Page Type:
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Route |
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Lat/Lon:
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33.76000°N / 116.682°W |
Route Type:
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Technical Rock Climbing |
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Time Required:
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Less than two hours |
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Difficulty:
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5.6*** |
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Approach
From the parking lot take the Ernie Maxwell Trail. You will cross strawberry creek and walk for another few minutes untill you encounter the first of many trails on your left going up the hill. As I remember the 2nd one is the best. It has a little bit of a clearing at the beggining. Now start the long haul up hill via this switch back. About 3/4 the way up look for the "penny log" Bring a penny to smash into this log for good luck. At this point you should start to see Lunch rock poking through the trees. Once you hit lunch rock take the trail to the right and up towards Tahquitz rock. Follow the base of tahquitz towards the south side. You will notice this side because of the awesome looking "Open Book" Just around the corner are the ski tracks. They are not very hard to miss. Two great looking cracks running up a solution pocketed face.
Route Description
The first pitch starts in the middle of the two cracks but you eventually end up in the left crack. This is a long pitch so use a 60m rope. Place your first piece high to eliminate rope drag or back clean. Climb the face and up the scoups and into the crack to the dark horizontal band that is actually a ledge.This ledge will be to your left and has a bolted station there. From here continue up the crack as it splits into 2 small cracks that doglegg to the right. From here you will see the famous step around ( looks like a nose) You traverse under and right of the nose up onto a little ledge to belay from. As of summer 2004 there was a fixed pin and tricam just before the step around with a spot for a #1 camalot up high just before comitting to the step around. Belay (no station here) from the ledge and and climb the first short crack up to the ledge (4th class?) that widens as it goes up and left. Congrats! Now the descent and a cold one!
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Essential Gear
60 meter rope, 2 cordelettes, 2-4 single length runners (optional) Set of nuts, Cams .5-3.5 double up on the 2 & 3's I even found some bomb spots for some medium sized hexes **This is not a complete list, Some climb with lots of gear, others with very little. Different strokes for different folks! Be safe and use your best judgement.
Miscellaneous Info
If you have information about this route that doesn't pertain to any of the other sections, please add it here.
Hyadventure - May 22, 2007 7:10 pm - Hasn't voted
As of May 2007"As of summer 2004 there was a fixed pin and tricam just before the step around with a spot for a #1 camalot up high just before comitting to the step around" There are now two pins protecting the "step around" the higher one, it might be in the place you used the camalot, is only about half in and should be replaced.
asmrz - Oct 31, 2008 4:35 pm - Voted 10/10
October 30, 2008Did the route yesterday for the first time. On the first pitch, the fixed pin (drawn in the 1993 Vogel Guide, P. 83) half way up the innitial crack (on the first pitch) is broken. There are two fixed pins at the step-around, one bellow the step (old one) and one above the step (a new angle pin). The higher new one is just three quarters way in as the crack bottoms out. If you are unsure of your lead, you can place a cam just above the lower (old) pin and equalize the two pieces. Please do not remove the new angle!! It is really quite a decent piece of pro!! After the step-around, a much cleaner way up is to just make a short step to the right and climb a steep, short tower with great holds, ending up at a beefy bolt and a 5.6 (or so) friction move or two up to the 4th class exit ledge. In my opinion, this is likely the best 5.6 route on Tahquitz!!