The Happy Gnome 

This is an excellent route!; one of the best long-ish moderates. The second pitch is stellar. We were able to link some pitches with a 60m rope. We linked P1 and P2 without any jiggery-pokery. I also linked P3 & P4, but this is super-not-recommended for several reasons. The first reason is that its not even remotely safe. Its not possible to link these pitches and place adequate gear (unless you have double ropes?), because if you did place adequate gear, the rope drag would be impossible. The second reason is that it doesn't save you anything. Pitches 5 & 6 are too long to link (with a 60m rope), so anyway you slice it, you have to climb at least 4 pitches. Since this is the case, it would be best to climb P3 as is, and link P4 & P5 instead. This provides the advantage of avoiding the P4 sling belay from the tree, which was relatively unpleasant.

There is a lot of fixed gear on the route. I suspect it would be pretty easy to rap from the top of the 4th pitch. It may even be possible to rap from that point with one 60m rope.

Oh ya, some notes on the "hard route-finding" on P3: From the P2 Belay, climb up in the big right-facing corner until you are even with the small tree, which is 20 feet to the right of the dihedral. Getting off the belay ledge is a bit strenuous, so try not to land on your belayer!. Once even with the tree, traverse right, and slightly up (.5 Camalot placement). I wound up above the tree, and down-climbed easily to the ledge with the tree. Note a possible rap or belay anchor here.

From the tree, traverse right and slightly DOWN, along the easy ledge, for about 30 feet. Eventually you reach a broken area, where the rock has more fractures, and is less steep. There are a few loose blocks here, so be careful. Climb up and slightly right along the right margin of this feature for about 20 feet, then continue traversing right on easier terrain, until you reach a very un-Sandias-like, beautiful, splitter finger crack. This crack is perfectly straight, and offers excellent pro. This crack is only a few feet from the south arete of the Yataghan. Follow this crack for ~40 feet to the belay, just before the traverse left.

On the traverse, I started in the highest horizontal fissure, but after about 15 feet I down-climbed ~3 feet to the next lowest horizontal break. The crux seemed to be getting established in the first horizontal, right a tthe start of the traverse.

The 5.10b Prandoni/McFarland direct variation to pitches 3+4 is an excellent 160' pitch.

Stay in the left-facing corner above the 2nd belay, passing a few tricky sections which you pass by moving just a move or two out onto the face. When you reach the big roof, traverse right, clip a 1/4" bolt above the lip of the roof, and keep traversing right to get to the 5.8+ exit through the roof, which is where you rejoin the standard Happy Gnome pitch 4 and belay at the tree just above the roof. The traversing part under the roof is 5.10 and not the best protected, so both leader and follower are looking at significant pendulum falls. ('Hikers&Climbers Guide' shows that one can also traverse right from the dihedral when you're about 20' below the roof, moving past a 2-piton anchor in the middle of the face- I did not try this, but it did not appear to be much better protected or easier)

The 5.7R var. to the 2nd pitch I recall being rather spicy... poor pro with committing slab moves.

The Black Death variation (see photo above) is definitely NOT a good idea. If you do go this way, I suggest a rope >60m and leave the rack behind since there's no pro in the radioactive choss.

The descent off the back of the wall is perhaps more spicy than any of the climbing. A rap route would be nice, but hey, it's the Sandias.