WHITE MAIDEN'S WALKAWAY

PART TWO

Well, we had the opportunity to try our plan from our last trip up the Maiden. A friend of mine said she wanted to go climbing. She has climbed with me a few times over the years, I think she averages once every four years or so. Well, with the very hot weather that we've been having in southern California, it wasn't too difficult to decide that we wanted to climb up by Idyllwild. I also suspected that we would be hard pressed to find climbs on Suicide Rock, so I decided to climb at Tahquitz Rock. Even at 7,000 feet in elevation the forecast was for 92 degrees F.

We met at a breakfast/lunch place not too far from home and had breakfast. The cuban coffee was maybe a little stronger than I had counted on. We then parked Nancy's car at my work and took off up the hill. We made a quick pit stop at the ranger station in town. I had hoped that their little book store would have a climber's guide for sale, but it was not to be. I wanted to check out one of the easy routes we haven't done this season. But without the "beta", I decided to stick to something that we were familiar with. Exactly the sort of thing we had planned on when we last climbed the White Maiden. Nancy made sure that we understood that she hasn't been climbing much, since most of her climbing has been with me. She also pointed out that she considers herself height challenged and out of shape. I thought to myself, she's using all of my excuses and then some. I was impressed.

So far so good, we're about to leave the car

We parked at the trailhead for the Devil's Slide trail, I don't know why they always save us that spot, but we're not complaining. We put on sunscreen, insect repellent and loaded our gear. Then off we went up to the base of the rock. As we hiked along I noticed parties climbing WHODUNNIT, SAHARA TERROR, THE LONG CLIMB and last but not least, a group on THE ILLEGITIMATE. At the base of our climb we noticed a party on the very difficult route called THE FLAKES, which is on the other side of the buttress that the WHITE MAIDEN is on. This was the most crowded we have seen Tahquitz this season, but we still were able to climb our route of choice.

Looking up the White Maiden's Walkaway

Climbers on the Flakes route

As we positioned ourselves at the start of the climb, Roy turned to me and asked me if I had brought a second rope. I looked him directly in the eye and said, "No, I thought you brought it". Then he asked me what are we going to do? When you rock climb, it is normal practice to bring a rope for each climber, minus one. So for the three of us, we should have had two ropes. If there were five of us, we would need four ropes and so on. I told him, not to worry, since our rope is almost 200 feet long, and our route was so old, we would just have Nancy tie into the middle. My reasoning here was that when the route was first climbed, the original party would have used ropes about 120 feet long, so each pitch would have been close to 100 feet long when you subtract out the knots and leave a little extra for good measure. I have done this climb enough times to know that the good belay ledges are about 100 feet apart. Of course my calculations didn't give us any rope to tie in with, but I figured we'd make it work.

Nancy at the start of the climb

The first pitch went without a hitch. The climbing presented no difficulties, the angle of the rock is low to moderate and the exposure is minimal. Soon I was at the belay and bringing up Nancy and Roy.

Looking down the first pitch

We started up the second pitch, the climbing was easy, the views beautiful and aircraft low. Yes, I said the aircraft low. I think that maybe our friend in the glider upgraded his license to twin engine and he was buzzing the rock. He made about three passes that I thought looked fun, but questionable from the FAA's height regulations. Of course, I don't know what those regulations might be, so he could have been just fine. Another factor I took into consideration was the fact that the aircraft looked like it may have been military. I've seen some similar to it at the airport. Well,  I tried to get a picture and then went on up to the second belay. Here was the first challenge of short roping. I just got up onto a steep section and ran out of rope. I set up a semi hanging belay. When Nancy arrived, I stuck her in a chimney crack on a small ledge. She was a good sport about it, or so it seemed. Then Roy came up and I was off on the third pitch.

I'm at the second belay

Roy on the second pitch

The third pitch for us was the "walkaway" section of the climb. I'm wasn't sure what a "walkaway" is, so I looked it up. The definition is "easy victory" or "runaway". Sounds like a horse racing term to me. There is some justification to the name, this pitch is easy climbing with good positive holds, something I'd say that you could "run" up. Too bad it's just over 100 feet long, the good news was that I was able to find a fair ledge to stop on, just below the big ledge where everyone normally belays. As Nancy came up this pitch, she somehow managed to unclip the video camera from her harness and it fell into a large crack. The bottom of the crack was full of dirt and level, so Roy was able to retrieve it without any difficulty. Of course that also meant that we didn't get any climbing pictures on that pitch, since Roy's still camera battery had died on the second pitch. He won't let that happen again when he sees how many fewer photos he's featured in. Oh, wait, he uses that camera to take pictures of me, maybe he let the batteries die on purpose, I wonder... .

Sorting out the rope

By this time Nancy was doing a pretty good job of convincing me that her first multi pitch climb was making her nervous. I thought about it for a minute and then reconsidered. Most people that I take climbing start laughing and joking when they get nervous, Roy in particular. Nancy is that way all the time, even when she's not climbing, she always is smiling and has a joke. I decided to ignore her comments about being nervous.

Roy on the fourth pitch

The fifth pitch was a challenge for Nancy. There is one move where you have to reach far out to the right and grab a hold that you then use to pull yourself up onto a block and easier climbing. Height, or lack of it came to the forefront on this move and Nancy took a little slip. Nothing serious, but it did put some reality into the situation. It meant that I had to pay attention to my belaying, no free ride. She was able to make the rest of the way to the belay without incident, but I noticed that she was a little quieter and not so out going. I didn't think too much of it. I was more enthralled with the overall experience. The predicted 92 degrees didn't materialize, we had scattered clouds giving us shade from time to time and a nice breeze. You couldn't ask for much nicer weather. At this belay I spoke to one of the party that climbed the Illegitimate. He thought the climb was the most difficult 5.9 at Tahquitz. I was glad to hear that, since I had refused to climb it and did a more difficult variation years before. Soon Roy was up and we moved the belay. Our belay had ended on a large ledge, so in order to be able to utilize as much rope as possible, we moved over about thirty feet. Nancy had some comments about the trees we moved the belay into, but I'm polite and won't repeat them.

Roy on the fifth pitch

The next pitch goes up to the infamous "doubtful corner". We had just enough rope to make the belay ledge/tree. When Nancy came up to the corner, I told her to stop, catch her breath, take in the view and relax. Of course the ledge she stopped on is above a large overhanging section of rock. When it seemed that she wasn't moving (I won't say frozen with fear because that wouldn't be polite), I suggested that she step down around the corner, reach low for a small crack and pull the rest of her body around the corner. As she was gingerly making the move, I exclaimed how pleased I was to see that the move was doable, that I had never done it before and was wondering if it was possible to do. Nancy looked at me like I was crazy, there was a certain wild animal look deep down in her eyes. I felt like I was looking into her soul and I didn't like what I was seeing. At this point I noticed that she was not uttering a single word. I've never known Nancy to be quiet for more than about ten seconds. I began to panic. I quickly explained to Nancy that I had to make the move, since there was no other way for me to have gotten to the belay and that I had been joking. The primeval look started to go away and I was able to breathe again. I had Roy climb as quickly as possible, he didn't even have to stop and pose for the video, since the batteries died. Once he was at the belay, we quickly changed the batteries and off I went.

Roy just below doubtful corner

I like the next pitch because it is steep, of course I seem to like all of the pitches, it also has big holds. That makes for very fun climbing in my opinion. We then climbed another easy pitch and I was able to stretch out the rope to the traditional ledge where we belayed on our last climb of the Maiden. I don't know what Roy and Nancy talked about while I was climbing, but Nancy seemed to be getting back to her normal self. 

Roy smiling, don't believe it

The belay ledge is behind a large flake, so it is very secure mentally and physically. I let her know that we had one, or one and a half pitches to go to reach the top. I almost thought I detected a look or relief. 

Looking down the White Maiden

The last pitch, our ninth with our rope constraints, went just fine, except for the large step across a large crack, Nancy said something about being short. Then she also said something about the small roof we had to go over, she told me that she had to go all the way to the right end before she could step up high enough to go over, I told her that's the way I always do it. As soon as Roy arrived at the belay he took off towards the top. He kept Nancy on the rope just to be safe, it's a long first step over the edge. 

I'm leading the final pitch

Roy finishing the last pitch

In a few minutes we were on the true summit. There was a hiker enjoying the view, the wind started to come up and Nancy got to sign her first summit register. I thought it odd that she signed it, then closed the lid and then asked if Roy or I were planning on signing in. We both said "no" and she opened it us and started writing what a appeared to be a novella, all the while muttering our names and other things we didn't quite understand. Now that I think back about it, I think perhaps we should have checked to see what she wrote about us.

Nancy writing her novella

After signing the register we finished our water, packed up our gear and headed down from the summit. When we reached the saddle at the top of the east gully, we changed our shoes and then hiked down. While changing shoes we found out that Nancy is really Smurfette, she has blue feet, just like the color of her climbing shoes.

Nancy's/Smurfette's blue foot

Near the base of the gully we noticed the flake that had fallen against the tree, I asked Roy if he thought it had moved since the last time we saw it and he said he was fairly certain that it had. Compare the picture to photos in my previous Tahquitz blog entries and decide for yourself.

Has it moved?

We stumbled back to the car and decided that we needed to have a celebratory meal, by now it was 4:30 in the afternoon and 7:30 breakfast was a long time ago. Before we had a chance to leave, we ran into an old climbing buddy, Craig. Roy and I seem to run into him every few years at one climbing location or another. I think one of the last times we saw him was in Yosemite. We then also spotted Nancy's former boss, Gary Jeandron. He was up riding around with his wife and some friends and they just happened to recognize Nancy as they were driving by. We had a nice little visit with them. They were very impressed that Nancy had climbed the giant rock and wanted to know all about it. I suggested that they go out to Joshua Tree when the weather cools down and watch up close and personal. Gary asked me to send him some video instead. I don't think he wants to get too close to the rocks.

Stumbling back to the car

After all the visiting we went to what many consider the finest restaurant in Idyllwild, The Gastrognome. We were surprised they let us in the door, since we hadn't been able to do much in the way of cleaning up from the climb. We had a superb meal, Roy and I almost went into shock, it was much nicer than we are used to, they didn't even have paper plates. Nancy was in a celebratory mood, after completing her first multi pitch climb and treated herself to the Filet and Half Lobster Tail. She deserved a special treat after her first multi pitch climb. Roy had the Grilled Pork and I had Asparagus & Portabella Mushroom Pasta. The food was wonderful and we had a happy smile on our faces as we left the mountain and headed down to the desert below.

The Gastrognome

Filet & Lobster Tail

Grilled Pork

Asparagus & Portabella Mushroom Pasta