September 6, 2009
Happy Birthday to my youngest, turned 18 today. Normally we would have a party or go somewhere for a birthday in our family, but today was different. For her present, she wanted to go to Disneyland with her boyfriend, not with her family. As much as we would have preferred another plan, we gave in to her request. That meant that I had the day free to climb. I sent Roy an e-mail and he replied he'd be by at 0700.
I had asked around the house if anyone else wanted to go and the answer appeared to be no when I looked around at departure time and saw everyone was asleep. Roy showed up on time and off we went. For some reason we ended up starting late, it may have had to do with a more leisurely breakfast than normal, oh and also the fact I forgot my hiking shoes and so we had to run back to the house.
The weather reports had predicted temperatures in the mid to high 80s in Idyllwild, so we figured it would be prudent to climb one of the north facing routes on Tahquitz Rock. We hiked on up to the rock without too much apparent difficulty and noticed that there were more climbers than normal. I believe that we saw more climbers than on any other day this season. I suppose that could be due to the fact that it was Labor Day Weekend. When we reached the base of the rock we ran into a belayer at the base of the North Buttress. He was about 30 or 40 feet to the left of where Roy and I had started our climb of the North Buttress route. Since there are many possible route combinations on the buttress, I assumed that they were climbing the North Buttress route and told the belayer that we had climbed it a few weeks earlier. Small chat over, we continued to the west along the base of the rock. Roy wondered what climb we were going to do and I told him I was thinking of either The Error or Sahara Terror. both climbs are close together and offer some excellent climbing at their grades. I suspected that we would have to take which ever one was open, considering how many climbers we saw, but both we untaken and so we jumped on The Error, it being the closer of the two.
Roy getting the rope ready for the climb
The Error was first climbed in 1952 and is rated 5.6, for many years it was not nearly as popular as it's neighbor, Sahara Terror. When I finally got around to climbing it the first time, I was in for quite a surprise, what it lacked in technical difficulty it more than made up for in other areas, such as exposure, route finding and challenging protection. I have thought ever since that it is one of the under appreciated climbs on the rock.
Looking up the climb from the base of the rock, climb heads up to the tree on the left skyline
The first 200 hundred feet consists of mostly easy scrambling up a gully to a little below a large roof. This gully is fairly wide and the left side is normally used to approach the Error, while more towards the right is taken to approach Sahara Terror. I stopped for the belay about 35 feet below a large roof which is the landmark feature of the climb.
Looking down the first pitch
Looking up at the roof from the first belay
There is a large ledge about 30 feet below the large roof, one can make a traverse right onto this ledge and then follow a crack to the roof. This has been the standard route for many years, but there is a large block of rock that has been sliding toward the edge of the ledge that is starting to look rather precarious. I opted to stay in the left corner and then go up to an undercling which took me over to the weakness in the roof. Since I knew from experience that there can be a tremendous amount of rope drag going over this roof, I set up a belay after a short pitch, just below the roof. I think Roy thought that I set up the belay at that location just so I'd have a softer landing in case I fell. No way, he's too bony.
Looking back at the traverse to the roof
Roy climbing up to the base of the roof
Looking up from the base of the roof
The weakness in the roof on the Error is about 30 feet right of the corner. There are more difficult ways to cross over the roof, but those weren't in our game plan for the day. The weakness has two options, separated by a flake of rock. I have climbed both sides of the flake over the years and have chosen the right side the last several times. I think the left side may be better protected, but the right side has some more positive holds. Going off the small ledge where the belay was set up, one grabs the top of a flake, kind of like grabbing the top of a door, only much more solid. Then you work your feet up till you can mantle on top of this flake. The handholds at this point in time become somewhat nebulous and balance becomes the paramount concern. Once you have fully stood up, you can reach some really good horizontal cracks that have great handholds as well as provide good protection. At this point the difficulties of the roof are finished and you move up into a steep corner.
Looking down from the rest at the top of the roof
The corner has beautiful white rock, very slick beautiful white rock. But what really adds to the fun at this point is the crack, or lack of one. There is a seam, which will take protection in very few places and that protection seems marginal at best. I decided I wanted to be little more confident, so I traversed left onto the edge of the corner.
Looking back at the traverse above the roof
The climbing was easier and better protected. It was also a little more "airy". I went on up to some steep sections of rock and started to work my way left. This climbing was enjoyable and soon I had run out of rope and set up the belay on another large ledge.
Looking up from the large ledge at the end of the third pitch
Roy belaying on the large ledge
The large tree on left was the belay at the top of the fourth pitch
I noticed at this time we were very close to the climbers that we had seen at the base of the North Buttress. We continued up another easy pitch and arrived at the prominent ledge at the top of the North Buttress. As summer is nearing the end and the days are getting shorter, our climb was in the shade all day long. We also had a fair amount of wind at times and on this ledge we came close to being chilled.
Several routes meet on this ledge and the climber I had spoken to at the base of the rock was setting up to belay his partner. We said "Hi" and I brought up Roy while he belayed up his partner. Once Roy arrived, I decided to climb up a steep corner that goes past a very unusual pine tree. It is growing out of a vertical crack and the trunk is horizontal at the beginning and then makes a 90 degree turn and is vertical like a normal tree. I thought it would be a good idea to climb this route so we wouldn't cross over the rope of the other party. We also would have run into a party of four who were on the Larks, so the finish would have been crowded. As I started to climb, the other party on the ledge asked if we knew which way their finish was. I said sure and pointed out the finish for the North Buttress route. The climber I had spoken to on the ground at that time told his partner that I had climbed the route two weeks ago and should know what I was talking about. Then his partner said they were climbing Lip Up Fatty (5.8) and that is finishes between the North Buttress finish and the finish we were climbing. I quickly admitted that their route was unknown to me and I didn't know which way they should go. I have to admit that I was a little embarrassed.
Looking down the fourth pitch
I continued up the steep corner and found the climbing to be delightful. I had first climbed it on a warm day, in full sun about 35 years ago and thought it pretty tough at the time, maybe about 5.8 or so. I couldn't believe how everything seemed to just flow for me on this pitch. I recalled having climbed it on another occasion and it seemed fairly reasonable at that time, but I was also climbing at a much higher level. When I reached some nice ledges I set up the belay and brought up Roy. As much as I had enjoyed this pitch, Roy disliked it. I suspect that the main reason was that is was a modified chimney pitch and Roy was climbing with a pack on. Some climbers love chimneys and some hate them, but no one likes them when having to climb with a pack on, so Roy suffered on that one. I'll have to arrange for him to climb it without the pack sometime so he can enjoy it too. Once back at home I checked my old guidebooks and found that this pitch is part of the Uneventful 5.5.
Looking down the chimney pitch (5)
Near the end of the chimney pitch
The next pitch was as much a scramble as a climb and it went quickly. Roy asked me if I thought I was soloing when he arrived at the belay, because I had placed so few pieces of protection. On this pitch I kept expecting to run into the climbers on Lip Up Fatty, but we never saw them again.
Roy on next to last pitch (6)
The last pitch (7) ended just past the tree
The last, or seventh pitch was another short one and again just a scramble, but Roy assured me that he didn't feel cheated, he had had a full days worth of climbing. I suspect the fact that he was breaking in a new pair of climbing shoes didn't help either.
I'm not sure if Roy was breaking in the shoes, or the shoes breaking Roy
Our finish was just below the true summit of Tahquitz, but we both said, "been there, done that" and we quickly packed up and hiked back down to the car.
View at the finish of the climb
Roy demonstrates how the rock hit the tree like a "machete"
After we left the East Gully we opted for the traditional descent that down climbs some exposed face and then drops into a gully with some tricky chimney down climbing. We decided that there was a reason for not using this route in the past few years and it's not because we don't leave our packs at the base of the climbs.
Desperate downclimb
Another good day for the old timers. Below is a video of the climb
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