Son Of Great Chimney 

Give it all the stars....it is one the DL's best test piece routes.

how is this thing for pro, are the pins gone? if so, do nuts work where they were?

The gear on the route is good but spaced out in places. Most of the old pins have cams and wire placements close. Just don't pass up any good gear placements and you will be fine. I would recommend putting in a few pieces at the crux in the center of the route.
Make sure you use the pin & large sideways wire placement at the start.
bring extra 1" to 2" cams

I think Pete's 1965 onsight lead good be one of best accomplishment at DL!

Wow, great route, the crux had some awkward finger stacking for me. Led today grabbing handfuls of snow on the top out. I used a #0 cam at the start, wouldn't want to fall there though. Gear is spaced out so a fall would be long one but safe. Anyone have opinions on the block halfway up that you can place nuts behind? It looks solidly wedged in there, anybody seen a fall on it?
Pins are still there but I don't they are needed anymore with the tiny pro we can buy in this day and age.
I second Pete's on-sight as the greatest accomplishment at DL.
BTW, ignore this climb if it's under 30 degrees, very shady area.

Nick -- the block does feel hollow and little iffy. I think it's ok for little falls, especially when a nut is placed at the bottom of the block. I would not risk a big fall on it -- I don't think the entire block would dislodge (not yet at least) but for the gear to pull, the block needs to move just a little. There are solid small cam placements higher up on the left but one needs to be careful with the rope (see the pic of the fall). I remember adding a #1 BD cam/long sling in the crack to the right. In any case, falling near the top is always an adventure, imho (see pic again :)).

Nice lead man! Way to send it in the snow.

A benchmark climb for the grade and certainly one of the best routes at the lake.

Did it w/o pins and it felt super solid. My pro went grey alien, offset green/blue alien+number 7 BD nut in horizontal, blue alien, black mastercam, green alien, purple alien. Easily the best route I've ever been on and, though I don't claim to be a DL hardman/master, the best route at the lake in my opinion. Rhoads and I were talking about it and we both seem feel Pete's ascent is almost to the point of myth. I'm glad I was even able to do a route he did!

Did anyone notice that Sven says this is 5.11a in the new guide!

I believe Son of a Great was the first .11c in the US.

Not sure about the first 11c in the US, is that true? A while back I said to Gorny that I wasn't sure it was really 11c. Gorny's response was, "Maybe, maybe not. But it is a fantastic climb." Yup.

To me it still does not feel 2 letters harder than Thoroughfare or Beginner's Demise, but that shouldn't detract from the amazing experience of climbing it.

Not sure if this thing is completely accurate, but
www.stanford.edu/~clint/yos/hard.htm

It is listed as the one of the first 5.11s. So I was wrong.

Wow, well that's actually pretty cool. Really I wouldn't know 11a versus 11c anyway, depends on the day I guess. Sometimes they feel hard sometimes they don't.

Doesn't SOGC get the two extra leter grades just for its obvious intimidation factor? The whole route is quite fear inducing when looking at it standing below and sizing it up...

C'mon, do you really think this is the same grade as Thoroughfare, Cop-Out, Beginners Demise, etc? SOGC is at least 5.11b

Hmm. Forcing me to rethink eh? You're probably right Nick. I did not flash SOGC despite having good beta.

Can anybody give me a better idea of where the regular SOGC and the direct split? Is it from that no-hands/sit-down ledge, or is it above that? When I led this, I finished in the center of the face, which I found easier, but also placed some pro in the arete.

At the last piton. Good rest stance, clip the piton @ face level and/or any other gear you wish to place there, and reach a couple feet left and up into/onto the left-facing crack system and crank onto the face. This is maybe 12-15 feet from the top. That's my understanding anyway.

10d Huston? That must be your sport climbing rating then? I think clipping all those bolts has shattered your frame of reference for real climbing.

FINALLY led this yesterday(not sure what took me so long). I used to feel it was hard 11, but I have great beta for the crux and now think 11a is a better fit.