Desert Solitaire 

Great route!!

Chip Ruckgaber and I freed this route in Feb 2000. It involved some hard crimping on friable flakes that may or may not still be there. At the time it felt like Eldo 5.11d, but that will depend on what holds are still available. The free line went left initially past the first bolt, then crossed back to the right.

cheersmike schlauch

It still goes free. The holds I used seemed like they'll be around for a while, but were very sandy. The route might be slightly harder now though, hard to say.

Pros:
5 out of 6 pitches have high quality climbing, a very good ratio for CNM.
The last pitch is great, a poor man's version of the mega last pitch of Infrared. Even if you're baking, don't give in to the temptation to skip it.
The fixed anchors are very well thought out.
Mostly comfortable belays.

Cons:
Less than prime rock quality throughout.
Not much of a line -- you can scramble into the route at 1/3 height.
Not a tower.

Notes:
We thought the 5th pitch was the crux, considerably harder than the first.
Rack: We would have been happier if we'd replaced one of the #3 Friends with a #4 Friend or #4 C4 Camalot, particularly at the crux of the first pitch and the start of the sixth which was unprotected w/out a larger piece. We made only one placement w/ our "medium to large nuts" but could have used a couple of smaller (#2-4 Rocks) in the aid section. As far as TCU size gear, we placed at most 1 green Alien size on any pitch (though I could see placing more); we didn't use any smaller cams except in the aid section where we placed both a 00 and a 0 C3, though leaders whose aid mojo was running stronger could get by w/ at most one of those pieces.
With a 70M rope you can rap directly to the start, avoiding the circuitous downclimb, in 4 raps. Combine the raps for the 4th & 5th pitches as well as the 2nd & 3rd but be careful as both combined raps are stretchers.

The above comments do a good job describing the route, but I'd like to say just a bit more about pitch 4, the old aid pitch.

It is freeable at a grade in the mid 11s, so if you are taking the rest of the route free you should definitely attempt to free his pitch, everything you need is there. The main difficulty might be that the crux here is more of a face climb, where the rest of the route is a straight crack. However, the crux is short, and you have good pro that you can double up on right at your feet. Go for it!

I climbed it 5/30/7. The holds in the crux are probably among the most solid bits of rock on the upper section, but yes it is a sandy route.

Aid section is probably C2. There are a few questionable placements in a row in soft rock. I broke off a few holds trying to free the moves before losing the stomach for it.
Note: you can go up P3 via either way (both are not only worthy, but excellent) and then rap and do the other way to add a **** pitch to this awesome route.

Did this Sunday w/ 2 friends. We all agreed that if you can do the other 5.11 pitches then the aid section isn't much harder & is reasonably protected. We felt the moves (3 of them) to be ~11c & protected by 2 purple Black Diamond C3s (size 00), the highest of which was just below our feet when we reached the bolt.

This route is superb & doesn't see nearly the traffic it could/should.

The Lightning Bolt Variation is so friggin' classic. One of the best single pitches in the Monument! But it means you can't link pitches 3, 4. Worth it, though.

The C1 section is super short. I would say it goes free at hard 5.11, but it would involve some loose and very thin crack climbing (tips). Awesome route, one of the best I've done on The Monument.

This route is really fun and low commitment. Every real pitch is awesome, albeit short. The 5.11a pitches felt incredibly soft for the grade, and the cruxes are very, very short. Grade II 10b and ten feet of C1. The 5.6 moves off the 1st belay are the crux. 5 #2 Camalots is an insane amount. You can easily get by with two. The #4 is nice on the 6th pitch, but doing the crack to the list makes it unnecessary. The aid placements are bomber, and even if freeing, you only need one 0 Metolius TCU/Mastercam. You get a bomber yellow TCU and even more bomber green Camalot just before the bolt. Throw in a last piece after the lightning bolt crack so you don't freak your wife out with a major pendulum if belaying off the chain anchors. All combination of pitches are easily linkable with a set of doubles to yellow and one blue and grey (#3 & 4) Camalot.

Raps with a 70. Pitch 6, pitch 4+5, pitch 2+3 (watch the ends), pitch 1.

Approach via the slope to the right, not the gully to the left.

Re: the above comment, no way is this 5.10b! And you need the recommended 5 to 6 hand-sized pieces unless you like extremely sandy 25-foot runouts on moderate to poor quality rock.

That said, it's a fantastic line, with every pitch being awesome aside from the grunge pitch. The funky blocks on the last pitch are more solid than they look, and the final moves onto the anchors are rad.

We brought doubles from blue Metolius to red Camalot, 5 or 6 hand-sized pieces, and 1 blue Camalot, along with the larger nuts in the set. I would have loved to have an extra 0.75 Camalot and would have left the big nuts and taken the smaller half of the set for the aid section. A 0 & 00 Metolius will get you through the aid section with minimal fuss, and would be preferred for sending it free.

Recent rains had turned the route into a sandbox for us, but it was dope nonetheless.

For the descent, we made two 35m raps on our 70m rope (off of P6 chains, off of P4 chains) and then scrambled to the ground. The first rap was exactly 35m long and a total rope stretcher, so beware!!

Fun climb. 2nd pitch sports some pretty terrible choss, more like climbing on dried mud than rock. I would have liked to have had an extra #0.75 Camalot (three in total) for the thin hands pitch. The very short C1 section goes free at .11+ and is well-protected. Leave the aid gear!