Rainbow Highway 

This is a great route. It mixes a wide variety of climbing styles and techniques to ascend the Black wall from its base to its summit. Not all of the routes on the wall do this.
I'd give over half of the climbing on this route 4 stars the remainder might bring the sum to 3 but its all very quality Alpine rock climbing.

The route was born from another, The Emerald Highway. Myself, Ben and Doug Haller did the FA of that route a couple of years ago and I noticed features heading up left from where we got into some much easier climbing on Emerald. Ben and I came back this spring and established what was going to be originally called The Emerald Super Highway. A crazy rainbow after we topped out on the FA changed the name(see picture).

While establishing this route we also added some bolts to Emerald to make it alittle more sane.
While you'll see some protection bolts on this climb we kept them to a minimum. Don't let the bolts fool you this is a Traditional climb.

We called the Crux on Pitch #6 5.10+...it might be 5.11-...it's well protected you decide.

I truly hope folks will enojy this route as much as we did...it really is a classic.

josh

A third option for the approach would be to locate the top of the route and do 6 double rope raps from the bolted belays to the base. You'll have to leave the biners on the bolted belays and pick 'em up as you climb.

This route is rather excellent and, though is quite different in style from Good Evans, it seemed about as good. If I could give it 3.5 stars, I would.

This is indeed a fun route with a good mix of face and crack climbing. All 7 pitches had some interesting climbing in the 5.10 range. The rock is still a little flakey in a few spots but nothing to be concerned with. The rack recommendation is right on, except we never placed any cams smaller than a blue Alien/green C3. The #4 was useful on P5, but you could do without it.

The moves on P6 might be height-dependent, so a 5.11- rating would be fair. Loved the chickenheads on the last few pitches!

Great route.
Placed 5 or 6 medium-sized nuts total.
Used the 4 smallest Mastercams and 4 smallest offset Mastercams.
Used the optional #4 a few times.
Nice job, guys!

Edit to add: double rope clipping technique on last pitch. I forgot and clipped as per twins (DOH!) and regretted the drag.

This route was very awesome! We were able to locate the top anchor easily and rap in the whole route, be careful not to miss the anchor in the corner on p3 on the way down, if you do it, it requires some sketchy downclimbing to the anchor. Bring some biners for anchor bolts. We linked p1 & 2 which seemed logical.
The double rack worked well, RPs definitely helped but nothing smaller than a red C3 for cams, a #4 was nice to have.
I thought this route had more like sustained 5.9 climbing with shorter cruxy sections feeling about .10b, I'm 6ft tall, so experiences may vary.
I thought it was a super fun route and would go back to do it again, there is still an adventurous feel to it, but with some more traffic it will clean up. Make sure you've been training on tuffs of grass for some sections, as it makes for some exciting moves.
Huge thanks to those involved in cleaning, putting in anchors, and putting together sweet terrain. It certainly looked better than its neighbor Emerald Highway. Also, it's nice to see you guys kept the protection bolts to a minimum.

greg

Requires Double Ropes for the top 3 pitches and to descend via the rap stations.

Probably harder than 11a for short folks...I found the crux hard and am 5'7"-8" with a plus 2 reach.

Best to ascend during exceptionally dry spells.

Great route! I agree that it will be a four star route with some cleaning. But I liked some of the grunge, it added to the adventure.

I left some bomber hardware on the second and third (from the top) rappel stations. I used Maillon Rapide quick links on all the bolts, and two Omega Pacific Rings on the second station, and a steel ring and two rolled Al rings on the third station.

If the next party down wants to add some Loctite to the threads of the quick links (and maybe change out the rolled AL for something longer-lasting), that would be fantastic!

Well done, gents, on finding a gem!

"Requires Double Ropes "

Not true.
We climbed it with a single line (I led the last pitch in the rain) and with proper runnering had very little rope drag. Could double ropes make it so you don't have to runner as well? Sure. Are they required? No.

However. If you'd like to rappel the route, you'll need 2 ropes.

I'd prefer to do the rap route with a single and not have to deal with 2 ropes on the climb. But YMMV!

Have fun!

josh

I got a little lost on p6. Here's what I think you are supposed to do: above the roof 30 ft off the belay, clip the bolt and traverse left 10-15 feet to the FIRST thin crack (heavily vegetated). Climb that to a grassy ledge that is between 6 and 12 inches wide. I don't think this is the "grassy ledge" described above. Continue more or less straight up to a bulge and take the path of least resistance working up and left to the "grassy ledge" described above and then presumably follow the description from there.

I made the mistake of thinking the first 6 inch ledge was the "grassy ledge," and traversed about 20 feet straight left to gain the arete- no gear, grassy footholds, no handholds, etc. I ultimately traversed back right, climbed straight up from the thin crack, and then broke right into the corner that leads to the right side of the belay ledge. It probably goes at .10 or so and isn't as bad as it looks.

If my description is wrong, please let me know and I will pull it.

303scott, you are correct about where we went. We wanted to find a way to avoid the corner that leads to the right end of the belay ledge, since it is often quite wet. It seemed like the obvious way to go, but dry rock is usually more fun than wet rock, right?

Thanks to the FA team for establishing the route and rappel anchors. The first and last two rappels still need some chains. I brought some quicklinks but managed to leave them in the pack at the top.

Rack: I agree with the other comments: Doubles or triples of Master cams, including some offsets is very useful. We didn't use the grey Metolius, and the #4 is not essential.

This is a nice way to climb the right side. Seemed less demanding and committing than Coffee Achievers and without the running wet chimney. An appreciation for alpine dirt climbing and grass pulling may increase your enjoyment of some sections. I would rate the crux (brief) .11a (I am 5'10"). Some good 5.10 crack climbing on the lower pitches that should get better with more travel.

Ben,
I totally agree - lucky for us it was mostly dry. The proper route out onto the arete looks like it would give you some nice position too - have to try it next time.
Thanks to you and Josh for putting this up!
Scott