El Matador 

While unrelenting for sure, this route is very easy to protect. Continual movement is the key, and good crack holds will help along the way. I climbed this route with someone under 5'5", he climbed the crack the whole way, and only used the stem for rests! No 5.10 climber should shy away. One of a kind.

I'm 5'6 with relatively short legs and was able to stem/chimney whenever I wanted. Awesome route but oh, the pain. The pain!

I got the same pump in my calves I usually get in my forearms after leading this pitch. I think I placed about twenty pieces of gear, because the bottlenecks in the left crack were too good to pass up, and because, at any minute, I could have succumed to the pain.

The Tower's most famous pitch.

Pitch 3 is a short and fun romp after the determination and focus required for p2. Pitch 4 looked fun, too, but we got rained off. Guess I have to do it again....

Summited the tower on the route. Did the 10a variation of P4 over the right side of the roof (it was fun and felt hard for the grade). On P4, one can skip the first anchor and go about 150ft total to the next anchor. It's then another 70/80 ft to a set of anchor (look left) at the summit.

I'm 5'6 and can stem anywhere on P2, but moving off of pure stem would be quite difficult for the first 30 ft).

500 keyhole stopper placements...you can't carry enough draws for all of them, but it doesn't really matter.

The second pitch is fantastic and is one of the most memorable I have climbed. El Mat is a must do for any 5.11 climber. It takes good pro, so dont be scared to take a shot at this classic.

I cannot agree that no move is harder than 5.9. I have climbed plenty of cracks at plenty of places and some of the crack moves on the bottom half of the climb are in the 10b or 10c range although there are easier moves in between them. I cannot judge the difficulty of the upper half of the climb because I am not used to chimney stemming, but I can say that is it going to feel plenty harder than 5.9 for those of you who are not used to it.

Gear Beta for second pitch:

The climb does like medium to small pro. I took triples from 0.5 Camalot to #1 Camalot, and doubles from 0.3 inches to 0.4 inches (blue and green aliens) and I placed most of that (I place every 10 to 12 feet) and I did not have to worry too much about having to ration certain sizes on the way up. I took two sets of nuts and I placed five or so of them. Definitely do not need any Stoppers smaller than a 5. The last 30 feet or so of the second pitch do favor smaller gear in the 0.5 inch to 0.3 inch sizes, so save some tiny cams for that section.

I took two #2 Camalots and I was only able to place one of them. I do not think you could place two on the route, so do not take 2 of those. I read somewhere that it would save time to rack nuts on individual biners. I tried this strategy and I found that it burned extra time because I was not used to it and I had to fumble around to find which nut was on which biner. That is probably a better strategy for redpointing the route. If you are looking to onsite the route, I think that sticking with your normal process is the better strategy.

Rappel Beta:

We rapped from the top of the second pitch with two 60M ropes. This dumped us off on a 4th class ramp, which I did not really like. If you are not comfortable downclimbing a little 4th class, I would rap to the anchors at the top of pitch 1 and then rap to the ground.

Once was enough for me on this one, I did spend about 20 minutes stretching before we left the ground.

These may be the most demanding climb in the U.S. for your legs, calf and thigh BURN!
lots of good pro, move as fast as you can to a slow the burn,

Go as far as you can without resting! When you get to the top, oh man are you pumped! It is well worth it, great view unbelievable climb. I'm 5'2" and the stem was a stretch in some places it was nearly impossible, but the section where steaming is necessary I was able to do.

From the top of P2, you can rap with a single 70M. Just rap to the anchors on MWFV and then to the ground. A 20ft 4th class ramp must be down climbed on the final rappel though.

excellent route. don't worry too much about your height as there is a lot to work with most of the time. even being pretty tall, i probably only did the full stem thing on maybe half of it. takes great gear the entire way. agreed with others who say no move harder than 5.9, but pretty sustained. really fun.

The Orenczak/Lynn guide only notes a single 60' chimney pitch, but there is a second one (also short) to reach the summit. Both are marked by fixed anchors. The final anchors are at the top of the crack system climber's right of the P5 belay.

Where is the 10d pitch? I'd guess the second pitch but the route description assumes 5.9 Anyone have a better idea?

To answer Micah Kurtz's question: Your guess is correct. Pitch 2 ("the pitch you've heard about") is indeed the 10d pitch.

I would say the second pitch is definitely the crux. The 10a crux feels more like 5.9. second pitch is $$$, LEAD IT!!!! Just do it quick!