Russian Arete 

The route is great and well worth doing as the description above implies. I did not feel like I encountered any more loose rock than one might find on any big route in the Black. There is some here and there, but not too much in my opinion. That being said, I would think twice before climbing underneath another party on this route. The description here and in Robbie's book is generally good. I would offer the following comments having done the route twice now: A nice belay for pitch two is just after exiting the final roof and climbing the short slab out right. The wall kicks back a bit here and there is a good perch in some peg out right. You can get good cams placed downwards behind a large flake behind this stance. The next pitch (and all subsequent ones) heads up the obvious chimney system out left of this belay (20 feet). I found pitches 3 and 4 to be about 100-120 feet long and could be combined by stretching out a 60-70m rope, though there are some nice belay ledges that are hard to pass up. The 5th pitch goes for a long time (60 m) up through the chimneys and passes another 5.9 peg section below a black roof. After this pitch, the way is easy -- up another 30 feet of chimney and then easy terrain out right. Keep to the right until it is easy to break to the ridge crest which you can follow to the rim. Most of this the ridge is 4th class. The climbing is surprisingly good the whole way. It should take a competent party about 6-8 hours on route.

Had to climb over a friendly 5 ft. bull snake on this route...he was sunning on a small ledge around pitch 4 or 5at least it wasn't a buzzworm...still a little exciting though- nice snake, nice snake....

This route is so good! 5 steep pitches, and a bunch of beautiful 3rd-classing right on the crest. Spectacular!

Did this route on April 29th of 08 with Erik Wellborn, and we were the only ones there.....Nice!! I suppose there are two ways to access the "true base" of this route (right of the big, detached pillar). Either way is loose and should be soloed with a good amount of space between you and your partner as you can see by my eye in one of the photos. Nonetheless, a fun route with lots of quality rock on it. Vince, thanks for the beta on the belay at pitch two, really fun pitch. There are so many ways to finish up the last scramble to the top, we took a way that involved a lot of 4th to 5th classing. Took us 8 hours to get back onto the trail and back to our beer. Great Route.

Only pitch 2 is 5.9+. Pitch 5 felt like 5.9-. The rest of the route is 5.8 or easier.

What a fantastic route!!! My partner and I thought it was a little sandbagged at 5.9, but I guess that's the black, or maybe it was just a lil' more run-out in spots without a #4!!! Haha! I ended up going through that black roof that Vince mentions on p5 after the 5.9 peg section, and it felt like I should have headed out right and belayed.... Either way it was full-value!!!

Excellent, high quality route. A lot of blue collar climbing. I brought one set of nuts, single small cams, doubles from #0.5-#3 and one #4 (Camalots). Start early. A 70m cord is helpful.

Just climbed the route this past weekend. What a great time. The Railroad pitch felt a little tougher than 5.9...the rest was spectacular. So many ledges to chill out on. We started early and finished late. Typical Black adventure. I found that once you headed out right onto the easier terrain, you can put your approach shoes back on and enjoy the hike up. Lots of scrambling through bushes, boulders and the occasional easy 5th class 20 ft section of rock. Go right then straight up. Getting of the top was as much the crux as anything on the route. Definitely a Black classic and super fun!!!

Well, first off, a Russian accent is key to success on this route. If your Russian accented cursing is not dialed, everything will seem much more serious. What a great route! My cheeks hurt more than anything else after this one, lots of stemming while smiling ear-to-ear and gazing down a thousand feet of air to the river below. The start of the route is much more enjoyable with a #4 Camalot, but we didn't have one and didn't need it anywhere else - #1 Camalots were the winner on this one. Simul-climbing everything 5.8 and under makes this something like 6 pitches bottom to top and really adds to the adventure aspect of the whole experience :) The top out, I think, is easiest if you head to the LEFT, the trail to the ranger station is obviously to your right, but there's a hillside of sticker bushes in between you and it. If you take a slight detour to the left, you'll end up close to Exclamation Point (the view is well worth it), and the trail, with minimal bushwhacking.

Just got off the Russian with my bud Lou. Wow...I can't believe I did it again. We had a late start and still managed to fire the route in about 6 hrs.

Here's the rack as suggested by Nick from the Park which worked well.
1 x 3.5 & 4
2 x 0.5 - 3
1 standard set of nuts

The route sits in the sun...all day...bring h2o. Don't EVER follow another party up it. An excellent adventure.