The main downside to Bird of Prey is that it is difficult to get a view of the route, so I was unable to make a real route overlay. You can see the route from Leaning Tower, so I guess I have to climb that to get a photo so I can make an overlay for Bird of Prey. The photos below show the locations of the three 5.11 routes Bird of Prey, Center of the Universe, and Voyager. I have climbed all three (see links above) as well as the extension To Infinity (5.11a, 6 more pitches), but I have not climbed Beyond (5.10d, 3 more pitches).

In the last year, I had climbed both Voyager (5.11c, 7p) and Center of the Universe (5.11-, 7p) on Fifi Buttress. Both were excellent routes with great protection. With a sub-hour approach, 7 pitches (although continuation pitches to the top are possible for each), and the ability to rappel the route with a single 70, they were pretty cruiser adventures. They were both put up by Dan McDevitt, Voyager in 2013 and Center of the Universe in 2015. Naturally, I became interested in another 5.11 Dan McDevitt route on Fifi, called Bird of Prey (5.11b, 5-12p), put up in 2016. The route is often climbed just through the first five pitches, which are quite good. Pitches 6-8 are dirty 5.9 climbing. But if you climb Pitches 6-8, you are rewarded with four pitches of excellent climbing, perhaps the best climbing on the route. This extension past the first seven pitches of Birds of Prey actually called "To Infinity". 

I was climbing in Yosemite for a couple of weeks with my friend Rob, and he was interested in this route as well. We decided to give ourselves the option of climbing all the way to the top of the route. This meant brining 2x#4, 1x#5, and 1x#6 which are needed for the OW on Pitch 11.

Rob and I had a great day on this route. We linked Pitches 1&2, 4&5, and 6&7. A link of 9&10 would be possible, but we chose not to since we had brought only two #3 cams. We swung leads, with me leading Pitches 1&2, 4&5, 8, 10, and 12 and Rob leading Pitches 3, 6&7, 9, and 11. He got the two offwidth pitches (Pitch 3 and Pitch 11), which was fine by me.  We felt that the main (only, really) downside to the route was the dirty pitches, most notably the top of Pitch 7 and parts of Pitch 8. But they are worth climbing for the pitches above.

I found the 5.11 pitches on the route to me more sustained and harder for the grade than the 5.11 pitches on Voyager and Center of the Universe. And the character of the climbing was wider and burlier. Add to this the fact that we climbed the full dozen pitches to the top of Fifi Buttress, and Bird of Prey was a a more full-on climb than either of Voyager or Center of the Universe.

All in all, a wonderful Yosemite adventure to cap off our trip together. Thanks Rob for a fun two weeks in Yosemite!

Below are pitch-by-pitch photos of the climb.

- For pitches 1-5, a double rack from 0.1-3 Camalot and a set of nuts will suffice. A #6 is nice for the start of Pitch 3 but not absolutely necessary. If climbing Pitch 11, you will have one anyway.
- If linking Pitches 1&2, it helps to have triples in finger sizes (we brought my set of offset BD cams as triples, which was very useful)
- If linking Pitches 9&10, it helps to have at least three #3 Camalots. We had only two so we did not link these pitches.
- For Pitch 11, bring 1x#6, 1x#5, 2x#4. These are not needed for other pitches on the route, although a few times we found the #4 useful but not necessary.