Romantic Warrior

Тhe best climb at The Needles. It is also the longest at 8-9 pitches. Pitches are short but clean, exposed, and gear fiddly. In other words: full value. RW follows an amazing natural dihedral system for almost the entire length of the Warlock needle. The isolation of this climb and the exposure makes it feel like climbing El Cap.

But before I go into details I should make a little chart for my top ten favorite climbs at the Needles:

1. Romantic Warrior: best overall

2. Pyromania: best pitch

3. Don Juan: best 5.11 multipitch anywhere!

4. Davy Jones' Locker: crazy good if a bit painful

5. Atlantis: can be done in two superfun pitches

6. Pea Soup: a bit of work to get there but so worth it

7. Airy Interlude

8. Guerrilla Warfare

9. The Spell

10. Ankles Away

 I have two big, burning holes: Nautilus and Shiver Me Timbers. 

Romantic Warrior got in the limelight after the Michael Reardon controversy, that resulted in some great pictures in Rock&Ice. I was already motivated but the flashy photos gave me the extra push over the edge. As usual I gunned for the onsight.

pitch 1.   5.10 The crux is right off the deck. A bit slippery and heads up.

pitch 2.   5.8 The living Corner. A few hand-sized cams could be used there. May be one #3 camalot. Big cams can be stored at the anchor for pickup on the descent. 

pitch 3.   5.11 Soft and short. But fun still and a warm up for the next.

pitch 4.   5.12a The first business pitch. Stemming and thin crack laybacking dihedral. Perfect granite and gear. Think Coarse and Buggy but much much better, and harder. I fell on the onsight. I was bummed because I liked the style of climbing: more pumpy than bouldery with hard move right at the end. There is a bit of pin-scaring on this pitch and a hint of chipping? Still, so good!

pitch 5.   5.12a The campus traverse pitch. It starts with a stiff boulder move, then it eases up a bit. I got it onsight. Nice! Beautiful climbing, and spectacular exposure. Gear is great: blue TCUs and some smaller and bigger cams. The key is to move fast.

pitch 6.   5.9 Supercool traverse and a bit of down-climbing to an awesome ledge. Nice spot to snack and nap on the sun before the real business.

pitch 7.   Book of Deception: This pitch is considered the crux at 12b. What makes it hard are the strenuous gear placements. Gear is mostly good but right off the start it is small and there is a chance to deck on the ramp bellow. I give it an "R" and would caution for attentive belay. An outstanding stemming and jamming pitch. More blue TCUs!

pitch 8,9.  The last hard pitch is somewhere in the 11+ range. Fatigue might be a factor for the "+". More stemming business. Granite is still great but gets a bit flaky. I usually link the last two pitches in one. The last 5.9 pitch which is mostly face and slab and does not take much gear. 

I got the redpoint on my third trip. We climbed it one more time with Bob and Alexander Cooper who took awesome pictures. As usual.

Gear Beta and Approach

The lower approach is a workout but saves a lot of time. You can rap off the route with two 55 m ropes. Some reverse climbing might be needed to pull the ropes off Book of Deception. 

The best news is the gear. With the exception of the Living Corner pitch, there is no need for anything bigger than a single red camalot, doubles of most small cams including zeros, and a triple of blue TCU size. RPs or brass HB nuts come handy.

Preparation

I just copied this from an email I sent to a friend:

Climbs that will prep you for RW are thin and stemming dihedrals, cracks with very small gear, campus traverses, and endurance sportclimbing

For example:

Hotline, Short but Thin, La Escuella, Enduro Corner (Yos)

Ankles Away, Don Juan, The Light Side (Needles)

Green Arch, Fright Night (Tahquitz), Low Pressure, Flakes of Wrath, Etude (Suicide) 

Taboo( trad at the Quarry), Kingpin (sport climb at the Qyuarry, but great endurance), Buried Treasure (Echo Cliffs, awesome endurance)

Coarse and Buggy and similar at Josh,

these are just examples, but if you can do most of them you will be in a pretty good shape.