I hadn't realized it the first time I did this, but we
did the wrong finish. Apparently what Schuster did then was the finish of
Moment's Notice (5.6 R): near the end of the initial crack, under the overhang,
he went up and right on a dike, involving a short runout, to the base of the
giant block. He placed pro at the block to protect the followers, and then he
was able to easily walk around the block to the chains at the top of British
Airways. This was an okay finish, but apparently the “correct” way
to do it is to traverse down and left under the overhang (along an even easier
dike), then climb up another crack to the left of the overhang. This leaves you
at a nice flat slab with good anchor possibilities, and to get down from there
you can later scramble easily down and right around the giant block to the same
chains. This time, however, some other guys came up to the base as we were
gearing up and pointed out that there is a new (as of Feb, 2010) direct finish,
which they had read about on
MountainProject. This finish goes
straight up through the overhang, past a bolt, at a grade of about 5.10b. I
decided to try this, and I have to agree with Bob Gaines's comment on
MountainProject that it's quite fun, and easier than it looks. The bolt is in
the perfect place, and is quite easy to clip before pulling any hard moves. One
or two of the moves might be a bit reachy, but Anne was able to follow this
without much difficulty, and she's only about 5'5".