Phantom Spires:  Cabin Fever, Stepping Stone  3/24-25/90

Went to Phantom Spires with Joel.  Nice and sunny, but chilly at night.
On Saturday we did a new one pitch route on the Upper Spire -- a 50' vertical
face with good knobs, 5.11b (no name yet).  It starts from the left end of
the large ledge atop Knobs Revisited, Fear of Flying, etc.  We toproped it
first by taking a nice 5.8 route (Up for Graps) up from the notch.  Left my
wire brush in the car, but the nut tool was good enough for the occasional
lichen, and we were optimistic that there were just enough holds for it to go.
It starts with a reach move or hard arete move, then varied knobs up to a
high crux on smaller holds.  I took a hang at the upper crux, as I was not
being careful enough with my feet, but then finished it.  Joel couldn't make
my initial reach but nearly worked out the alternative arete move before tiring
and losing some thumb skin.  My friend Jack then tried it, and managed to get
the arete move after some falls, then several hangs up high but got the moves.
In the meantime, Joel rapped to the ground and tied on the Bosch.  Then Joel
tred it with 2 hangs up high (partly bad beta from me), and he put in the bolts
on rap -- 2 for anchor, 6 on route, plus we clip one bolt on Sizzler.  It was
getting late in the day, but I managed to lead it free, and Joel also got it
following.  Joel took great care in the bolt locations, and I pronounced them
perfect on lead.  It has several rests, but it would be hard to flash.
The Bosch really cut down on the hassle and we got to do more climbing!
Possible name (local "fire" theme):  We Didn't Start the Fire (if only the song
had a decent melody or other redeeming features); hope to find a better name.

On Sunday we did a couple of classics.  Joel tried to lead Stepping Stone 5.11a
but got stopped in the "5.10" blank dihedral.  I took over and managed to
barely tube and tip it (that's stemming it with fingertips in the crack) -- got
real maxed, but fortunately you can step out to a rest ledge before the final
undercling.  Nearly blew after the undercling where you step down to a sloping
move but managed to convince myself that my foot was bomber.  Joel followed
with no falls; we thought 5.11a+ for the corner and 5.10d for the undercling;
the books says 5.10 and 5.11a.
Then Joel led the classic Candyland (my third trip up it), and we finished the
day by hiking down to check out the Lower Spire and Phantom Wall.  We saw
David Rubine's new route right of the regular on Lower Spire, with a wild
mantle over an overhang up high.  He also apparently has an arete project to
the right (we saw one bolt).  The K+E cracks look interesting, too.  The
Phantom Wall is mostly fairly low angle, and we did not make it to Gorilla
Rock or Holiday Rock which are steeper.