I don't know what the hell I was thinking leading this, but in retrospect I'm
really glad I did. This was definitely the hardest trad lead I've done, and
although I didn't redpoint it, I got through it just fine. The guidebook calls
this R, but it's really not. At the
beginning you have no pro other than a fixed pin, but the pin is good. I fell
on it twice. That's probably the technical crux, just getting up into the
initial dihedral. The physical crux is moving left around an overhang, just
above the dihedral. It's fairly sustained, and I fell once there. I wasted
time searching for the good hand jams (reach way left), and once I found them,
I was too pumped out to continue. After a moment's rest, I got back on and
pulled through it. I'd like to go back and try to redpoint this, now that I
know the moves a little bit. Aaron said he thought this felt more like 5.11a,
but he tried to lieback the flake, which was probably much harder. Go for the
jams behind the flake, and it's probably easier (that's what I did.) The body
position is a bit awkward, but the jams are solid.