From: timsc@hwcae.Honeywell.COM (Tim Schneider)
Subject: Tahquitz trip Report (long)
Reply-To: timsc@hwcae.honeywell.com
Organization: Honeywell, Air Transport Division; Phoenix, AZ
Distribution: rec
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 22:28:39 GMT



"Hangin at Tahq" (or how I spent my Labor Day Vacation)

  -- A weekend with good friends, great weather and truly excellent climbing
     (although we didn't climb anything very hard, we still had a great time!)

It all started a couple of months ago when I hinted at heading to
Tahquitz/Suicide for a weekend of climbing.  "You're heading to
Idyllwild on Labor Day weekend?"  "It'll be SO crowded, I wouldnt even
bother..!"  That was a few of the initial responses I received.  Not
letting that daunt me, I rounded up Al "Dyno Boy" Muto, Pam "Pomey"
Metzger, Dale "I climb 5.12" Benton and Michelle DeHaan as partners
for this upcoming trip.  At $11 bucks a night the camping at the
county park is kinda steep, but hey... we were on vacation right?  So
I mailed in the fee for 4 nights worth and received site #76 (btw for
future reference...this site is NOT level!)  There are much better
ones to be had namely #38, #56, #52, #20-26.  If you go, ask for one
of these in Idyllwild Co. Park.  The bouldering in the park is also
documented in the Southern Ca Bouldering Guide, but for the most part
we were too tired after each days worth of climbing to even care about
the bouldering.  Maybe on a return trip sometime.  Also we didn't even
get over to Suicide.  There were only a couple of climbs I wanted to
attempt over there, and after 3 days of climbing (in a row) at Tahq,
the motivational factor was pretty low!  Again, saved for a future
trip!

So anyway, I finally got out of work on Thursday an hour later than
planned and made last minute preparations, picked up Al then headed
out of town.  Then plan was for the rest of the crowd to join us on
Friday evening.  Al and I arrived in Idyllwild around 9PM or so and
set up camp.  We hung out for awhile then hit the sack.  Our
destination in the morning was to be "Sahara Terror" 5.7.  This route's
claim to "fame" is that a large chockstone pulled out at one time
and severed this womans arm, while she was at the belay.  Evidently 
she bled to death before rescuers could get to her.  Dale and Michelle
did the route on Sunday, and Dale did comment on seeing blood stains
at one of the belay ledges.

We got out of camp around 8am or so, hoping that we were early enough
to beat any other parties up to our route.  Saraha Terror has a
reputation for rockfall so we brought along our helmets, and hoped we
wouldnt be following any other parties.  Now Al isn't in the best of
aerobic shape and the approach (800 ft in 1/2 mile) had him dragging!
Just as we rounded "Lunch Rock" I heard voices coming up the trail
from the other direction.  Shit, we've been dogged, as a group of
three arrived at the base of Sahara Terror just around the same time
we had!  We looked up at the rock and discovered we were actually at
the base of "Whodunit 5.9-".  Turned out the other group had come to
do Whodunit, so we just swapped places and everything worked out fine.
These three were the only other party we saw all day!

Noting in the topo that the first 150 feet are 4th class, we donned
our climbing shoes and headed up.  Well it's fourth class for all but
the last 40 feet!  This kinda sucked because we wasted about a half
hour getting racked up and ready to go, while hanging from a small
tree just below the really large ledge.  After we got this mess
arranged and got going the rest of the route went pretty smoothly.  
Pretty moderate climb, with an interesting but no too hard crux.
There is some loose rock on route, mainly near the top in the
chimney/gully section.  Here you have to be careful since the climbing
is pretty easy, but you still have to take care not to knock any of
the loose stuff down from underfoot.  We topped out early in the
afternoon, and hiked down, passing the Ski Tracks and the Open Book
along the way.  We considered getting on Ski Tracks, but decided to
save that one for the next day, along with a 4-5 pitch route on the
front side (like Finger Trip etc:)  So we headed back down to the
truck, checking out and locating route possibilities on the way down.
The "Vampire" looks so cool!  I wish I could climb that hard..! we
looked at it for quite awhile, then headed down the hill towards
Humber Park.

Once we arrived we were greeted by 3 "California dudes" from
Big Bear.  They had started up Sahara Terror underneath us and bailed
after a pitch and a half.  They were pretty intimidated by the
multi-pitch thing, and were all climbing with full packs.  So they
rapped off and headed back to the car for beers.  They commented on how
fast we had cruised up the route and gotten back down!  I didnt think
we were moving that fast at all...(I led all the pitches since Al
hadn't lead anything in awhile) and he was unfamiliar with my rack
etc:  Seemed to go pretty smoothly overall, Sahara Terror is one of
the nicer (moderate) long routes at Tahq.  I would recommend it, just
watch out for the loose stuff near the top!

We arrived back in camp fixed dinner and about 5-10 minutes after we
had finished  Dale and Michelle showed up.  Soon after, Pam pulled in.
The whole group was here, and looking for level spots to pitch their
tents.  Not many, but they all managed.  Dale and Michelle headed off
for a walk so Pam and I headed back into town to get some ice cream
(It was Michelles' birthday and she loves ice cream!)  We also managed
to find a box of b-day candles (24 in the box just the right number)
so we picked those up along with a jumbo chocolate chip cookie.  We
got back and had time to stick all the candles into the top of the ice
cream and light them just as they got back.  Michelle really got a
kick out of it, and we all gorged on ice cream and chocolate chip
cookie until everything was gone!  We crashed with the plan for Al,
Pam and I to attempt "FingerTrip 5.7" then "Left Ski Track 5.6"
and maybe "Shit For Brains 5.10b" if time permitted.  Dale and
Michelle were heading for the Ski Tracks first then maybe something
else later.  

The next morning found us sloggin up the hill again!  Al seemed to be
faring a little better than the day before.  By the time we reached
lunch rock we were all well warmed up!  A crowd of 15 people had
already gathered at Lunch Rock and there were already two guys on
FingerTrip so we headed around the back to follow Dale and Michelle up
Ski Tracks.  

They weren't nearly as far along as I had hoped so we had to wait
awhile on them.  In the meantime I talked Al into leading the direct
start to the "Left Ski Track" which is rated 5.7 in the guide (more
like 5.8)  Al headed up the shallow corner placing some ridiculously
small wires in the old pin scars, followed by a small wired bliss tcu,
then promptly taking a fall... (my new tcu...!)  The wireds pulled and
"tyrolean traversed" along the rope back to Pam who was belaying.  Al
gathered himself and made it through the section after some judicious
footwork.  Then he attacked the corner crack/roof system above.  I
felt kinda bad talking him into doing this direct start, since he
hadn't led much lately, but he made it up to the first belay with no
more problems.  He brought Pam up and then, after a long while sorting
things out at the belay) headed up the second pitch.  The crux of this
climb involves a traverse around a bulge protected by two fixed pins
above and behind you.  Pretty exciting for a 5.6!  Al made the mistake
of slinging both pins long then clipping in with two biners.  The
biners flipped and pinched to rope in between creating huge amounts of
rope drag!  He also made the mistake of leaving too many slings at the
belay below and ran out of quickdraws as he neared the top.  The final
"crux" section involved a friction move next to a crappy 1/4 inch bolt
which was nearly halfway out of it's hole!  Al had to do this with tons
of rope drag!  (what a drag huh?!?!)  Anyway after a LONG time he
finally arrived at the top of the second pitch.  It was finally my
turn to climb and it was already past noon!  Oh well... I made it past
the shallow corner then had a great time at the roof when I started
into it facing the wrong way and had to jam straight out to clear it!

Pretty exciting stuff!  The rest of the climb was really cool, and it
finished off with about 30-40 feet of traversing on 5.5 type rock to
get to the top.  We coiled the ropes and headed up to find the rescue
litter and the friction slab descent.  Not too bad of a descent, and
we arrived back at our packs.  Geeze..! We had spent all day doing three
pitches!  I was kinda upset that we hadn't got more climbing in so we
headed down to check out "Shit for Brains"  When we arrived there 3
other guys were setting up a TR on it.  By then the group's motivation
had waned as we'd been sitting in the sun all day and were all out of
water.  So we bagged it and headed down, so we could stop by Nomad
Ventures on the way back to camp.  Dinner in camp that night was
great, Spaghetti! I love pasta, and everyone had their fill.  Still
think about how little climbing I had done that day, I started looking
at a long route as a destination for Sunday.  Whodunit at 5.9- looked
pretty good but Al wasn't convinced.  He had been wigged out enough at
the 5.6 we had done that day and was pretty skeptical about getting on
something that said 5.9 even if it was just a short section on the
first pitch.  I still kinda pushed for it knowing that Pam could make
it up anything that I could lead, I just had to get the three of them
motivated.  So we crashed early with the intent of getting up before
sunrise and be on the route early. 

Well, the folks next door would have none of this sleeping stuff, and
they made noise until 1 am or so!  So much for the sleep huh?   5am
came pretty early and we dragged ourselves out of the tents and got ready
to head out.  I had been having second thoughts about my choice of
routes (not in any way wanting to get stuck on top in the dark!) so we
decided to head to NE face (west var) at 5.6  This way I wouldnt have
to worry about getting 3 people up 8-9 "continuous" pitches.  One note,
We did enjoy seeing that everyone around us was up and awake with us
at sunrise as we pulled out and headed up the road to Humber Park
around 6am.  (I didn't think those hexes made too much noise... did
you!?... hehehehe)

Well we arrived at the base and set about figuring out where to start.
I headed up what I though was the west variation but turned out to be
"Hard Lark (5.7)"  I didn't realize this until after we were finished!
That part of Tahq Rock is like that, you can kinda wander from route to
route and not get in too much trouble.  It really turned into a neat
adventure, not really following a topo and just making it up as we
went.  Partway up Al dropped his pack of cigarettes.  this gave Pam
something to do as she climbed, kinda like a treasure hunt.  She stuck
one in her mouth as she came up, (what a hardwoman!) so I decided that
once we reached the summit we had to take the "el Cap ina day" shot
with cigarettes in our mouths!  

I kind of set about looking for harder sections along the way,
(maybe up to 5.8) as we went from belay to belay.  Worked out really
nice, with some neat friction climbing with pro in pin scars.  The
6th pitch was really cool, but over some less traveled rock.  I
traversed out from the belay and up over a series of blocky overhangs
and ledges.  Kinda hairy in a few spots, as the lichen would make your
feet slip a little unless you placed them very precisely.  This route
was really nice for a party of three, with little chance of getting
into too much trouble.  I took the lead on every pitch, not in any way
wanting to repeat the fiasco of the day before.  I dont think Al
minded, after realizing that the primary goal in the multi-pitch game
is to keep moving and get to the top as efficiently and as
quickly/safely as possible.  I would recommend this route more than
the NE face routes as the climbing was a little more challenging and
the belays definitely better.  I really enjoy these longer climbs...
For that moment nothing else in the world matters, you and your
partners are concentrating on getting to the summit!  The exposure
from the belay at the top of the 6th pitch was great... Sitting on a
knurled twisted pine you could see all the way to the base!  It was
neat to see Pam's reaction to this vantage point also for this was
her first long route.

We hung out at the top eating lunch, and relaxing, then headed down.
Tonight it was pizza in Idyllwild at "Family Pizza"  All five of us piled
in the truck and got ready to head to town.  As I began to back out,
something was wrong... one of my rear tires was buried!  I pulled forward
again and gave it the gas... A huge mushroom cloud of dust was thrown up
choking our neighboors at the campsite next to us!  Pams tent was directly
in the line of fire and was covered with this chocolaty brown dirt!  Good
thing she had the front zippered up!  We all had a good laugh and after the
smoke cleared, I straightend out and eased back out of the campsite.  The
ground all around the park is this fine dirt.  Really soft and cushy, but 
makes camping a grimy proposition.  I'll bet the place is a mud pit when it
rains!   Great pizza! we chowed down and even had some leftovers for the
classic cold pizza breakfast in the morning!  Anyway after 2 large pizzas
and several beers and sodas do you think the group was finished?  No Way!
we had to head off in search of ice cream of course.  We finally found some at
the local liquor/bakery since all the speciality ice cream parlors had closed by
that time of the evening. 

Sleep was good this night as all 500 of our closest friends from
LA were also tired and kept the noise to a minimum.

Suicide was to be the final destination for the last day of climbing,
however I couldn't get anyone motivated enough to head up the hill and
at least check out routes!  Being kinda tired also from 3 days worth
of climbing and Tahq approaches I obliged and we all headed into
Idyllwild for some more shopping at Nomad Ventures and just generally
checking out town, before heading back to Phoenix.  For those
interested Nomad has 5 tennies on sale for 59 bucks as they received
their last shipment in just a few weeks ago.  I guess 5.10 is not
going to make them anymore.  After a sandwich at Gary's Mountain
Meats and Deli, and a quick postcard back to Greg in Phoenix, (he
didnt make this trip, but we wanted him to know that we were thinking
about him!)  we (Al Pam and I) headed back to the 100+ degree heat!
Dale and Michelle were going to hang out another day, (probably get
over to Suicide) before heading home.

A great weekend with good friends and climbing!


PS (Found out later that Dale and Michelle found a great "secret spot"
    at least they thought secret... another camping area up above
    tahquitz.  They wouldn't tell me where though.  I guess there were
    some huge boulders that you camp in and amongst and that some of
    them had belay bolts on the tops for toproping.  Sounded really
    neat, but they're still being stingy and not telling!)

    Anyone know where this is !?! (sigh) guess I'll just have to go in
    and ask at Nomad Ventures next time I'm there.

--
            tim schneider

    timsc@hwcae.honeywell.com  OR
  uunet!asuvax!hwcae.honeywell.com!timsc
           (602) 436-3078