The Book of Solemnity 

If this is your max difficulty, consider top-roping it first. It has a strange slab move traversing under the roof. The second pitch has and equally strange step down into nothing.

I say grab a good belayer (and double ropes for the second pitch) and just fire it, the gear is good on the 1st pitch crux...and the second pitch crux has good gear, it's just the terror-inducing 5.2 move that ladd made reference to that's a scary one, but it's not hard at all....

Terror inducing indeed...
But yes, truly it is barely 5th class

I did this route again this past Saturday 5.26.07

That step down is probably only 4th class, but it does offer a keen pucker. Especially since I ran together the two pitches, and didn't place pro in the undercling like I usually do...oops.

A must-do introduction to 5.10

Tastiest 5.10 slab masquerading-as-fingercrack-in-corner i've ever climbed.

The second pitch crux is a lot tougher if you are short.

Just took a run up the book yesterday... I noticed 2 interesting things on the 1st pitch...

1: It had been cleaned really well since i had last been on it...

2:There was soooo much chalk on it i felt like i was at Rumney... The Difference is that there are holds at Rumney... Chalk your hands all you want, it wont make your feet stick to a polished slab :)

Just did this route yesterday for the first time. What a great climb.
Several people have referenced the step down move as barely 5th class. I assume what they are referring to is the high traverse stepping down the the ledge. I went with the low the traverse and to me that is by far the crux of the pitch.

yeah, whichever way you do it the traverse moves are the second pitch crux... and both ways are fun... next time you should take the high road just to mix things up...

Ps. david, i am surprised you hadnt dont it yet... classic huh?

Every time that I am in North Conway to climb it always rains. The past three days were the best weather I have ever had in North Conway for climbing, and in November, go figure. We shared the entire cliff with 3 or 4 parties.

The Book is a superb climb. My partner did both options while seconding(he asked me to lower him back after doing one) He thought that the high traverse was far easier than the low traverse.

Will have to hope for more good weather next time for Recombeast, Last Unicorn and others.

Tremendous Climb! You'll need a #4 nut for the second pitch crux. It'll hold on a whipper, trust me.

where did you place the #4?

Sorry for the late response Lee;

I placed the #4 nut about 8 feet below the crux on pitch 2. I made the move and my right foot blew off. It was quite a fall; the wire on #4 is bent to this day!

It was my first time leading The Book and my first lead on anything higher than 5.9. I made the move and finished the climb. This was some years ago, and being more experienced now, I suspect there may be better placements than I made.

thanks for the story :)
sounds like the gear was fine, there are bigger options you can use... but if it saves your ass it was good enough right? haha

it all worked out for the best!

last time I led this there was a fixed nut lingering in the undercling just before the leftwards traverse. the step down does indeed induce a keen pucker.

Wait till you guys become senior citizens and can't see the holds. You will think it is harder!

SA--- holds ? Mallery called them " finger buckets" back in '79

a tremendous climb, well worth many stars. i rarely repeated routes on Cathedral, but this is one to do over and over