Suntoucher 

A great line! I made this route "easy" and kept the climbing at less than 5.10+ the whole way. The first pitch has two bolted lines. The left bolt line is easiest and around 5.10+. Climb pitches 2 and 3 as described. Pitch 3 is SWEET!

I tried the crux moves going past the last bolt on the fourth (and final) pitch but gave up after a couple of small falls. So instead I went to the left of the beautiful face into a corner with an off-width crack. I climbed it unprotected with bad fall potential (take a #3 or #4 camalot to protect it) and moved back right to the anchors at the top. I'll go back and try to do this route "proper" someday. Nonetheless, it's a great pleasure to have a multi-pitch sport route so close to home in Northern NM!

Since its apparently possible to rap with one 60m rope, does that mean it would be possible to climb in 2 pitches, assuming one was not concerned with rope drag?

Is that "Shield" feature as steep as it looks? Might be some potential for a new hard route up the center of the face...

RE doing the climb in two long pitches, yes. You would probably want a few long slings to avoid the rope drag. Pitch one and two would be best to combine. The anchors are over a lip, so if you did link the first two pitches I would either skip clipping the anchors or use a very long sling.

I personally am not sure that I would want to combine pitches 3 and 4 because you would have hellish rope weight/drag for pulling the crux, which is way at the top. But if you are OK with that, you would have the rope to make it to the top.

As far as potential for more routes on the shield, I didn't examine it for the potential. Any routes that could be done there would probably be 4 star pitches though! It is a quality chunk of rock.

I have to say I was a bit disappointed by this route. Perhaps its just the nature of Diablo, but overall the rock seemed pretty poor. I can't deny that the 3rd pitch looked awesome, but for most of the pitch, the natural climbing line was 3 feet right of the bolts on sketch rock. I thought the crux section of pitch 4 was truly great, but it seemd like I had to climb an awful lot of bad rock for 20 feet of great climbing.

I was able to do the route in 2 pitches. Rope drag wasn't too bad, but I skipped or back-cleaned any bolts that I thought would cause a rope drag problem.

Don't be fooled by the bolts; this is NOT a sport climb. Definately wear a helmet. I felt it climbed an awful lot like a desert tower, especially the last pitch, reefing on guillotine death blocks 300 feet off the deck. I felt this route was quite a bit harder than Sun Devil.

A bit of history and a request to be more aware of route status: I put the anchors at the top of this route and at the midway point (all springers) about two years before Marc bolted it. Josh Smith and I spent several hours cleaning and climbing it, trying to find the best line. While the last 30 feet were/are spectacular we didn't feel that small portion made up for the mostly poor quality of the rest. Our plan was to work on adjacent lines to find the optimum combination of rock quality, safety, and fun movement, then move the anchors accordingly. Unfortunately, I broke my collar bone (skiing) and the route was bolted before we got back to work.

Marc assumed the route had been abandoned, which given the time lapse was a reasonable assumption. However, all agree that it would have been better if some communication had been initiated (there were some rough feelings initially).

Diablo has a great climbing community, with several creative, energetic, and very conscientious individuals putting up new routes. Lets make sure respectful communication is also a key feature characteristic in that list, especially when tempted by a partially finished line.