White Devil

I went to climb the Jim Beyer's route "Black Planet, VI 5.11 A4d" in March of 2001, a treasured adventure. At a point early in the route, I decided to follow what I saw as the reasonable line. I did the same again at the top when the topo ran out of topo 2 pitches from the top. The crux pitches were obvious. As I edit this 14 years after my ascent, I'm unsure it deserves to be called an independent route?

At 24 yearrs old, my views were different :)

Start up the

Air Voyage

/diagonal ramp for two pitches, 400 feet, 5th class.

P3. chimney as per Black Planet, short pitch.

P4. Beak and hook left and slightly down until a solid TCU is reached. Penji off this to an A1 corner, back clean, belay. I believe Black Planet moves straight up off this belay (belay 3), I saw fixed heads above me. The belay is shared.

P5. Climb up 20 feet of sweet LAs to a point were the crack runs out. Hook left into free climbing. Belay on a ledge.

P6. Dance left, belay on a ledge. This is a natural bivi.

P7. Climb a mega, 5.6ish flake. Downclimb left side of flake, and run it out up to the big ledge.

P7a. Move belay to right side of ledge.

P8. Maybe it is new, maybe not, this is 5.8 R for sure and climbs directly to the leftward rail traverse on

Air Voyage

.

P9. Black Planet pitch. There is bad rock requiring 5.10 climbing.

P10. Black Planet pitch. Boulder off of the belay with no gear. Belay below desperate seam on ramp.

P11. Black Planet pitch, Beyer A4+, thin heads in the long seam. I added one bolt 6' below what I believe to be Beyer's natural anchor, having missed it in darkness.

P12 Black Planet pitch, my favorite on the route. Heads in a seam end in a A2 grovel. Belay behind large flake.

P13. Black Planet 5.11 pitch.

P14. Unclear where the Beyer route goes, Robbie Williams told me it connects into Air City roof here. I moved straight right off of belay and negotiated the roof. BIG AIR!!! ending in OW groveling.

Beyer's topo indicates you have topped out now, I found two more pitches.

P15. Steep. mixed free and aid climbing culminates in a difficult guano mantle. Turn the roof into the horizontal bands. I drilled 2 rivets to breach a peg band.

P16. Some free climbing, pulling on gear in a womb slot, and a nice hand crack deposit you on the rim.

1 bolt was added at the belay 11, 2 rivets on P15 = total hole count.

White devil on a black planet.

Standard aid rack, a set of hooks, 50 heads if none were fixed?

Or perhaps it is V8 and some slabby 12-?