As soon as I saw this crack from the base of Hit Man Rock, where we started the
day, I thought it looked amazing. When I looked in the guidebook, I was not
surprised to find out that it was this route, which was sort of my second goal
for the day, after The Bruiser. The crux of this
route, which for me was basically just one move, turned out to be much trickier
to figure out than anything on The Bruiser, but overall I would say the route
was also much better. I think I'd give it three or four stars. I might also
rate it 5.10d, at least for an on-sight rating. Now that I know the sequence
for the crux, I think I could go back and lead it cleanly without as much
difficulty. But it took me a while to figure it out. Fortunately, the whole
route protects exceptionally well; even at the crux, I had a piece above me, so
I never really took a whipper. Granted, that piece was a black alien... thank
God for aliens! :-) Helene also had to hang a few times on this one, making it
the only climb we did the whole day that she really had any difficulty with.
She also did most of the route quite differently than I had, because she exited
the crack much earlier and climbed the face the rest of the way up. That would
probably not be a good option for anyone trying to lead the route, because
you'd most likely have to place gear blindly from around a small corner.