Inner Peace 

This route seemed harder to me than 5.9+ more like 5.10b. The description in Gillette's guide mentions"fat holds". I must have missed those at the crux. BTW, the crux is not a single move, more like about 10-15 feet of continuously thin hold climbing between about bolts 6 through 8.

Bruce, I and many others concur with your assessment of the grade. When Laurence Stuemke, the guy who _found_ and did the first routes at the Monastery, brought me here for the first time in 1995 the area was in its infancy. At that time many of the routes were brand spankin' new and unrepeated. This was the first route he led me to. He had just completed it and was obviously excited about its high quality (as he should have been), and wanted me to do what turned out to be the second ascent. At that time this was the only route in the _Inner Sanctum_ and instead of traversing to the anchors on _Wes Bound_ for the easy lower-off as is now the custom, it rambled all the way to the top of the tower some 150+ feet. Nice and long, but oh, the rope drag! Before getting on it he advised me that it was 9+. I felt quite a bit harder to me at that time, but being new to the area I reserved a grade opinion for later. The following weekend we returned and did the second route in the _Inner Sanctum_, Wes Bound, which is about 15 feet to the right. After we both had done Wes Bound we agreed on a preliminary 10a/b grade, which has become the consensus grade over the years. No one ever seems to argue with Wes Bound's grade. At that time I also told Laurence that I thought Wes Bound and Inner Peace were of the same difficulty, and as I recall he agreed. Why the route appears in the guide and on this site as 9+ seems a bit of a mystery to me, and I would NOT think it's reflective the consensus grade. Frankly, I can't recall meeting a sole who thought it was 9+, and the best I can tell is that it's one of those "prelimnary" grades that has just sort of stuck over the years.

More importantly, the quality and sustained nature of this mega slab-a-thon make it an undisputed area classic, and not to be missed when visiting the Monastery's lower formations.

As a side bar, the Gillett guide and this site list Stuemke's first ascent date on Inner Peace as 1996, however he actually climbed in August 1995. Wes Bound was done in the first week of September.

Sometime in the near future I'll place new anchors at the top of this route. For years the unfortunate traverse to the Wes Bound anchors has tainted the overall quality of an otherwise flawless pitch, and it will be much more enjoyable and safer with its own anchors.

cheers,rico

I can't comment as to what I think the grade is, since I didn't make it any further than the sixth bolt. Things seemed reasonable until then, but just above that bolt it definitely seemed harder than .9+.

Finished the route just before a hail storm yesterday and found this route very challenging. I used to consider myself a solid 5.10 face climber but got spanked on this 5.9+ (which it isn't). The last bolt has a chain attached to it now for a single point rappel or something... maybe not the best idea; we traveresed over to the right anchor.

This route is both a bit steeper and a bit harder than Wes Bound. If Wes Bound is 5.10a, this route deserves a 5.10b rating. One of the best quality routes I've done at the Monastery.

This climb was substantially more difficult than Hot Zone, but not nearly as hard as Tabula Rasa. The numerous hold choices make for a meandering route, but if you can find the right holds, I do not think it is harder than 10a.

Where are those anchors Rick?

I got the crux seventh bolt, and it started drizzling. I knew I didn't want to bail. I gave it all I had, climbing on thin hands and promising toe jabs I made it to the two bolt completely drenched.
This was the best route we did all day and most commiting.