During a warm weather window in early October, I completed the first ground-up free ascent of a new eight-pitch route on the Black Wall. Prior to the ascent, I had cleaned the route from the top down and worked the pitches with a Mini Traxion. High Variance (700’, IV 5.12b) follows a bunch of cool features on the far right side of the wall, in an area that often seems to be dry. The style is varied, involving steep face climbing and knee bars, though it requires a significant amount of pure crack climbing. The gear on the route is good most of the way, with very few mandatory runouts, and the three 5.12 pitches are well protected. A total of three bolts were added for protection on the crux pitches, in addition to a couple of two-bolt belays. As is standard on the Black Wall, the rock is fairly scaly in parts, but most of this eventually comes off, leaving behind perfect granite. As this route sees more traffic, I think it could become a classic.