That's funny because Paul gave me a catch and I was remarking on the size of an 8 legged monster up in the flake, it was huge, but I think he was dead. Maybe Paul killed him when he climbed it with you.
I love this route! I'm glad someone else is giving it some recognition. It's probably my favorite sport line in the Red, but maybe that's because I'm a traddie and there's tons of jamming on it. I've only tried leading it on gear once, but didn't get it clean. It's probably not too much harder on gear, but it is a bit more heady
I've only lead two trad routes, easy dihedral stuff. I would think, based on my limited experience, that you'd have to place a lot of the gear blind as your going up the flake or you're forearms would flame out as you're trying to smear on the face and torque your body around the flake to look for placements.