Forbidden Planet 

Here is another score for the raven haired power meistress, Andrea Azoff. Forbidden Planet climbs out right to an arete from the belay in the prominent corner marking the upper one third of the Lower Peanuts Wall. You will pick up a bolt just before the arete and one just after stepping around right on to the face. The crux is getting established on the face. From here on up its just pure clean edge climbing, never harder than 5.10, on bullet proof stone. Probably no single move even ticks in at 5.11b. Great line. Two raps to the ground, or walk off to the right towards the Upper Peanuts.

The large sidepull hold near the first bolt has broken off, making the start a little harder now. I did a direct start a bit down and to the right of the first bolt. (You'll want to first go up to the left and reach up right to clip the 1st bolt, then come back down to the right to start climbing.) This seemed about 11b or so, although it is probably height-dependent. (I'm 6' tall with a 6' reach.)

I think this route deserves its 11b rating. It's technical and reachy at the beginning.

As with all routes, the rating depends on the strengths or weaknesses of the climber rating it. My guidebook calls this route 11a/b and, for me, it felt solid at 11b because of the burly moves out onto the face. I couldn't do it clean. I lacked the lock-off power and the clock is ticking. I eventually got up the route but used no fewer than five deadpoints. The upper, technical face climbing was exciting, but thankfully not as steep.

A really great, short climb!

Bill

Very reachy between first and second bolts.

A small flake pulled off the route today in the middle of the crux. Since I couldn't firgure out the way to get through this section clean, I don't know if this was the crux hold or not. The resulting edge that was left is almost exactly the same size as the original and has only a slightly different angle, so I don't think it will change the nature or difficulty of this section too much. These moves felt a lot harder than 11a/b to me (6'5" tall). Guess I need to do some more sport climbing...

Hey, Rich. The outer part of that hold popped off on me a few weeks ago. I guess the whole thing's gone now, huh? Bummer! This has to make the route substantially harder. That section was never a piece of cake to begin with! ... What a fun climb, though! The obvious 'approach pitch' is "Your Basic Lieback" 5.6, which is fun, as well...in a different way!

Did this climb today. If the hold that broke was where I think it was, it makes the move between bolts 1 and 2 harder for shorter people. At my height (5'10"), I could stretch up to grab the good crimp, and the crux passage through 1 and 2 still felt the same way it did when I first did this route, around a decade ago. Great pitch -- if you can reach that hold!

When I did it you still needed some gear for the last part of the pitch on the arete above the crux - i.e. it's a mixed route, not a pure sport climb.

For anyone wondering what happened to the description, I asked for a change in my submission from the 10d grade to the 11b grade to reflect the new difficulties associated with the absence of the formerly crux holds. While this may cause some confusion about the cause and nature of the comments that followed, for which I apologize, I thought it better than advertising the climb as a 10d on the front page, which at present would seem a sandbag.

You know right where you are when you rap as the bolts' washers have, "Forbidden Planet" stamped on them; pretty classy.