Overview - How many days spent here? And always new adventures to be had. One of these days, I am actually going to climb Strapiombante, I swear... it just never seems to happen! Ha - Paul and I swapped recommendations for HVS's, and both had near-epics on them! I must say, though, I think Paul got the worse end of the stick...
Led - Good lord, this route has a bit of everything. Start on decent ledges, then decide how you want to get on top of the boulder sticking out; the uncouth way (i.e. belly flop) or the stylish way (i.e. a nice mantel until you realise just how over-hanging the section directly above is; just before being able to reach the next break. Then do the splits (vertically!!) and use the slope-y flake thing to do the largest rock-over you've ever met! This is followed by a nice blank, but fairly easy, slab. Then you remind yourself to look at first accensionists more carefully when, while staring at an obvious jamming crack, you are reminded that you hate jamming, and that this was first done by Mr. J Brown! Oh well. Some very tenuous-feeling jams later, and it's all over. I'd happily do the first 2/3s repeatedly... Seconded by Joe and Lee.
Solo - Quite a nice route for convincing yourself that it really is all in your head. Just trust the fiction and keep going. Having led this before (which only has a point if your not used to soloing), not terribly cutting-edge, but still. Didn't feel to proud of the repeat, but still enjoyed it thoroughly.
Failed Solo - Having tried What's Up Doc (E2 5b) on the other side of Sunset Slab and got gripped on the crux move, I expected this to feel almost as bad. Really quite a nice climb, just be sure of yourself before going into the top-pocket over the lip. I wasn't so escaped up Sunset Crack. Oh well...
Seconded, Paul led - I do feel sorry for Paul on this one. This is one of the two HVS's that I would say simply have to be done (Great Portland Str, Millstone being the other), but unfortunately it requires quite a reach out to the arete, and was too long for Paul to do anything sensible with. However, I got there, did the move I thought I remembered (led beginning of last summer), and then sat on arete, not caring about anything but loving the exposure and view down the valleys. Simply fantastic.