably when of the greatest climbers of the time; if not in all time considering his age.

This is all in relation to a chance encounter with a young kid at my local gym here in CO a few years ago. The owner had told him that I used to climb at "The Lake" and he asked me "How long ago" and I told him. He asked me "Did you ever know of a man named Dave Slinger". I said yes, and how he taught me to climb; and that's when he told me that Dave was his grandfather and he'd heard stories about him that his father had told him but never actually had any memories of him ! I was very proud to tell him how great his grandfather really was. (Tears in my eyes) !

I vaguely remember a nice #5 Metolius Cam (The black one) in a small niche right before the triangle alcove that keep this safe. It was a "Power Cam" then but the new, more flexible, "Master Cam" would make it even better.
Classic DL.

Oh, how I wished I had my brass offsets! That would have made this not such a heady lead for sure... But nonetheless this is an awesome route that protects decently well. The moves are pretty damn good. Didn't feel as hard as Upper D but still... 5.9 is right on.

I over-heard a story about this today from some nearby climbers. They said they were up here last fall and there was a couple of guys wearing suits that were hiking along the base and one asked if he could try Chicago, then proceed to tie a swami and cruise it barefoot. I thought, I bet it was Steve at Rich's memorial, true?

Nick,I wish the weather had been nice enough to climb bare foot.It was 25 degrees the first day and we did manage to tr easy stuff on Leaning tower. It snowed 5 inches that nite!
It would be cool to know who those guys were climbing it in swamis and barefoot. In suits????.Chicago is a great route and I seem to remember leading it once barefoot.

I was able to fish a #3 bd nut in below the crux which was super good. After pulling the crux the next piece was marginal.(.3 camalot) It def would have held body weight, but I wouldnt want to fall on such a shallow cam placement that is not in the correct direction.

I'd hesitate to give it a R rating. With a few small cams this thing sews up pretty well. Its R rating is a historic rating before the advent of microcams. PG 13 with microcams. Really good route! True Classic!

I'd have to agree with Josh; without micro cams this would be much scarier. I used both the purple and green C3 in a couple critical spots and it really reduced the sketch factor! The unlikely black master cam / red C4 around the crux also helped, although I didn't want to test it :)