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Romulan Warbird

5.12c, Trad, 1000 ft (303 m), 9 pitches, Grade IV,  Avg: 3.9 from 49 votes
FA: FA Dan McDevitt 1999 FFA Lucho Rivera 2012
California > Yosemite NP > Yosemite Valley > Valley S Side > Q. Leaning Towe… > Fifi Buttress
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Description

Thanks to the efforts of Lucho Rivera this Dan McDevitt route now goes free. Each of the first six pitches is burly in a different way.

After years of traffic this route has cleaned up nicely and is a very desirable tick. This route follows an incredibly steep line with amazing belay ledges after every pitch.

P1 - 5.12-  35m Climb a short dihedral and then make a hard move left to a good stance below the main corner. Work up the corner passing another crux section with thin pro. When the crack pinches out stem and do some ninja moves to get to a crack out left. Follow this crack as it arches to the right to the belay.

P2 - 5.11  30m Layback up from the belay until you can step right to a parallel crack/corner. Follow this briefly before stepping back left into the main corner. Follow sweet knobs until the corner pinches back out. Employ some trickery to get through a short boulder problem to another good stance. The crack pinches out but the geometry creates a perfect edge for laybacking. Romp up to your hearts content stepping right around a large block. Keep laybacking until you can mantel up onto the spacious belay ledge.

P3 - 5.11  35m Follow the obvious wide cracks up and to the right. A few tricky layback moves get you past the first of many hollow flakes. Step back left into the corner with difficulty and layback up past another scary section of blocks. It is possible to get good gear out left. The next section presents two options. You can go straight up the corner (more difficult) or quest out right (more exciting) and then hand traverse back across. The fear factor goes down but the pump clock goes up as the angle kicks back on the last 20 feet to the belay. Traverse way to the left with heel hooks and a good amount of air under your feet.

P4 - 5.12  35m Place some high gear and make a cruxy move right to clip a bolt. Use your granite voodoo and houdini up to the finger crack. Power up the short crack to a good rest in an alcove. Regain your composure and punch it up a long flared section of fingers and thin hands. A kneebar can keep the pump at bay before you move past a couple of large chockstones into a flare. Thrutch up and pull one more tricky section when you exit the flare. A few easy moves leads to a big tiered ledge with a mess of bolts. I belayed on the right bolts and used the bolts on the left when we rappelled.

P5 - 5.11  25m Traverse about 10 feet right from the belay and clip a high bolt. Climb down around the corner and then mantel a dirty ledge and reach back around the corner to clip a second bolt. (It is also possible to face climb past these two bolts and then flip around the corner). Eventually you'll chimney and stem up inside the corner with difficulty until your fingers fit in the steep crack. Pull back around the corner to hand crack which leads to a good stance. Step left and climb up a short dihedral. Fun moves lead to another awesome belay ledge on the left. A short but surprisingly challenging pitch.

P6 - 5.12+  25m The Crux! Move down and left from the belay being careful with some fragile rock. A few thin moves get you established below a tips crack in a corner. Crimp and finger lock up the crack keeping your core tight . A few good holds give a momentary reprieve before a final tricky move exiting the crack. Recover as best you can and attack an exciting face climbing sequence on holds that all face the wrong ways. Place a #3 camalot in a box out left and hand traverse right to the belay. There used to be a pin here, but it's safe with the #3.

P7 - 11a 30m?  Follow flakes up wild looking rock directly above the belay arching to the right. A few crack switches, a couple bolts and a roof pull leads to a semi-hanging belay. Quality climbing!

Pitch 8 is a bit dirty and while trying to clean some of the dirt from the cracks I managed to anger a bunch of ants that swarmed out about 10 feet above the belay. Don't remove any vegetation and I expect you can avoid them. 

We rapped from here. A 70m rope gets you down. From what I understand the remaining pitches are still high quality just easier in grade. If you have an 80m rope or two ropes you can skip the P5 belay on the way down.

P8 - 10d

P9 - 10d

Per Dan McDevitt (FA) - The upper pitches of this route are quite good also. If you go to the top, there is the option of walking down (30-45 min.) from top of route, do short uphill to beautiful summit, look for cairns to the south, then wrapping around to the west. it is fairly well marked. no raps, but a little 3rd class.

Location

This route starts from a nice flat area on the traverse ledge across Fifi Buttress. The Vortex is on the right and Final Frontier is further along the ledge. Scramble 30 feet up to a flat boulder below the first corner.

Protection

All belays are bolted and setup for rappel.

Double Rack from 0 C3 to #1 camalot. Single 00 C3, and #2, #3 and #4 camalot. A #4 friend also works instead of a #4 camalot.

A third set of finger sized pieces, especially thin fingers are useful!

Photos [Hide ALL Photos]

getting pitch 1 dialed
[Hide Photo] getting pitch 1 dialed
Following final layback of the 2nd pitch of Romulan Freebird
[Hide Photo] Following final layback of the 2nd pitch of Romulan Freebird
Lolo follows the awesome crux pitch.
[Hide Photo] Lolo follows the awesome crux pitch.
Stanley cruising pitch 4
[Hide Photo] Stanley cruising pitch 4
Lucho on ffa
[Hide Photo] Lucho on ffa
Romulan Freebird topo by Lucho
[Hide Photo] Romulan Freebird topo by Lucho
Limber up before starting p1!
[Hide Photo] Limber up before starting p1!
Ben at the final crux of pitch one.
[Hide Photo] Ben at the final crux of pitch one.
Lucho doing the traverse on Pitch 5. Dan McDevitt Photo
[Hide Photo] Lucho doing the traverse on Pitch 5. Dan McDevitt Photo
Laser cut applies
[Hide Photo] Laser cut applies
Looking up at the third pitch of Romulan Freebird
[Hide Photo] Looking up at the third pitch of Romulan Freebird
P1 is so good
[Hide Photo] P1 is so good

Comments [Hide ALL Comments]

Luke Stefurak
Seattle, WA
  5.12c
[Hide Comment] FFA History by Lucho: luisluchorivera.blogspot.co… Dec 17, 2013
[Hide Comment] Wow, this is an awesome route: steep, featured, nice ledges, and pretty clean, difficult climbing. I'd put this route up there with some of the very best moderate length free climbs in the Valley. We also only went to the top of p6.

A few thoughts to add to the above description:

I thought the crux p6 was hard compared to the lower 5.12 pitches and other similarly rated stuff in the Valley. I have fat fingers and tried it in the sun, but if you told me it was 13-, I wouldn't raise an eyebrow. Also, the face climbing at the top of this pitch (to get to the fixed pin) seemed really serious to me. I may have missed something, but I ended up climbing 15+ feet of solid 5.10+ above very marginal gear in hollow flakes. I thought it was quite dangerous and out of character with the rest of the climbing.

The recommended rack was perfect except I wanted three of the green C3/purple Metolius size, but only for p6. I also found offset RPs very useful on several pitches, especially the first. A red TCU could be useful for p1.

The loose rock on p3 demands attention and care, but it is manageable. The climbing is really good; the blocks just might fall down some day. Jun 2, 2014
[Hide Comment] One of the BEST 5.12 routes in the Valley!! The 5.10 climbing at the top isn't trivial and makes the route really good so make sure to climb to the top for the full experience. Jun 8, 2014
Colin Moorhead
Squamish, BC
  5.12b
[Hide Comment] Awesome climb, predominantly thin crack and corner climbing with no soul crushing wide sections.

We were able to use "huck and haul technique" untying from the 70m rope and easily throwing down the end to haul up our man purse. We did this to the top of pitch 7 where we left our bag and retrieved it on the way down.

Linked pitches 8 and 9 to avoid the ant tree belay. The only pitches where we found the #4 camalot useful were pitch 2 and 9. No offset cams were needed.

I much prefer the original Romulan Warbird (sounds more badass) name over the Romulan Freebird (sounds a little bit too hippy), William Shatner agrees me on this one. Dec 6, 2014
MauryB
Boulder, CO
 
[Hide Comment] Amazing route, +1 for the original name "Romulan Warbird."

The overly specific route description here makes things really confusing and makes the route sound wandering, which it is not. Follow each pitch straight up the obvious line and belay at bolts on spacious ledges.

Also +1 on triple green C3 size for the crux. May 20, 2016
Max Tepfer
Bend, OR
  5.12c PG13
[Hide Comment] Stellar route! Climbed the first six before rapping to get off before the rain. +1 for 3x purple tcu/green c3. Many of these pitches would link logically. For P5, face climbing left past two bolts before turning the corner (the alternative Luke described above) is for sure preferred. Lastly the grades of the 5.11 pitches felt way off for me:
P1-height dependent 12a (easier if you're tall)
P2-11a
P3-Hollow 10d
P4-12a/b
P5-10d
P6-12b/c (much harder if you have big fingers) Oct 16, 2016
Alex Shainman
Lakewood, CO
[Hide Comment] This is a really good route! I would definitely recommend going to the top if you have time.

Main reason to post:

As of yesterday, on at least a couple pitches, there are anchor bolt nuts (threaded wedge style) that are barely finger-tight. Bring an adjustable crescent wrench to tighten them.

Have fun!!! Oct 24, 2016
[Hide Comment] +1 red tcu first pitch Jun 7, 2017
[Hide Comment] The crux pitch (#6) ends with a long rightward hand traverse to the belay. The traverse had been protected (mostly for the follower) with a lost arrow, which was noted as FP in the topo. This piton pulled out today under the extreme duress of our belay rope getting wiggled back and forth. It can take a so-so #3 camalot at the start of the traverse, otherwise there's no pro on it any more. Oct 22, 2017
Christian Black
Salt Lake City, UT
  5.12b/c
[Hide Comment] Such a great route! Had to put a lot of work in to send this one. Finally redpointed it my 7th attempt (11th time doing the pitches if you count microtrax laps). I agree the pitch grades are a little off, and suggest the following after sending the whole route today:

P1: 12a (possibly harder if shorter)
P2: 11b
P3: 10d/11a
P4: 12b (most sustained pitch on route)
P5: 10d
P6: 12b/c
P7: 11a
P8: 10d
P9: 10d

The upper three pitches really need more traffic, and they are all three great quality pitches that add to the climb as a whole. Get on this thing! Sep 6, 2019
Max Tepfer
Bend, OR
  5.12c PG13
[Hide Comment] An update to add after climbing it again and taking it to the top: the pin is still mia on the crux pitch, but you could probably nest some red-purple c3s in there that would be way more bomber. (The red is a maybe) Regardless, you’re follower should be pretty solid.

+1 for offset nuts. I had a single set and used them.

The anchor at the top of P7 is the only one with bs tat, so if someone wants a service project, you could install some chain. (We had two ropes and skipped it which was easy)

Like Colin, we linked the last two, but unlike Colin, I didn’t run the rope well and had some wicked drag. Still probably worth it tho. Just bring all the slings you can and save some for the end.

All in all the, top three pitches were super fun. As has been said, you’ll occasionally touch some lichen or foliage, but currently it’s clean where it counts and adds a lot of value. Do it! Oct 20, 2019
Todd Martin
Costa Mesa
 
[Hide Comment] Aided it and found that the "12c fingers (best way)" option on climber's left of P6 was a very tough/sketchy finish for a non-12 climber. No pin, so we left a nut & BB for the second's lower-out. I'm guessing the better aid option would have been straight up from the anchor.

The last steep section of P9 was straight forward aid but if freeing there's moss all over it.

Shweet and challenging route! Aug 16, 2020
Will Sharp
  5.12b/c
[Hide Comment] Awesome route! Every pitch is quality! (we climbed thru P6). I have very fat fingers and I thought that p1 was the crux. P6, while thin is kind of more of a sloper layback making it less size dependent. The final bit on pitch 6 takes a pretty good #3 C4 as stated above, right before you cut hard right. I would say this is no more serious than 5.10- on very secure holds.
Took triples of micro cams (grey metolius to BD 0.2) and used them all. Oct 25, 2020
Tanner James
Sierras
 
[Hide Comment] Climbed this last week and looking back I still can’t decide what to think about it. The climbing and movement is a perfect 4/4 starts without a doubt. P1 and 6 are so awesome with highlights on every other pitch as well. The rock quality is objectively bad unfortunately throughout the climb as well, with noticeably scary (very thin and loose) sections on p3 and the entire second half of p6 along with a few other sections I can’t remember specifically. Besides that the climb was really great, very much sustained and enjoyable! We did this the day after Wayward son and found it to be substantially more involved and sustained than its neighbor with the same grade and (almost) pitch count. Definitely all time climbing on a nice shady wall with a great view! Oct 16, 2022
Phillip Cheesesteak
Bozeman
 
[Hide Comment] Incredible route. Only did thru p6, but the above comment about loose rock is exaggerates it a little bit. P3 certainly has a lot of hollow rock on 5.9ish terrain, but the gear is by and large in solid rock, just pull and step lightly. Last half of p6 is generally solid. If you are tall-ish and have small fingers this is the route for you. Get on it! Oct 18, 2023