Aurora No Boreals 

One of the 3 best climbs at the Sun Spots.
A bit bagged at 5.11+. Many may feel 12a is appropriate.
Is my hair that grey or am I wearing a helmet.
Maybe I could climb harder if I colored my hair???

Had you worn a helmet on a few occasions your hair might not be so grey.

One of the best looking routes at the Sun Spot. Has an old-school lemmony feel but that's not all bad. You guys have definitely gone darkside though.

Yes we have. Are those your big fat tick marks I saw on the second crux a couple of days ago? White tick marks can be as dark as a bolt next to a crack.
My offer still stands, lead this route on gear and I'll chop it.
Pretty fun climbing though....A

I'll probably never make it back to that route since it's off by itself and I already bagged it. If I do go back though, I will lead it on gear, perhaps using one of the bolts.

In any case, I like the route and I'm not advocating a chop. Peering around into the crack to place gear would interrupt the flow and it's a pretty elegant sequence.

Whoa!! cowboy. Lets see it. Only one bolt. Is that with or without the tick marks???

I put no tick marks on that route...didn't need 'em.

My apologies. Did you get the on sight??? It took me tooooo many runs to get this climb. I have no excuse.

Jim, I got to the first crux and thought I saw a smarter way to do it than the obvious fingers-in-the-slot method. As usual, my "smarter" turned out to be dumb. So I fell, then used the obvious slot and it worked ok. Then Cres came close to flashing it but broke a hold during the 2nd crux and went flying. An important hold it seemed to me. On my 2nd try I had to work out a new method for crux #2 on the fly and it worked but barely. So 2 tries.

Cool beans. I climbed it after you and Cres were there. I did the 2nd crux the same way. So whatever hold broke off was not one I was using. Thank the Gods.

You guys try "The Ligher Side of Darkness" yet? It's a fun little pump fest.

Got a good pelting at the belay for this one... wear a helmet!

Can be set up on Toprope if you traverse over from the top of Head in the McLeods. Easy traverse, but a pendulum would be nasty.

This climb has really good, varied moves on it. Reminds me of Solar Power at Milagrosa.

Is the line to the left (with top rope anchors and some broken holds) going to be bolted any time soon?

Have at it Joe, we worked on it a bit. As I remember there was a little funk to the rock and then it just got too hard to keep me or Jimbo interested.

Congratulations to Geir for the certified FAG of this route today!

Nice work man!

LOL Christian!

Translation: "Free Ascent on Gear"

I learned this evening that Jimbo and Jesse sent this climb on gear just two weeks ago, so the congrats for the first trad ascents of this sport climb rightfully go to them. Well done guys! (Shit, I thought I was going to be famous!)

To everyone else who's interested in getting in some harder climbing on gear, this climb is offers some fun challenges. The gear is good save one hollow-sounding placement and a bit of a runout at the top (the fall is safe and protected by bomber gear).

Thanks to Christian and Eric for the catches while I figured this out today!

are the bolts still on this climb? if so, how long are they likely to stay?

jesse-

no worries - the bolts are still there. :)

Too bad, you got nothing but SAG then Geir :-)

LOL - I prefer the term "brazilian" to FAG or SAG ... but that's just me. :)

Both "Eric R's" in town (EFR and Eric Ruljancich) - did trad ascents of this climb yesterday. Good job guys!

Just for the record you might want to look at who did the FA. I am pretty sure they want the bolts left in. It isn't like the gear at the bottom is 100 percent bomber. The rock where the second piece goes is funky and a fall could blow it out. So stop already. The route can be climbed with or without clipping the bolts. Not like it is some kind of trad test piece. Most if not all the folks who have lead it on gear had used the bolts on a previous ascent. If you want to do trad routes go find a line start at the bottom and climb it to the top like Geir did at Jailhouse.

No really Eric, how do you feel. Don't hold back.

Upon further thought, the desire to chop the bolts seems kind of ego driven and silly.
Lead it on gear or clip the bolts. Your choice. Sport or trad folks can both have their way.

While there is not a bunch of hard safe trad on Lemmon, neither is there a bunch of fun 5.12 sport climbs down low, in the sun, that are great to go to in the winter.

oops - sorry eric, thought you and jimbo put this route up!

to clarify, i wasn't really interested in removing the bolts so much as responding to the question that was posted.

good point jim - there aren't too many sunny, warm 5.12 sport lines low on the mountain.

:)

Congrats Clay for also sending this on gear today!

Congrats Clay!!!! Terrific!