Gemstone 

The first pitch of this climb is awesome. Getting of the ground is, well, interesting. I usually get inside the crack and and wiggle around. It works. The second pitch is very intersting. I don't remember it too well because it was getting dark and i was cleaning and rushing. My leader had a hard time finding the top anchors, they're a little off to the left and hard to spot.

There are two separate bolted anchors near the top of the second pitch. Either works for the double rope rap-off. Both are kind of hidden as you approach the top. As mentioned above by Ryan, one anchor is quite a bit off to the left. The other is directly above, nearly in-line with main crack of the second pitch; see a marked up version of Monomaniac's photo on the Gemstone West page.

I hated the first pitch and prefer to go up Seamingly Hard instead. The second pitch was fun and had lots of options to choose from. Take a 70m rope to rap.

The body jam in the start of the first pitch is quite upsetting to say the least (at least for my lanky ass). The second pitch is much more exciting. The start of the second pitch is a little awkward so be prepared to do some jamming.

Fun climb, I'm not a big fan of the first part, I feel pretty pathetic thrashing about in that body jam.

This was my first route in the Sandias in September of 85. Climbed it with garry Wolfe from SMO. Ended up guiding it on several occaisions over the next 2 years. Good route!

Once saved a guy who had hopelessly tangled his rope on pitch 1 and was looking at a ground fall from about 10 feet above the overhang. I soloed up Seamingly Hard, talked him onto some better holds and then cleared his rope tangle so his belayer could bring him on up to the belay. I continued up Seamilgly Hard and then traversed over to the belay ledge. The guy was totally freaked out. After everyone had all rapped down we were walking out and one of my friends said, "Man I'm ready for a hot shower and a soft bed." I did not own a bed, and had been sleeping on the floor, so I joked about it and everyone was ribbing me about it. About an hour after I got home the guy I had saved shows up at my place with a king sized waterbed. I wound up using that bed for about 10 years.

If I may make a suggestion, the first pitch squeeze chimney goes stupid easy as a layback ...

Shhh....

I always thought the option for using a layback was common knowledge for the first part of P1. Are there features for protection on the way up in that mode before the corner?

Bill - if memory serves (big if) there's a piece low down & then it's just go for broke to the corner. Transitioning from squeeze to layback is the tricky part. After that it just feels so right ...

A #4 (Blue) Big Bro can be used to protect the start of the crack w/o grovelling for placements deep inside. Combined with a #6 C4 up where the outer wall of the crack develops an interior flake allowed sewwing it up nicely (yep I'm a seamster).