It probably says not to go up the easy dihedral because that is not the way the route was climbed by the FA party.
John hit the nail on the head here. It's not any "there be monsters here" issue like on ancient maps. It's just that that's not the way the route goes, which is an important note for climbers wanting to do the whole route and not to "escape" off of it. And that straight up climbing is without question easier; it is an "escape."
Why did Keith and Jack finish the climbing the way they did? Who knows? My guess is that they wanted actual climbing the whole way up the face and saw interesting rock out right and then up (note that the word here is "interesting" and not necessarily "good").
I've also never noted that escape as a "separate route" like I did with the finish variations of Terminal Buttress since it's arguably not even "climbing" (absolutely not the case on Terminal Buttress!). Anyone that thinks that I should call that a separate variant should chime in here.
Neal's question about where the end is actually located is harder to answer. Neal, since you weren't quite sure where you were, it's impossible for me to tell you how far off you might have been. That fixed pin, traversing section of the climb isn't that far from the top. Having tried to onsight the route from the start, but not found it, I'd suggest that it would be easy to find what you missed by rappelling from the top and finding it? And then, of course (!) do a "good style" ascent of the whole route from bottom to top (what else would you do?!).
Finally, Neal, I meant what I said about people actually doing some of the older and more obscure routes there. Totally cool! In the future, you may not have much time for the Mudn'Crud forum, but if you do, I for one would love to know a bit more about you (how long climbing, why interested in climbs like this, other routes interested in, stuff like that). And, if you ever do go back, how about a mini-trip report with a few photos?
Thanks again,
Brad
