Physical Graffiti 

I think the first pitch is a great beginner lead but the second pitch is hard for the grade, insecure and weird...

..........damn, Physical Graffiti is one of my favorite obscure routes at Red Rocks. While the masses are conga lined up on some of the acknowledged classics. This nice line is typically san humanity. Scott is correct, in my opinion, about the first pitch. But The second pitch is terrific. A beautiful hand and finger crack that eats gear. We found the walk off strait forward, albeit tricky. No rappel's needed!

-r-

You can actually desend climber's left and aviod a rap. Mainly class 2 with a little class 3 to keep things honest!

You can descend right or left off of Physical Graffitti, neither descent requires a rappel. If you go right, when you reach the rappel station, just head off left (away from the main wall), traversing about 20' total. From here, you drop back right and end up at the base of the wall. There may be one or two 4th class moves, but nothing serious.

I prefer the descent to the climbers left, as I've done both right and left. The right's "rap part" was O.K. but the downclimbing was sketchier and it seemed to have taken longer to get back to the base, in comparison to the left.I'd like to give the first pitch a one star(a bit boring and wandery), but in my opinion, the second pitch deserves two stars, mainly because it's such a nice clean crack that takes gear well. Anyway, a nice climb to do if you want and/or need a "quickie," (multi-pitch, that is).

It should also be noted that the second pitch is a long one (almost a full 60m), and if you are a beginning leader take note- unless you have about three full sets of cams with you, you are most likely going to have to climb above your gear in a few spots.

I think the first time you do the second pitch, it can seem a bit contrived and awkward at the grade, but once you've done it, it seems much easier upon a repeat ascent...

Climbed this last weekend, I thought the whole thing was great! I'm a pretty new leader, took me some thought to figure out the start of the pitch 2 crack, but once I got in the swing of it things felt quite reasonable and secure. My 2 followers both thought pitch 2 was harder than pitch 1. We descended down the gully off climbers right, didn't rap, there were one or two sections that required a few technical moves, but nothing horribly intimidating. Took a while though, since we had to move carefully not to dislodge the loose debris in the gully.

I climbed this a few weeks ago for the first time. I would strongly advise walking-off to the climber's left. I went right, and thought that the down climb through the chimneys were more difficult and exposed in spots than the whole climb... okay maybe that's a bit exaggerated, but it gets the point across. I spoke with the group ahead of us and they did the descent in about 10 minutes (to the left), whereas it took our group more like 15-20 (to the right).

A very fun route... =)

IHO the best way to get off of P.G. is to first go right past the rap anchors, go up the ramp about 15', go through the slot to the left, come out on the other side and then descend as normal to the left. By descending this way, you avoid the - somewhat - scary exposure of immediately going left from the top of the climb. Getting to the slot through the rock is very easy - and much less intimidating - than taking the immediate left, especially for beginning climbers that you may be taking on their first multipitch route. I'm not sure why anybody would descend right, it is much more of a pain in the neck, and dangerous to boot.

Just a note on the length of the first pitch - most guide books call for a 'long' first pitch, while it is actually about 95' to the anchors. I found this out once when I had to rap from the anchors with a single 60m after my partner refused to ascent the lower section due to nerves. I luckily found out I could reach the ground with a little room to spare with a single 60.