Disappearing Act 

There actually two ways to do this pitch. After the initial finger crack one can go left up to a pin, or continue straight up and avoid the pin. Rossiter tells you to go straight up, I was confused and went left on some strenuous liebacking, still probably about .11a, perhaps a little more devious than going straight up? Going straight up to the belay from the pin looks really cool, however it gets .10+ in the old b.c. south and now gets .11d in the new guidebook!

Going straight up from the pin (called Rabbits from Hats) was called 10d in the old guide, but this was a typo. More like hard 5.11. Most folks, on the sharp end, lieback strenuously up to the pin, (which can be backed up with an excellent 3.5 Friend/blue Camalot) then step right, thought it may be a tad easier to keep right. Second pitch is very good. It has a deceptive move at the start, which is 5.10d Eldo, (which means solid 5.11 modern sport). This is harder than any individual move on the first pitch. After this it reverts to about 5.9.

If you take care runnering your gear on the first pitch (better yet use double ropes) it works fine to combine both pitches into a single lead (60M rope) more bang for your buck!

Ahhh, what an incredible pitch! I placed a #4 Friend at the start... it could take a #2 Camalot but the #4 Friend placement is a bit higher in the crack. On lead the obvious way seemed to lieback up to the pin, then bust a move back right into the dihedral. My partner stayed in the dihedral the whole way and said it was tough stemming, but probably not as hard as the way I led it. This climb goes easily as 1 pitch (140 feet?) with little rope drag, even if you're like me and don't runner it too well.

I followed this route yesterday, what a great climb! From the tree at the top, you can rap all the way to the ground using one 60m rope.

Aw Ben, please don't take my 11a from me :) This IS a soft 11, but I like to think it's a soft 11, not a hard 10. It's a lot harder at the bottom if you try to stick ONLY with the finger crack (don't use the stems out left). That being said, I can't imagine why the stems out left wouldn't be "on"... And there's still enough crimpy nastiness to deserve a 5.11 rating IMO.

This is a great route, and you should DEFINITELY do the whole thing as one pitch. A single rope WILL make it down from the tree at the very top as long as you rap left. This just means that you HAVE to bring the second up to the top since you can't lower the route with one rope.

I've done this route a few times. The first time was with a Jens Meyer after work in 1995 when we ran up with nothing but a set of stoppers and maybe 2-3 cams to do Grand Course. We did that route and on rap we saw D.A. We had no book with us but we had plenty of time. I racked back up and lead this pitch, finding nothing worth belaying off of at the top of the pillar with the rack we had (stoppers), so I kept going up. Done as one pitch, this felt like 5.11a, R. A few years later I went back up with Matt (I forget his last name) I lead the bottom, which felt like 10d, and he got the top pitch. We took more than stoppers that time, but sure enough, maybe 10-15' off of the belay he popped off, popped a piece, and landed next to me on his butt on the pillar. I'll never forget looking him straight in the eye as he hit and seeing his face- I thought something was broke. Matt was a tough guy though- he said he'd finish it following despite the tail-bone bruise. Second pitch felt like 10d that time, though I definitely had a ledge fall in my head the whole time. Moral of the story? Well, I suppose to watch the gear, and to take cams to shove up under flakes on P2. As well, that the grade may depend on how you do it- as one pitch or as two.

Awesome pitch!! Just before the crux there's a fixed purple TCU that can be clipped (blindly). I backed it up as soon as possible!! Great route. Makes you go a bit above your (small) gear in a couple spots, and I thought it was pretty balancy and reachy, but I'm only 5'5". A 70 meter rope will get you back down with about ten feet left.

Really fun route! 130 feet of good climbing the whole way broken up by 2 great rests. I found the crux getting to the fixed cam not above in the dihedral, but that's just me. The whole climb protects really well. I did find one spot where I was 5/6 ft. above a #4 RP that was an ok placement, but aside form that, there is gear all over this thing. If you are in the area, go for it! Great climbing on great gear.

I'll add to the praise: this route is from bottom to the top an incredible climb. The gear is good and everywhere you want it but sometimes strenuous to place, which I think adds to the difficulty of the route. Overall, I thought the hardest moves were moving from the left crack into the right-facing dihedral. The moves off the pedestal are very well protected, and if you're sly enough, you can slide a bomber small stopper just high enough that if you were to blow the moves you wouldn't hit the pedestal. I led this as one long pitch and could have used a few more double length runners for the upper crack that bends around the arete. A 70m rope makes the rap no problem.