The route starts on the North Side of the spire - you can't miss it. The route follows the awesome dihedral.
A few weird moves gets you up to the start of the main dihedral. There are great stances for placing gear and then you move up and out - the dihedral is almost like reverse mini steps. It kind of goes like this - place gear, move up and out, loose sight of the gear because it is under the mini overhang, place another piece and repeat. When I climbed the route my partner kept saying to me - it looks like it eases up after the next move - after just about every move (not sure of the crux - just a lot of fun 5.8 moves with good gear ...). There is nothing like looking down between your legs in a stem and seeing your partner on the ground 170 feet below you. After the first pitch belay on the obvious ledge.The route then moves up and right - follow the path of least resistance up and to the top. We got into a weird awkward section with strange gear but it looks like we got off route. There is a great view from the top but that's the norm in the spires.You can either descend back down to the ledge and down to the base via two double rope rappels (check to see if the bolt(s) at the ledge have been replaced on the way up. Or, you can rappel down the south face and check out the Yellow face route. Note the second rappel you will need to move right (east) to reach the base of the slabs. Don't rap straight down off the ends of your rope - it would hurt.
A beautiful corner with many solid gear options. The crux is pretty much the first 30-40 feet of climbing while fishing in gear...perhaps this 8+ is a touch underated, but not by much...expect a tough 8 at any rate. After that, the going is solid and eases up a bit to the obvious ledge out right of where the corner eases to low 5th class exit on right. The anchors at the ledge are old and should be replaced with stainless bolts and hangers since this is an obviously well-traveled classic. We bailed after the first pitch due to oncoming rain and thunder, but it looks like the meat and potatoes is the first pitch anyways. Set of stoppers, one each of 0.5-3 Camalots, and my first piece was a BallNut about 15 feet up.
By Tony Bubb From: Boulder, CO Jul 30, 2006 rating: 5.8+
This is best done as a single pitch. At the first pitch ledge, ignore the anchors that would take you up and right only to come back left again for P2, creating drag for both pitches. Instead, just keep climbing up past the belay ledge, past the bushy ledge, and up a corner and crack past the old fixed stopper, and to the summit ridge. Take plenty of gear and slings, it is a straight shot to the top (~60meters). Then move the belay up and right for 30' of 5.5 climbing to the rap anchors.
While two 70m ropes would get you to the ground from the top anchor, you would stand to loose them, stuck in boulders on the ledge when you pulled them, so... Rap on a single rope (60M or 70M) down and hard left to the first ledge belay station, then on a single 70M to the ground. A single 60M would be VERY close to being down even without rope stretch and should work just fine if you swing uphill (left) on the raps. We had tons of rope on the ledge at the first rap we had ~5 meters of rope laying on the ground on each end of our 70M after rapping on a single line.
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