Agreed Rich, and I'm all about the fiasco!!! Christ I had one yesterday on Obstacle Delusion.

Rob,
Were you doing the 5.9 version as described in the latest Williams or the version from his 'Select' that pushes thru the harder 10b roof? (I've done that on TR after leading the first) of course Teenie Face is great too while you're there. As I mentioned I had my own air show on Cheap Thrills the other day.........!

That's the sad part Mark, I was doing what is desrcibed as the 5.9. That whole 25 or 30 feet of climbing after the stance above the roof is full on no rest big move climbing. Way harder than LeTeton or Kepp On Struttin I thought. But hey, that's the joy of onsighting. I did spend some time hanging on my arms putting in gear going the wrong way, then having to reverse it, put in more gear, take out the other gear,then figure out the moves. If that's 5.9, then I am a 5.8 climber.

I would also put Beatle Brow Bulge below this in terms of leading difficulty.

RR

Whaaat?! I thought I saw you on Balrog while we were on Absurdland? Not that one can't get shut down going the wrong way and wasting energy, I think that's partly what happened on Cheap Thrills, another factor in the first time on a route. I love Ob Delus. great exposure, yup pretty sustained too. More climbing than Insuhlation IMO (no offense Claude!)

I think those moves from the stance to the belay are almost as hard as the 5.10 version of the roof section of the climb. Not as cruxy, but a lot of steep!

i forget which one goes where over there but my first trip up Obstacle D also involved some quite convoluted climbing resulting in impossible rope drag from too many right angles and eventually reversing. great fun, especially when the big snakes are on the ledge with your belayer

That's right, I forgot about the big black snake that lives in the hollow pine/rap tree!!

I had a similar disaster on Obstacle Delusion. I thought I was doing an 8 to warm up. After climbing every chunk of the face both vertically and horizontally and attempting to place every piece on my rack 2 or 3 times each, I arrived at the top a pumped and chastened climber. "Failed" on that one too. That's an appropriately named climb.

On my only attempt to do Insuhlation, I chickend out onto the face between it and Obstactle Delusion. Which is 5.10a/b according to various people and books, but I think is really a lot more technically straightforward than the "5.9" Insuhlation, or at least just suits my body type and climbing style better. Despite having done the allegedly harder variation onsight, I feel like I failed that day.

There are always those climbs that are perhaps physically harder/smaller holds etc, but are really technically easier & less scary & simpler to figure out... this was one of them for me.

I saw that black snake send the first pitch to get to the pine tree earlier this year.. It was quite impressive..
I love all of teh climbs on that section of the cliff.. They are all great quality climbs and are usually open even on busy days..
Anyone done the 5.11 finish to OD? It looks pretty fun..