Experimenting with a mini summary extracting some of my most snarky and useful beta bits. For more details see the full TR.

Likely Reactions to the Crux move on North Buttress if you're:

• Someone was regularly climbs 5.15 routes: "Ha, you call that a crux? What an overhyped letdown!"
• Someone who only does low 5th outside a gym: "Whew, that was a pretty cruxy crux!"
• Someone who's hardest move was the class 4 chimney on North Maroon: "Anybody got a rope?"
• Someone who's still intimidated by class 3 but managed to get this far: "Hello, Search and Rescue? Could you send the helicopter please?"

• If you fall on the 5.0 move from the false summit down into the saddle: So long as you land in the saddle, you'll have no worse than some bruises and a need for some clean underwear.
• If you fall on the class 4 descent after the crux move: You'll provide a great show to all the people on Crestone Peak who have been watching you as SAR flies the chopper in the assist you in getting out from the landing at the bottom. But, this section is full of huge, chunky Crestone conglomerate so a fall is pretty unlikely here (unless you step on a patch of mud before switching out of the climbing shoes you used on the crux...)
• If you fall while doing the class 5 crux: Think of something really creative to shout to the people watching you from nearby Crestone Peak, since these are going to be your last words...

Gerry Roach describes "a tricky Class 5.0 downclimb on the tower's west side" followed by an "exposed Class 4 traverse across unprotected slabs." But careful analysis shows that he’s describing coming off the false summit for NE Crestone into the saddle between it and the real one, then doing a descending traverse below NEC. This is the source of much of the confusion around this route.

The key to the crux is the “invisible ramp” on the west side of NEC just below the summit. The ramp doesn’t get you up to the summit – it just gives you something to stand on as you step out over the void to get past the overhangs at the saddle then cut back left to the ridge.