This is a good quality line. The rock is mostly solid and the climbing is mostly moderate. However, it does "flare" up at two distinct cruxes. The second and succeeding belays have bolted anchors that would allow retreat with a single 60-meter rope. It MIGHT be possible to rappel from the pitch-2 anchors slightly right to reach a bolted station at the top of Corona, and go from there to the ground.
Pitch 1: A pleasant crack leads up 100' to a small stance beneath an overhang. Pitch 2: Traverse right to a break in the roof and move up past a bolt (5.10) to easier climbing and a bolted belay station. Pitch 3: Easy climbing up the corner above takes you to another bolted belay station. Pitch 4: Continue up, passing a protection bolt (5.9) on the bulge above, to reach another bolted station. Pitch 5: Moderate climbing goes up the cracks and face to the Lower Shoulder. There is an optional bolted belay/rap station a short distance below the shoulder.
Descend by rappeling the route. All the upper pitches can be rapped with one rope (which is probably advisable because there are a lot of snaggy horns). There is not a bolted station at the top of pitch one, so it easiest to do a 2-rope rappel from the P2 anchors.
Location
Start in the obvious corner about 10 yards to the right of the brushy alcove at the bottom of Sunspot Ridge.
The protection bolt on the 5.10 roof is super sketchy. It's a stainless stud bolt that sticks out over 2" and is only 3" long, and placed at a downward angle. This bolt, even though new, needs to be replaced immediately.
The roof is pretty dang hard if you're a tall, weak trad climber like me - it's very crunched up and powerful.
If you want to get a lot more vertical after doing this route, you can link this to Sunspot Ridge: continue up about 100 feet to a large flat ledge and then traverse left to another corner system. I think we did seven more pitches after that to merge in with the top of Solar Slab. Most of the climbing is easy but there's a very fun low-angle pitch with varnished plates and a runout 5.7 corner right after that. There's a saddle/shoulder sort of thing along the way where great views can be had of climbers on Black Orpheus.
The bolt on the second pitch does look suspect. There's a great #1 Camalot placement just below and to the right of it.
interestingly, the first ascent of Sunspot Ridge was done by doing Corona into Solar Flare, and then up to the ridge- the difficulties on the Solar Flare portion, though, made us look for a more moderate line as a start for Sunspot- more in line with the upper pitches. I think the new start is perfect for that, although Solar Flare is an excellent start if you're game for the roof!
One of the beta photos above notes that a "direct variation takes wires well." Anybody got other info about this variation, like its difficulty, quality, PG or R feeling, whatever? How's the rope drag if you link all the way through P2, as the photo suggests?
Haven't done the variation but I did link P1 and P2 with doubles and long runners without too much drag. There is also a great place for a black (or purple) alien just under the roof, if you don't like the bolt.
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