Trad climbs

First ascent placed a large hex runner in the crak of Lean Man's Climb, up which the route started, at E7 7a. Subsequently soloed by Ben Heason with a slightly more direct start, eliminating the crack at E8.

One of the earliest 5.12s in Yosemite. A Ron Kauk and John Bachar project before Barber made the first ascent.

First ten pitches of Salathe Wall climbed free. 5.11b including some very insecure friction slabs.

There is some confusion around the name with the route being called General Dismissal in places.

Neil Foster:

Dave Lee was 'the General' (and also 'Chesters', because he came from Chesterfield).

He was a brilliant climber, doing several excellent new routes in Cheedale, and spending a lot of time on the Nettle Buttress line (which I think he got pretty high on, but could never regain that high point).

One day, [Chris] Gore quipped that he was going to do it and call it General Dismissal, which was the first time that (potential) name surfaced.

Dougie [Hall] did the FA, but I don't think he named it.

I'm pretty sure I asked Chesters at the time if he liked General Incompetence, as a light hearted homage to his (ultimately unsuccessful) seige, and he did, thinking it was funny.

That's why it ended up as General Incompetence. [1]

References

[1] https://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php/topic,31629.msg649612.html#msg649612

First tried by Nick Dixon (like everything at Nesscliffe!), James McHaffie then took it on and got tantalisingly close to grabbing the first ascent. His best efforts involved some huge lobs after tickling the good hold at the end of the crux. Steve McClure then took it on and got the first ascent of this very impressive line.

Through the 1970s, the route was started from a pile of rocks.