While the reaction of 11c with 4 yielded 12c with the naturally occurring tetracyclic core as the major product, the fact that this molecule was only 65% of the isolated material led us to investigate whether protection at the hydroxyl on the carbon that would become C3 would shift the selectivity further toward 12c due to sterics. Unfortunately, the construction of either C3 benzylated or silylated hydroxylated chromans proved difficult due to lability of the protecting group (data not shown). These observations are consistent with the decomposition of dibenzylated arene 6b under the reaction conditions, and they highlight the good leaving group ability of trioxyarenes