An instant classic trad line, the obvious wide crack on the Sun Devil Wall.  Very fun stemming, chimneying, face climbing and jamming up 170' of wide corner.

Sun Devil Crack

Astro Devil

Persephone's Parole

Suntoucher

Heat Seeker

Appendicitis

Icarus

Seventh Sun

Sun Devil

Suicidal Society

This is an extraordinary route on the Sun Devil Wall. It climbs the left skyline of the Sun Devil Tower through perfect rock, 350 feet above the canyon floor, on amazing features, and slightly overhanging rock. The approach pitch is also very good, though at 5.10 its barely a warmup for the climbing on Sundevil tower. Enjoy, it doesn't get much better than this.

The first pitch starts on the right-most side of the Solar Cave and heads up some awkward and steep rock through multiple tricky moves.  At the 5th bolt, it begins to trend up and right to eventually reach the Sun Devil ledge system right below the Astro Devil face that shares space with the first anchor of Sun Devil.  From here, one elegant pitch followed by one wild pitch take you to the top-out.    

  Descend by 3 rappels, the last being a rope stretcher for a 60m, so be careful.  You can also easily walk off the back of the beautiful Diablo Mesa straight to the car. 

  For anyone climbing at, above, or near the 5.11 grade, this route is NOT TO BE MISSED!!!!!

First Pitch: The climb starts 8 feet left of Suntoucher on slightly overhanging 5.10a terrain with technical sequences. The line doesn't converge on Suntoucher, when the sequence becomes less obvious, move left, then right, then straight up through the final few feet of the initial overhanging section. The easiest sequence is not obvious so it could feel harder than it's rated. The second half of the pitch cruises past cactus on low angle 5.7 terrain. Missing a gear placement, which easy to do, could make it PG13. The first pitch ends after stepping over a bulge into an attractive dihedral with finger a crack. The chains are 15 feet above.

 Second Pitch: Follows the obvious crack with some interesting face moves before pulling into the off-width. Getting lucky with the Leavitation and it goes at 5.8, or eschew the crack and ride the struggle buss to freedom, 5.10. After the off-width section, stem past the fun chimney to  chains at the left side of the chasm.

 Third Pitch: Obvious bolt line. After the fourth bolt one can move left onto low angle terrain (the legit way) or trend right on steeper rock (converging with Suntoucher for a move or two-- not so legit but fun), then up the final off-width dihedral and thrutch over the lip to the third pitch chains- wary of loose rock.

Named after Suntoucher guiding services in Albuquerque, NM, this four pitch route is a mixed bag, with a combination of both good and bad rock.  Despite the questionable quality of rock on some of these pitches, I did enjoy the route. But, as with many Diablo routes, WEAR YOUR HELMET!. I was not completely thrilled about the first two pitches, however, the third pitch is STELLAR and on beautiful rock, and the crux section (very top of the climb) is on immaculate rock with awesome exposure (formation called The Shield)! I would give this route four stars, but the first two pitches, and the first section of the fourth pitch, bring the star rating down just a little, in my opinion. So 3 stars. 

  P-1 (5.11a)*: Climb up mediocre rock (appears crumbly but nothing came off! Looks like dragon scales) to a ledge with a belay anchor.  

  P-2 (5.10a): Climb suspect rock up a right trending ramp (tread lightly here!) up to the next set of anchors. The climbing is actually easier than .10a, but I gave it a higher rating because it feels harder due to the crappy quality of the rock. 

  P-3 (5.10d)****: This pitch has great moves with nice exposure climbing on great rock! Beautiful sustained climbing. The route can be made easier or more difficult depending on exactly where you climb it (climbing directly up to bolts vs going off to the side a little.) 

  P-4 (5.11b/c)**: Starts on suspect rock through the first few bolts, and continues up toward The Shield.  There are some rather large boulders along this pitch, so watch out! Will climb go a crack to the left of the headwall. Will not move onto the actual headwall until around the second to last bolt on the route, where you will traverse to the right, EXPOSURE! Clip the final bolt and find the hidden hold (hint, high and right), and pull yourself to glory. DO IT, the fall is completely safe! (NOTE: In JM Beverly's book, this route is listed as 5.10 b/c. THIS IS AN ERROR! I contacted him to confirm the rating.) 

Finished to the Top.

P1*** - Climb just right of the original Suntoucher, on steep rock with big holds that looks loose but is quite solid (Heat Seeker is the most right line with gray hangers). Climbing is mostly 5.8 with a harder 5.9ish move midway, move to the Suntoucher belay  on the left at about 60 feet- 6 blots to anchors 

P2*** - Move back right to clip the bolts below the roof arete. Climb the "bouldery" V2ish roof section past the first 3 bolts (climbing is mostly just left of the bolts). Exit onto the upper ramp where Suntoucher climbs straight up. From here diagonal up and right on pretty clean moderate rock to the 2nd crack and climb up to "Cactus Ledge" - Awesome belay stance!!  (5.10+/11a over the roof) 60 feet - 8 bolts to anchors, can be combined with P1. 

P3**** - Stem/chimney up along the pillar and move left at the 3rd bolt. Climb the right side of the roof up killer rock and diagonal left towards the arete. Make a final hardish move to the hanging stance at about 85 feet (5.10 c/d) - 10 bolts to anchors 

P4**** - Head up and left from the belay, most people will probably climb into the corner. This section has weird looking rock that looks loose but we cleaned it all good - trust it. Continue up the corner (stepping right to the arete breifly is OK, we cleaned that good too) At the top of the corner, chug out left onto the headwall with some wild overhanging & squencey moves up onto a small ledge and then the top. 70 feet (5.10+) - 9 bolts to anchors (I left an intemediate bolt at the crux for people that can't clip the crux bolt easily, I may move those bolts sometime soon which will make this pitch 8 bolts) 

  Rappel the route with a 60m rope thru the belay ledges. A 70m rope will rap to the ground from "Cactus Ledge"

EASY 5.7 PITCH 1 to mid anchors, huge jugs, great feet all the way to the anchor. This is a must do for new leaders. This is the only 5.7 sport climb in the area and it is really fun and very well protected. Can even try mantling in a few spots.   However, the money pitch is the 2nd pitch 5.9+. Leave the belay (or blast past it) mantle the huge ledge before heading into a small crack section. Great hand jams and ledges for one or two moves, then out onto the right hand face. Ledges and side pulls be your friend, but dont let it spit you off, climb over the bulge on small ledges for hands and feet (crux), then up left to the chained anchor.    Take a 60m rope, descend in two rappels or drag another rope to get to the ground. 

A fantastic route up the clean face just left of Astro Devil. Named after the Greek mythological character who was warned by his father not to fly too close to the sun or his wings of wax would melt. This tale applies to the great second pitch, which is the crux of the route.The first pitch is awkward 5.11c where, like classic Cave routes at Diablo, none of the holds are down-pulls. 3rd bolt has fixed chain draw. After a series of roofs lower down you come out onto a less steep face.  Here, the shiny new bolts trending right heading to the big ledge is Astro Devil. Icarus stays left up a shallow dihedral to the first belay.  The second pitch goes directly up from the belay. Thin face moves lead to several hard moves to pull over a lip (5.11+/5.12-). Pull through one more overlap to the chains.

This route is great fun, but it can also be dangerous due to loose rock - wear a helmet and be careful! Days upon days of cleaning went into putting up this route, but there is still potential for rockfall, especially in the spring after the winter freeze/thaw cycle.  

  Pitch 1 climbs a chossy looking but reasonably good slabby face to a 2-bolt anchor. 120 feet, 5.9.   Pitch 2 is the technical crux, climbing up a bulge on thin holds (with a lot of exposure!). 5.11b, bolted throughout.   Pitch 3, in my opinion, is the real gem. It climbs an 80 foot pitch of perfect basalt with incredible exposure and fun moves. Also 11b, though I consider it easier than the second pitch.

Lured by the three star grade and it's close proximity to where we were, I decided to try this chosspile. 

  Start up on an easy slab to reach the first bolt, then commit to the overhang.  None of the holds are straight down here, so commit to laybacking, and stemming to make upward progress.  This section felt pretty hard for 11c, but it may have been the chossy dirty rock.   

  Unfortunately or maybe fortunately the route seemed to end after the 4th bolt.  There was a chopped 5th bolt ahead, and a 6th bolt with a bail biner on it.  Attempting to reach the 6th bolt, a lot of large pieces of loose rock were encountered on still pretty difficult ground, with a potential large fall awaiting.  So I bailed from the 4th bolt.  Looking at this from the ground, I couldn't see any bolts past the sixth bolt, and no sign of a second pitch.  It did look like there were a set of anchors that could have been the end of the first pitch. 

  I normally don't post routes I haven't sent, but if anyone has any more information on this route, please post up, otherwise stay off of this unfinished chosspile. 

  With enough cleaning this could probably be a 1-2 star route.

This wall boasts the classic multi-pitch lines that have made Diablo Canyon famous to the outside communities. If you climb nothing else at Diablo, or it is your first time, I would take a hard look at these lines before you leave.  This wall faces south and therefore makes for nice sunny climbing on colder days, but you can catch some great shade on early Summer mornings too, perhaps before 11am.   

  Many of the routes top out on Diablo Mesa, where you can walk off the back to your car.  But they all have decent rappel stations that should get you to the ground without too much headache. 

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Routes in Sun Devil Wall