Sands of Iwo Jima 

Four star climbing, but 50' is a very generous estimate of its length. Crux is at the 3rd bolt, though there is not a single gimme move; its continuousness reminded me of High Test at Sport Park. The grade seemed tough for an onsight, but not too bad for a redpoint.

Hey, what's with the double bolts at the crux?

Steve,

It was a hard move, and I don't think you should trust just one piece.

Edit (8/29/2008), just so everyone knows, there are not 2 bolts together. This is an inside joke between Steve and me concerning another thread.

Great route. The setting is awesome to start from the top of Bihedral Arete. Tough liebacking moves and hidden holds make it tough to onsight. Sweet route well worth doing.

CL

Beautiful! Exposed! Sequential. Hard. Wish it was twice as long. Do it!

Very nice even if it is also very short.
I agree, not an easy one to onsight although there is no very hard move.

Very interesting movement. It's tougher than it looks...especially when it's raining.

This route is a whole lot of good for 35 feet of climbing!
It's all there, but it's got to be hard to onsight.... I popped off of a heel hook while clipping bolt #4 and fell almost to the belay. It was/is a pretty safe, clean fall from anywhere on the route once the first bolt is clipped, even with slack pulled.

Nice work on finding an improbable line that adds value to the wall.

I chatted with Greg about this one briefly. Which lead both of us to wonder.... Has ANYONE onsighted this thing yet?

I onsighted it on my second try after hanging the first time!

So, if all these 5.12 climbers are failing to on-sight it, should the rating be raised?? I guess Bob & I originally rated it 5.11c/d, and everyone else has rated it higher. If we had rated it 5.12, would everyone concur?

I think 11+ is fair - it's just a tricky, technical one. And as we all know, 11+ is usually harder than most 5.12a's anyway....

For what it's worth, I don't consider myself a 5.12 climber for on-sight because it's not a rule of thumb for me. More like 11+... on a good day.
After surveying friends about this one lately, and hearing of friend's and friend's of friends attempts, I came up with one "nearly." Mark Gay beta-flashed it after watching Jon Sargeant on it (who also did not on-sight).
I think 11d is fair, but it's just going to be a booger to on-sight. If pre inspected or "sprayed" down fully before giving it a go, it would not be so bad. That's why I personally gave it 11d. It's all there, but it is a booger to read right out of the gate.
If you give it 5.12, then what's going to happen is people will do a few laps, read point and downgrade it. Perhaps you can safely rate this thing when we can get all climbers to agree if grades are redpoint or on-sight oriented?!?!?

Yes, quite harder than it looks! Wasn't sure whether to layback or just krank upward. Couldn't onsight it. Felt like a 12 compared to other 11d's I tried.

11d felt appropriate. Tough to onsight (didn't) but with beta not so bad.