Suicide Rock

Suicide Rock in the Distance, taken from Tahquitz Rock

For the first time of this summer season, Roy and I decided to climb at Suicide Rock. In past years we only climbed at Suicide, but lately we have stayed over at Tahquitz. We were planing on climbing in the Idyllwild area, but I really planned on climbing on the northeast face of Tahquitz. The summer heat has finally arrived and I figured we would want to be in the shade. So much for plans, when we drove up to Humber Park, there was only one car parked at the trailhead for Suicide Rock. I wondered if someone was throwing a big party for climbers, all the food you can eat with a hosted bar and climbing equipment prizes for everyone thrown in. I've never seen so few cars on a weekend since I was up during a snowstorm years ago. Well, we kept driving to our regular parking spot, and we no more than had turned the corner when the sides of the road were packed with parked cars. The only parking spaces to be had were at the start to the Ernie Maxwell trail, which is the approach for most of the climbs at Tahquitz. Roy tried to squeeze into a small opening, with the front end in the dirt and the rear blocking traffic. I expressed some concern at the obvious crowds. Sure, many were backpackers and hikers, but if just a fraction were climbers, we'd be waiting in long lines like at Disneyland. Roy asked me what I wanted to do, it took a minute for my mind to compute the options, then I said, "We're climbing at Suicide". 

We drove down and parked at the Suicide trailhead, started our normal ritual of sunscreen and insect repellent and then headed up the trail. But not before we had a discussion regarding the water that was flowing down the road, from under the fence, next to where we were parked. Roy figured one of the large water district  storage tanks was leaking, about to fail and going to take out everything within 100 yards. We did some investigating and discovered a open pipe that the water was coming out of, we figured it was some sort of overflow, nothing to worry about and continued on our way.

As we hiked down the trail, yes, the start of the trail goes down to a stream, just like our approach to Tahquitz and then to a paved private road. We can walk on the road, but not drive on it. We then get to the end of the pavement and turn a corner to a Forest Service kiosk. There we sign in, this is our "permit", don't get caught without it. I can't help but wonder how often they patrol and how do they remember if they saw your name or not? I'm not complaining mind you, it is very convenient and I do appreciate that.

Trail sign, Suicide Rock can be seen through the trees

Roy signing in for our permit

Climbers Trail 3E06 - (1.5 Miles) This trail is used primarily by rock Climbers to access the base of Suicide Rock. The trail leaves from Fern Valley Road near Humber Park. The trail travels through private property; please respect private property rights and stay on the trail. For the Climbers Trail, register at the sign-in box a short way up the trail; this is your permit.

Copied from Forest Service web site

As we continued up the trail we saw some lupines, lilies and snow plants in bloom. The lilies were a special treat, since they are not as common as the other two plants. The trail to Suicide is more horizontal than the routes to Tahquitz, but it makes up for it at the end, when it's just as steep. Once at the base we traversed around the rock to the northeast end. This is where everyone goes on hot days, because this is where the shade is, except during the longest days of the year, when the sun is directly overhead. We would have suffered for being in the sun all day, but it was windy which kept the temperature just about perfect. Once we got to our destination, of course we found the people that belonged to the other car, and they were on one of the climbs we wanted to do. But it was OK, since there were plenty of other climbs we also wanted to do.

Lily along the trail

Snow plants

We started out with a climb called Little Murders, like so many climbs, named from pop culture at the time it was put up. In this case a movie from 1971, considered a very good/funny/disturbing movie. I'm not sure how the climb and movie relate, or if I'm supposed to be Alfred or Patsy or another character. I just like the climb. It's only 5.3, but at the end you have to undercling out around a large flake, which makes it one of the most exciting "easy" climbs I've ever done. It was a great warm-up and then we were quickly back down to the next climb.

Look up Little Murders

The next climb was literally the next climb, in this case it even started from the same place. But instead of going straight up like Little Murders, it goes out to the left across the entire face to it's far side and then up to the top. This climb is called Break Out and is rated 5.6. At first it's face and thin cracks, then opens up to larger cracks and when you reach the far left of the face, you then climb up easy but largely unprotected face climbing. Again, a very enjoyable climb. 

Sequence of me leading Break Out

When we returned to the base of the rock, we picked up our gear and headed back to the climb that other party had been on. They had finished and now we had our turn on the climb. Another party had shown up and led the first half of Flower of High Rank 5.9 and were top roping it. We watched for a few minutes and then started watching the first pair of climbers. The leader started up a climb called Etude. This is a 5.11 climb, I tried it on top rope many years ago and fell many times. This climber fell, but only once and he was leading which is much more difficult, since he used up so much energy placing protection. It was nice to watch. Then it was our turn again.

Looking across the rock at the area of Etude and Flower of High Rank

Our next climb is known as Graham Crackers, 5.6. Because the weather was nice and the climbing so enjoyable, Roy got up his nerve and said that he wanted to lead the last pitch. I asked him who did he know and he laughed. Well, I started up the climb and when I got to where everyone normally sets their first belay, I yelled down and asked how much rope was left. Roy called up and said that I was at the half way mark. Yes, our rope is marked. We use a bicolored rope. When the rope is being made at the factory they switch patterns and they cut the rope so that where the pattern switch is made will be the middle. It's then sold as a bicolor, it usually costs a little more, but I think it's worth it. Many climbing accidents are after the climb is over and the climbers are going back down. Sometimes you have to rappel and during rappelling many accidents have happened. By being able to tell at a glance that the rope is at the mid mark, you have one less worry, in this case of the ends of the rope being unequal and you rappel off one end and then the other end is pulled through the anchor and down you go. Well, if I still had half of the rope to go, I'll keep going, that's my thinking. On I went till I came to a little overhang. I was feeling rope drag from so much rope being pulled up as I climbed, but that comes with the territory when you have a 200 foot long rope. When I started climbing a long rope was 150 feet and that length was a new improvement over the older 120 foot ropes. A longer rope gives you more flexibility, but gives you that much more work to deal with. I worked my way over the overhang and had only 20 feet to where I could set my belay anchors and bring up Roy. I didn't quite have enough, but Roy was a good belayer and moved up just enough for me to make it to the belay. Of course you may think that I was being rude to Roy,not letting him lead, but when the climbing is going so well, it's hard to stop. Besides, I often offer leads to him he turns down, usually hard and/or scary ones.

Looking up at Graham Crackers, Yours goes up on the other side of the closest tree

From the top of cliff in this area we could see Tahquitz Rock, after so many pictures and videos looking at Suicide Rock, we now took advantage of taking pictures looking the other way. Then it was back down for another climb.

Tahquitz Rock from the top of Suicide Rock

A sailplane on the right side of the picture

For our next climb we had to wait a little bit, since the second party was climbing a climb that crossed the climb we wanted to do. It also shared the same belay and since they were a party of three, we didn't want to all be sharing the same ledge at the same time. Even a big ledge gets crowded with fire people on it. Mind you we are friendly, but you have to draw the line at some point. This climb is Yours 5.7 and has long been one of my favorites (aren't they all?). Well, once they started leading from the belay station, I started leading up. The climbing was good, not too strenuous like the Long Climb had been. Soon I was up at the belay. Fortunately the ledge is big and the two climbers still on the ledge were gracious in sharing their space. I then brought up Roy. The third climber was still at the belay when I led off. I went off to the left, since the other party had climbed out to the right and made my way up to the same belay I had used at the top of Graham Crackers. We then visited with the other party, even took their pictures for them, before starting down. Soon we were at the base, Roy said it was time to go, my stomach had been saying that for some time so I didn't put up any argument. As we hiked out, we noticed that a large tree had fallen, taking out parts of several other trees in the process. We stopped to document the debris and then to the car. It seemed that the water tanks hadn't failed after all and we still had a vehicle to take us back down to the low desert and 111 degrees. I am attaching a link to the video I shot, it's on youtube and I think some explanation is in order.

Descent route from the top of our climbs to the base of the rock

Synopsis of the video, it's about six and a half minutes long. It starts out with the parking area and water issue, then a shot from the start of our climbs, descent route, then shots taken on the climbs,  and finally a shot of the logs, branches and other debris from the big dead tree that fell and took out parts of some other trees as well.

Hike to Horseshoe Palms

Since the next day would be Fathers' Day, my oldest daughter decided she wanted to do something special with me. I liked the concept, so I agreed. Then she asked me what I want to do. Well, since I'm on stand-by for my work, I'm somewhat limited  in how far I can go and how long I can be gone, which puts me in a quandary. My wife comes to the rescue and suggested we go on a hike, which may have been their plan all along. So far, so good. Next we have to decide on what time to hike. The weather had been mostly mild for the last several weeks, with unseasonably cool weather, for us anyway. But in the past few days the temperatures had been warming up. We decide that since it will be warm or even hot, to leave early. Now Dorothy is not normally a morning person, so I was reluctant to suggest an early hour, but she's game for the idea and 0630 is agreed on.

My hiking partner, must be having fun

Sure enough, Dorothy is up bright and early and we leave right on time. It is already in the low 80s as we head out, but doesn't seem to bad. We stop for breakfast and then it's out to the Coachella Valley Preserve. As we drive out we notice that the air quality is poor due to humidity. We park along the road a little way before the visitor center, since I decided to hike over towards Pushawalla Palms. I think the views are better and the geology is more interesting than in the area of the main oasis.

The trailhead

We started our hike at 0730 and soon were hiking up the steep section of the trail that takes one up onto Bee Rock Mesa and the fork in the trail that leads to the ridge trail that runs above the Horseshoe Palms Oasis or Bee Rock Mesa. They have done some improvements to this portion of the trail, but I notice that it still has me breathing heavy by the time I reach the top. We then head on up the ridge.

Fork in trail with ridge in background

The views were not the best, due to the poor air quality, but what the heck, I'm out with my daughter getting some good exercise, life is good. Then I hear a strange buzzing noise, it sounded like about a thousand crickets all making a racket. I'm thinking to myself that this doesn't seem quite right when Dorothy asked me, "Is that a rattlesnake?". Suddenly the light went on, I turned and looked and saw a rattler moving backward away from me, holding it's head in a striking position. I was impressed at how well it blended in with the surroundings.

A striking pose

After taking a few minutes to admire the snake, we continued on up the trail. I noticed an even more ominous sign while hiking along the ridge, graffiti. I'm not an expert, so I can't tell if it's tagging or sign that a criminal gang has staked claim to this "hood". I don't think they are very good about keep out the out Reptile gang, who in my opinion, seems to be ruling the neighborhood.

One of several rocks with graffiti, a sign of ignorance

One of the things that I really like about this trail is how steep the hillsides are on both sides of the trail, with my imagination I compare it to a mountain ridge in the one of the big ranges of the world. As you walk along the ridge you notice that the composition of the ridge varies, in some places it is very rocky and sandy, while in others it consists of a very fine almost clay like consistency, generally of a different color as well. The steepness is partially caused by the fact that we are walking along the edge of the San Andreas fault system.

Looking at Horseshoe Palms, notice how they grow along the fault line

View of different soil types along the hike, the lighter soil is powdery

Contrast picture of rocky, sandy soil deposited in flash flood conditions

View of trail along the ridge

Looking back toward trailhead and visitor center

Looking down the steep slope at Horseshoe Palms

The palms grow along the fault where water percolates up to the surface, allowing the trees to have access to water 24/7, any less and they die. These palms are native fan palms, Washingtonia Filifera, and are a reliable indicator of water. 

Palms growing along base of ridge

The other plant that we see on this hike that is a good indicator of water is the Mesquite. While the mesquite is a good indicator of water, that doesn't mean that water is going to be readily available, since mesquite can have a very deep taproot. I decided to taste some of the mesquite beans and found them to have a very interesting flavor, somewhat bitter along with a tangy aspect. I think they would be good in a salad. I'll have to get my son the chef to experiment with them.

Mesquite plant

Mesquite beans, interesting flavor

At the turn around point, I was able to see three different palm oasis from a single location. Pushawalla Palms, Horseshoe Palms and Hidden Palms. We went over to the overlook of the lower end of the Pushawalla oasis and admired the unique fence. Then it was back toward the car.

End of the road partner

Since I like to make loops whenever possible, we went back along the Horseshoe Palms  until the trail went up to Bee Rock Mesa. 

Hiking up from Horseshoe Palms to Bee Rock Mesa

Once we arrived on the mesa we continued up and returned along the ridge. We didn't see our friend the snake, but we did see several horned toads. By this time the temperature was getting too warm for our enjoyment and we hurried back to the car.

Horned toads trying not be noticed/dinner

Base of the cliffs walking back to the car

The only thing I didn't like about the hike was the pictures didn't turn out as well as I would have liked. With the intense sun and hazy conditions, many of them were washed out. I will have to break down and learn how to use the manual settings on the camera one of these days, otherwise I'll have to put up with more ridicule and scorn from Dorothy.

Dorothy giving me a scornful look

Joshua Tree in June

What a surprise the weather has been. Much cooler of late. We expect to be over 100 degrees this time of year, and in Palm Springs the past few days have been in the mid 80s. We are trying to decide if we should break out the jackets. Of course, this means that there are some hard decisions to be made regarding where to go in the great out of doors. I would expect that we would continue with our adventures up in Idyllwild, but it could be as much as 40 degrees cooler and that would be way too cold for me.

Well, just have to do what we do in the winter, go to Joshua Tree National Park. Another thing besides the weather helped with this decision, I needed to keep the day short, about a half day. Half days just don't happen up in Idyllwild.

When we arrived at the entrance gate, we wondered if we were under prepared. We saw a couple of climbers dressed like they were lounging around camp on McKinley. Full on fleece long pants and jackets, knit caps, full on cold weather gear. Roy and I were wearing shorts and t-shirts, my extra gear for the cold was a sweatshirt and Roy had a fleece jacket. If they were dressed for the actual conditions, we were going to die of hypothermia. We decided we had made it this far and we continued into the park. The thermometer in the car said the temperature was in the low 60s, we were beginning to wonder. After all, were a couple of desert boys and pride ourselves on being fair weather climbers.

We arrived at the parking lot, it was overcast and the wind was blowing, but all in all, it was just about the perfect temperature for our choice of clothing, so we started off for the rocks. Our first choice, which is often our first choice, was Echo Rock. It has great climbs, is easily accessible and has good quality rock. We were the only climbers at the rock, which you would never see in the winter climbing season. We did see another group of climbers in the parking lot, but they headed out towards the Wonderland of Rock and we didn't see them again. As we hiked to the rock we couldn't help but notice that in the month since we had last climbed here, the flowers had all but disappeared and the annuals that were left were golden or brown. The change was quite dramatic.

Our first climb is an old favorite, Double Dip. This is one of the easiest climbs on the rock and one of the more popular climbs of it's rating in Joshua Tree. It is rated 5.6 and during the busy time of the year, will have a line of parties waiting to climb it. Since we had the rock to ourselves, we started right up. The climb starts with some easy friction face up to a large flake. The flake can be done as a layback, squeeze chimney or face climbing. Most climbers use a combination with squeeze chimney being the least used. At the top of the flake is a good ledge and then it's friction face again. Four more bolts (three if you miss the last one like I did) lead to the top. The belay is two beefy bolts, your choice of location, the original set or the newer ones which are in more of a direct line with the climb. I chose the latter.

Just above the second dip on Double Dip

Playing with video camera just above second dip

Roy and I had some fun yelling back and forth, because of the echos and then he was climbing. In short order he had reached the top. Since we wanted to take advantage of having the rock to ourselves, we opted to take the rappel route down instead of the walk off. The advantage to this is that it placed us closer to the next climb we wanted to do.

Our second climb was originally named Black Tide. When you see the rock it's unmistakable, a large curving dike of almost black rock contrasting with the lighter color of the typical monzogranite that Joshua Tree is so famous for. Too bad for the individuals that named the climb, because they were not the first to climb the climb. Climbing tradition normally gives the right to name a climb to the first ascent party. In this case, Mr. Stichter named the climb, started up the climb, but didn't finish it. Another party, led by the infamous John Long came along a short time later and finished the climb, naming it Stichter Quits. Many climbs have less than interesting names and I personally think Black Tide is a better name.

The climb was rated 5.8 and some still consider it an "easy" 5.8, others consider it 5.7+ or even 5.7. It doesn't matter much to me, as long as I can still climb it and enjoy it. Many of the old friction face routes have been given easier ratings in the past 30 years. The reason for this is the changes in climbing shoes. The first pair of climbing shoes I wore were called PAs. I don't know much about the shoe, it was popular in England during the 60s and since most of climbing literature in English came from England when I first started climbing, that was considered the hot ticket. These shoes were very stiff, had a smooth sole and were great for standing on small edges. For climbing granitic slabs, they left something to be desired. Between the lack of flexibility and lack of soft rubber, they were like wearing roller skates on ice. The American climbing shoe of note was the RR, named after Royal Robbins (no relation) and these were the bomb, for climbing big walls anyway. Not so great for slab climbing but great for standing in aiders all day. Then the French started sending us EBs, the world changed and we were able to stand in places we never dreamed of, especially if the shoe was so tight that it hurt your feet after a short time and if you wore it all day you risked doing some sort of permanent damage to your foot. Life was good and then a climber by the name of John Bachar went on a "road trip" to Spain. No-one had told us that there was great climbing in Spain and that they were doing amazing things with shoes that had sticky rubber. John went into the import business and started making a million selling Fires (pronounced fee-rays). Of course it's human nature to be resistant to change, so some of us thought that sticky shoes were cheating. I suspect that I also was thinking it would be foolish to waste good money on new shoes when I had a perfectly good pair of EBs.

My attitude towards shoes with sticky rubber changed one day in a most dramatic way. I had grown up with Randy who I never thought was as good of a climber as I was, not that I thought I was that good. Randy got a pair of Fires and started talking about the climbs he was doing, harder than the climbs I was doing. I found this difficult to believe but one day we went climbing at Suicide rock and I watched him lead a climb that I thought was at my limit. I couldn't believe it as he went up. I wondered what had happened to me, how had he progressed so much so fast? Then when he was at the crux, he slipped and slid 2 feet down the rock and stopped. Right then and there I said out loud, "I have to own those shoes", I then realized the benefit of the sticky rubber and I eventually did own that exact pair of shoes Randy was climbing in that day. All of this going on about shoes is just an explanation of how the advent of climbing shoes with sticky rubber made climbs seem so much easier than they had been before and why they have been downgraded.

Back to Black Tide, we again were surprised and pleased to be the only climbers on what is normally a very popular rock. We roped up and started the climb. One thing that occurred to us was that Joshua Tree must have gotten rain recently, as we had noticed earlier in the week at Tahquitz. The rock seemed very slippery and the gymnastic chalk was mostly, but not completely, washed off. Well, I persevered and made it through the crux with the usual amount of complaining that the climb was too difficult. The rest of the climb went off without a hitch, I even did the low traverse at the "break" of the dike and stayed left of the dike till I reached the belay.

Roy came up complaining the whole time about what a difficult climb it was and how he needed to rein me in, I was getting to ambitious with my choice of climbs. I thought, if we can't climb the same old climbs we've done a hundred times before, there isn't going to much for left for us to climb.

We then rapped off and returned to the car, since I had planned on a half day, I set my sights on leaving around noon. It was now about 10:40 and we needed to get in some more climbing. Roy asked which way to go and I said back to the main road. He then felt obliged to tell me we didn't have time to climb Walk on the Wild Side. I told him that I knew that, but I thought we might be able to climb Headstone Rock. Sure enough, we drove over to the entrance to Ryan Campground, the normal parking area for Headstone Rock and saw that no-one was on the rock. We also noticed that the gate was locked and a sign said the campground was closed for summer. That was OK with us, we drove to the nearest parking area and walked the 100 yards or so to the Headstone formation. The trail we took leads over to an old adobe ranch house near our climb.

Old adobe ranch house

Headstone Rock

We scrambled up to the Headstone formation and roped up. Some days this is a very easy climb. I have climbed it by moonlight. This was not one of the easy days. The climb starts out on a slab which wasn't a problem and I was so confident before I started that I told Roy to video with one hand and let me pull out the rope from the belay while he kept a hand on it "just in case". I'm a firm believer in the term, pride goeth before the fall and of course once I got to the top of the slab, where one surmounts the corner that then is climbed to the top, my nerves suddenly failed me. I stood on one foot, then the other, made several half hearted attempts to make the move and was relieved when Roy asked if I wanted to add some protection. I of course said yes, even though I knew that I had left anything that I needed in the car.

South West Corner of Headstone Rock

Roy rummaged through my pack and found a hexcentric that might fit a short shallow crack. I put it in and realized right away that it wouldn't hold a leader fall, it might hold body weight for a aid placement but I wasn't going to resort to that, I'd back off first. I decided to give it one more try and as I pulled up, in order to relieve my sore arm from the Long Climb, I wrapped my leg around the corner and it felt very secure, making a nice rest. I had forgotten that trick but I used it to my advantage and soon  I had pulled up to where I could stand on the good ledge above and clip the next bolt. The rest of the climb went gingerly but successfully. Soon I had the belay set up and was bringing up Roy.

Belaying on top Headstone Rock, rope follows climb

Once again Roy kept telling me he was wondering about my mental status and why I was doing these climbs that were scaring him so bad. I thought to myself, why's he scared, I'm the one out on the sharp rope. Then I realized that Roy must be scared for me, I'll have to work on appearing more confident. He quickly pulled up on top, we took some pictures and then it was down and back to the car. I had stalled at the crux for so long that we didn't get back to the car till 1206 and then it was time to head back.

On the way home, Roy decided to punish me and made me get an apple fritter and a cup of coffee, he can be ruthless at times.

The Long Climb

On Monday, Roy and I decided to take on Tahquitz Rock, for the third week in a row. By now our confidence was growing and our ambitions were growing even faster. I had invited some non-climbers to come along and was expecting to do a beginner climb, but when none of them decided to join us, I started thinking big. Roy didn't do much to help dissuade me, he kept offering to do some of the leading. As we hiked up to the rock, I started to form a plan and soon we found ourselves at the base of The Long Climb.

At the base of the rock

The Long Climb, 5.7 difficulty rating, was one of my early leads on Tahquitz. The crux is the second pitch, which involves a squeeze chimney and/or some strenuous laybacking, at least it's strenuous for me. Most climbers mix the two. I remembered how difficult I have always considered the squeeze chimney section, so I offered that lead to Roy. Not wanting to avoid doing my fair share of leading, I decided to climb the first pitch of the Wong Climb. Yes, a play on words. The first pitch is part of the crack system that forms the Long Climb chimney, but instead of a 5.7 rating, the Wong Climb is 5.8. Personally I've always thought that this first pitch of the Wong Climb is far superior to the first pitch of the Long Climb.

Our route is in shade to the right

Before I go too much farther, I would like to point out that the Long Climb got it's name because it is one of the longest climbs on Tahquitz Rock. The Wong Climb variation takes parallel cracks for the first two pitches and then the climbs join. The routes cross each other at the top of the first pitch. The second pitch of the Wong Climb is seldom done because there is a lot of loose rock on that pitch, which makes it dangerous for anyone climbing it as well as anyone below.

Back to the approach. We made the same approach as the past few weeks and noticed that the snow bank at the base of the rock (over at the start of the Larks) has mostly melted away. There were two small patches and with the rains we have been getting, along with the higher temperatures I doubt the snow will last another week. 

Snow patch at base of rock

Once we reached the base of the rock, we then traversed westerly towards the White Maiden buttress. The large corner at the east side of the buttress was our destination. The climb doesn't start on the ground, it begins up on some ledges that can be easy or hard to get to, depending on your choice of routes. We took what we thought would be easy, but because we were tired from the hike in, we tried to shortcut this approach and soon found ourselves struggling. We did make it up and found a nice ledge about 150 feet off the ground where we geared up. 

We quickly ran out of excuses to keep from starting up the climb and so I started up. I was a little concerned since this would be the hardest crack climb I've done in several months. I was very pleasantly surprised, the climbing couldn't have gone any better. This first pitch climbs a single crack with most of the climbing involving jaming. A lot of the hand jams are what I consider the perfect hand size, which is why this pitch is one of my favorites. I had been concerned that my lack of climbing at this difficulty and type of climbing would create problems for me. As I climbed up I kept checking my hands, the best way to tell if you are having problems with your hand jams is if you shred your hands. My hands at the end of the pitch didn't have a single sign of rock rash, perfect. The only trouble that I did have was when my foot got stuck in the crack about two thirds of the way up. That problem was easily corrected and I continued up. Since we were raising the bar so to speak, we brought more gear than we have been using the past few months and it worked out great. Things couldn't get much better.

I had remembered the problems I'd previously had with the second pitch, which consisted of trying to slide up the squeeze chimney faster than I was sliding down. With my increase in girth in the years since that first time up the route, I was glad that Roy was going to be leading that section of the climb. He is more svelte than I and so I figured better suited for the job at hand. Well, I have to hand it to Roy, he's a real trooper. He started up the climb and one of the first things I noticed was that he wasn't making it look easy. In fact, he was making it look downright hard. This was something that I hadn't counted on. I had throughly enjoyed the first pitch and thought that I had done it in grand style, but that didn't mean that it hadn't been a good workout. In fact, it was a great workout and I didn't have much left in the old arms. A second item of concern was not just for me, but for Roy as well and that was the fact that he was putting in what I considered to be an embarrassing lack of protection. When the leader puts in protection he then is looking at a fall that will be at least twice the distance of the rope from the last piece of protection to the leader, plus rope stretch and slack the belayer may have in the rope. I would have put in twice as much protection. Much to my surprise, Roy kept going up and up and up and I thought that he was just about through the difficult section when he suddenly came sliding down to his last pro. I was amazed at what I had just witnessed. I couldn't believe that he didn't come flying out of the chimney, it appeared his descent was actually under control. After a little rest he made another attempt, but this time he didn't have the same spark. He again came down to where he could rest on the pro and told me he just didn't have enough gas to lead on.

Well, I was beginning to have some pangs of guilt, watching him struggle up there, so I told him to come on down and I'd give it a go. He agreed, showing not even the slightest hesitation and came on down. At this point there should have been some warning signs telling us to turn back and go do something easier, but we ignored the subtle hints and the even more obvious ones to come. Instead of switching the ends of the rope, so I could have a top rope to Roy's highest protection, I started up on the same end I had when I lead the first pitch, so I was leading from the ledge and just clipping into the pro Roy had placed. This means that in addition to the physical stress, I also had to deal with the mental stress of leading and when the going gets tough, it just compounds. When I made it to Roy's top piece of pro, I was gassed. Of course asking Roy to take over was not an option, so for the next hour or two, it seemed longer, I slowly would climb up a few feet, put in some pro and rest. Climb up a few feet, put in some pro and rest. Climb up a few feet and so on till I made it up the fifteen feet or so of strenuous chimney/layback and was on reasonable ground once again. During this maximal effort I was wondering if I was going to die. My mouth was so dry I was "spittin cotten" and my arms were killing me. At these desperate moments I never think about fainting, just dying, something to wonder about. Of course I also kept thinking about falling and I knew that if I fell I wouldn't have that nice controlled slide like Roy, oh no, I would pitch out backwards, invert and plummet to some terrible trauma, which may be why I didn't fall, too scared.

I did finally make it to easier ground and soon I found myself below the overhanging block which marks the end of the second pitch. Normally I find that this to be scary, like all overhangs, but not this time, I was too far gone both physically and mentally, I threw in some good pro and just popped over, like I was supposed to. I even enjoyed it. I set about making the belay, I had just enough gear left to accomplish that "little" detail and then brought up Roy.

Looking down on first pitch from high on second pitch

One of the things that people consistently tell me about Roy is how nice he is, that they couldn't imagine him saying an unkind remark to or about anyone. Well, as Roy finished the pitch, I was able to hear the dark side. It seems that Roy thought the climb was unreasonable and that we should go down. Well, I figured it was too late to go down and since we had climbed the two hardest pitches, it should only get easier. I was so confident in this that I told him just that and we could count on nothing harder that 5.6 for the rest of the climb. He was desperate enough to believe me and so I started up the third pitch.

Don't believe Roy's smile

One small problem with the difficulty of any climb is that it doesn't remain true to the rating given it, if you go off route and that is exactly what I did. There was a slight overhang at the start of the pitch, but since I was still tired from the previous climbing, I decided to try something "easier". Well in no time I found myself climbing up a steep but not overhanging corner with thin fingers for holds. I quickly started lacing up the crack with pro every few feet and as I took a rest I admitted that I was on something that seemed more like 5.9 as opposed to the 5.6 I had promised. I traversed over to the route I should have been on and then started up a very steep jam crack on the other side of it. This time my hands were getting quite roughed up. Not many go this way and there was quite a bit of lichen which was causing my feet to slip. As my nerves were once again fraying, I started pushing up my number 2 Camalot to protect me as I climbed. I was soon about fifteen feet above my last pro and looking at a grounder on the belay ledge if I fell and the pro didn't hold. Fortunately I didn't do more than slip and made it onto the easier ground above. With the traversing that I did, plus a couple of small roofs and I soon had a tremendous amount of rope drag to pull as I climbed. It didn't take long before I decided to stop, only a half a pitch out. I then set up the belay just above an old dead tree, which made a nice seat while Roy came up. 

View of parking lot from belay on old dead tree

Belaying the other climber is normally thought of as a rest, but often if you are tired and the climber is climbing quickly, it can be tiring for the belayer who is trying to recover from having just climbed. In this case I was suffering from that situation, but I had insult added to injury when my forearms started to cramp. I was surprised, I didn't remember this ever happening to me in the past. The pain was significant, but the lack of ability to move was an even greater concern. My mind flashed on the possibility that my arms would get so cramped that I wouldn't be able to use them, then I'd have to get rescued. That was something I wasn't looking forward to. So I started stretching my arms, working through the pain and by the time Roy arrived at the belay station the cramps were all but gone. That was a close one!

My next pitch wandered and again I stopped after a half pitch. I was beginning to wonder how many pitches we would have to do if we kept climbing short pitches. At least this pitch was easy. We weren't recovering very much at the belays, so I decided to traverse over to the White Maiden and finish off on it. The traverse was easy and I tried to protect it for Roy as he followed, as well as for myself as I led. It turned out that a couple of the protection pieces were very difficult for Roy to clean, since they were "keyhole" placements. This means that a wedge or similar shaped piece of protection is inserted into an opening in a crack, but the crack itself is narrower than the piece except for the opening it fit into. For the cleaner, it can be tough figuring out which spot the piece went into and sometimes it takes some maneuvering to slide the piece to the opening from where it lodged in the crack. The nice thing about the "keyhole" placements is that they are very secure, it's almost impossible for them to accidently fall out.

Looking down on the White Maiden

Looking back at the traverse to the last pitch

The start of the last pitch

After Roy made it to the belay ledge, he recognized the rest of the route up the White Maiden and decided to lead to the top. I gave him the gear, he gave me the pack and a few minutes later he was on top. He brought me up and we quickly organized our gear and hiked up to the true summit.

View of moon from the top of our climb

Looking up toward the true summit

The air quality over Idyllwild, lots of humidity coming in from the coast

 We took some pictures and then it was down the notch to the north east gully and back to the car. We returned to the car shortly after six pm, about eight hours after we left. Truly it had been a long climb.

Flowers on the hike back to the car

Our route in red, belay stances are the yellow squares