what are people's opinions of this route?
gunks select calls it 5.8- pg, but i have trouble understanding the pg rating ...
seems there's no pro until about 15 feet off the deck. I never tried leading it,
but yesterday saw a better climber than me bail from it (used my rap rope to batman down)
and when i later toproped hyjecks, it ocurred to me that i wouldn't want to lead it either.
fun climb, though. especially the dicey beginning.

Its a standard Gunks tradition to discount the difficulty of the opening moves from the grade, and discount the off-the-deck runout from the gear rating. The former is often a function of holds breaking off the start and guidebook authors unwilling to buck decades of tradition. The later is just a way for Gunks locals to enjoy watching visiting climbers shit themselves on our "PG" routes.

IMO the opening moves of Hyjek's have gotten significantly harder in the last few years as the rock has become quite polished from people scrabbling for purchase. (The same is true in the dihedral on Airy Aria.) There used to be fixed pins, also, so it was something of a sport route. In "the old days" (c. 1980), it was generally considered that the crux on Hyjek's was the move on the slab above, not the few moves off the ground. Nowadays I find the slab move quite a bit easier than the ones down low.

What Tim said.

There are numerous routes with little to no gear for a ways off the deck that get a PG:
Hyjecks, Layback, Alley Oop, Annie Oh!, etc etc etc.

Hyjecks - the longer it's been since I've TR'd it, the more I start thinking that I'd maybe like to lead it.

Then I TR it again, and put that thought back on the back burner for a while again....

I led this route a few weeks back and remember the unprotected lower moves, but it wasn't that bad. Actually it was alot of fun, although I did have a spotter below. BETA FOLLOWS -

I remember using a very small nut and the smallest BD cam in the bottom section, near that little right facing block / flake

I've led the route and agree with the PG rating. Definitely not R.

I thought the same thing when I first looked at it, so I TR'd it first before "headpointing" it. You get about 12 feet up, max, when you've got your hands on good holds, and you can plug in a solid .75 cam in a hole (I think it may be an old pin scar). After that, it's pretty G. You could certainly break an ankle on the opening, but that's probably it. I like to lead it early in the season to get my head in check. By the way, the second pitch is worth doing. Perhaps one 5.6+/5.7ish move on aan otherwise 5.5 clean face, then a somewhat contrived, though fun roof protected by two honker angle iron pitons (and all the cams you care to plug in). And it's always open.

I appreciate Gunkstuds discounting R ratings, but an R is indicative of conditions with moves at or within two grades of the crux rating with poor or non existant pro. Hyjecks gets you 12 feet off the ground before adequate pro options. I've seen climbers sprain ankles, break legs, fracture vertebrae and get concussions from 12 feet. Ergo, GET INJURED. Thats what R means!
I've even had one fellow argue to me that the R section on Welcome to The Gunks is not warranted as I'm sitting at the base of the climb watching my ankle balloon from just taking the ride and interfacing with the flake.

you can get injured or even die on a G rated route, even if you do everything right. the fact that people get hurt, or that there is the possibility of getting hurt, does not make something R (if so, every route would be rated R). i agree that hyjeks is PG - the business is over before you know it. now annie oh, on the other hand ...

whoa, wait a minute, you can get hurt rock climbing?