Flea Circus - 5.11d

the hard part is pulling past the pocket at #2 to hit that slot way over head off the right hand rail. It's all I can muster to stretch it out to get there off the left heel hook.

Boulder problem up to big throw. Still hard though the bit that has any difficulty is low.

So, I got on this today thinking it was T-Roofic Direct, which O'Grady's guidebook lists as 11b. After onsighting it (and struggling, it was a tough onsight) I pretty much still agreed with the 11b rating though, however after looking at the guidbook again I realized that I had actually just climbed this route, Flea Circus, which is pegged as 11d. I'd personally call it an 11b still. A tough 11b for Reimers maybe, but as solid as any you'd find out at Gus Fruh.
The beginning is a stout boulder problem (V3 in my opinion), but the rest is pretty easy. Compared to Crankenstien (a stout 11c in my opinion) this is really not harder, infact I'd say it's a bit easier, bearing in mind however the difficulty in the first boulder problem I'd call this route no harder than 5.11c, which is the rating I'm giving it here.

Stick clip #2. Worked the crux (unsuccessfully) on lead a few times, separated by a lot of time. TR-one-hanged it. Crux is moving after having rocking up onto the left foot over the roof.

The case for 12a:
1. what little traffic I've heard of comes from folks finding this as there 11d for pyramiding. They get their ass handed to them and don't get this as their 11d.

2. One of Austin's finest struggled on this recently, and it's the kind of move he excells at. Comparing power required to Neurotica (11d) and to Yertle (12a)...seems to exceed Yertle's hardest move.

Fun climb, takes a little looking around to find the good stuff. Pulling the roof is definitely the crux area, and it gets nice and thin at the top when it's less than vertical. Definitely an overlooked route!