DATE WITH A MAIDEN

September 19, 2009

Well, it finally happened, I had my "play date" with my long time friend Albert and his son Kevin. We normally get together once a year for a weekend camping trip in Joshua Tree. They had planned on climbing in Idyllwild with me a few weeks ago, but decided due to the hot weather and all the So Cal fires, that conditions wouldn't be so good and bailed. Yesterday was the first day we were able to match schedules. We had decided to climb the White Maiden's Walkaway, since it would be the first time that Kevin would be on a multi pitch climb. I also think that Albert has some fond memories of this climb from when we were climbing partners back in college days. I have to admit that his memory is good, even after roughly 30 years.

We agreed to meet at Humber Park at 8am. Fortunately my watch died a few weeks ago and so while I knew they were late, I had no idea how much. In the meantime I was able to leisurely put on my sun screen, socks and shoes, finish my coffee and people watch. I think that the recent wildfires have had an impact on Mt. San Jacinto and the surrounding wilderness. I had heard that the Station Fire had caused a number of areas to be closed to the public and I think I got to see first hand a large number of the displaced hikers. During the time I was waiting, I saw three large organized groups of hikers. What surprised me the most was that two of the groups were Japanese. They didn't come in tour busses, but one group did do a "count off" before heading up the trail. One thing that impressed me was that they were very well protected from the sun, with a few of them even wearing gloves. I didn't think it would be polite to take pictures of them, but next time I will, when they pose for their group pictures.

After people watching for a while, Albert and Kevin showed up. We sorted out our gear and then hit the trail. The hike from the parking lot to the rock is normally about 45 minutes for me, I'm not the fastest hiker out there. After hiking about 15 minutes, Albert mentioned that it was almost 10am, I guess they were considerably later than I had thought. When we arrived at the rock, there were the most climbers I've seen this year. I know I've said that before, but it was true. We saw climbers on the Uneventful, Hoodunit, Long Climb, Sahara Terror, Consolation, The Flakes, The Vampire and several other climbs that I wasn't sure of the names of. I'm wondering if more climbers are climbing closer to "home" now that school has or is about to start?

Albert and Kevin approaching the start of the climb

I asked Albert and Kevin if they wanted the easiest version of the climb, or if they wanted to make it a little more challenging, they opted for the latter. With that, we did the start at a steep crack near the beginning of the Long Climb. This goes up and zig zags through some trees, which creates a lot of rope drag. Rope drag is the enemy of the lead climber, because the effect creates a pulling force of unwanted extra pounds on the climber. The more rope drag, the more pounds required to pull the rope up behind you. Kind of like an instant weight gain. I figure I weigh more than I'd like when climbing as is, so I don't like rope drag and I stopped after half a pitch and set up the first belay. Kevin quickly followed and then Albert came up with Kevin belaying him. The start can be kind of tricky and Albert took a slip on the start. No damage was done except for the surprise factor to his composure, but he took it all in stride.

Albert on the first pitch

The second pitch started up a wide crack, which for me means strenuous, but it went well and the crack soon narrows down to good hand jams with lots of good face holds for the feet. This section parallels the actual "walkaway" on the true Maiden route. At the end of another half pitch, the climbing traverses over to the regular route and and then on to the top of a prominent gendarme. This is a natural belay station, with great views and a large flat area. We took a break for some photos, water and snacks.

Kevin belaying Albert up the second pitch

Albert climbing the second pitch

Albert near the end of the second pitch (what's he thinking?)

Albert clipping into the anchors at the end of the second pitch

The third pitch is one of my favorites, this pitch goes up some classic white rock, very solid, very clean. The moves are fun and airy. This was another short pitch, ending on a large ledge. This pitch has a couple of fixed pins, which Kevin had never seen before. Besides some family camping trips to Joshua Tree, his climbing has mostly been relegated to the climbing gym. We switched the line up for this pitch, with Albert coming up second and Kevin coming up last. I was the designated videographer while Albert belayed. I was using two camera to record Kevin's ascent of the pitch.

Kevin starting the third pitch

Kevin on some of the fun moves of the third pitch

I then started up the fourth pitch, this one has the infamous "doubtful corner". From the belay one traverses the big ledge to the left and then the climb goes up an exposed corner on some very good rock, similar to the quality of the rock on the previous pitch. As this pitch goes up, it goes to a ledge, that is from two to three feet wide and about eight feet long. On this ledge is a large block of rock that will be gone some day, but who knows when, for now it just sits on the ledge, gravity holding it in place. The climb goes to the right edge of the ledge, where there is a good crack for a bomber nut placement, then you walk left across the ledge, on top of the loose block to the outside edge of a corner. The climber must then go around the edge of the rock and into the corner, all the while looking down on the recess in the rock where the Long Climb, Consolation and others go. This recess results in the climber being on top of a large overhang at this point. Once around the corner you are quickly in reach of a large old Mountain Mahogany and once on top of the tree, it's a good time to set up another belay, again about a half pitch. With all the traversing, the rope drag is starting to build up at this point and it's fun to watch the climber's reaction to the corner. For three people this belay is a little bit of a squeeze, but you can't argue about the intensity of the view.

Albert enjoying the exposure at doubtful corner

Kevin "stepping out" around doubtful corner

The next pitch goes straight up some very easy climbing for almost one hundred and fifty feet and then traverses off to the right to a interesting ledge. This ledge has a flake about waist high that you can stand behind or sit on and enjoy great views looking down to the beginning of the climb. About this time Albert and Kevin were commenting quite a bit on the gliders over the mountain. Since they haven't been climbing with Roy and me this summer, I didn't want to concern them with our theory that the gliders are actually watching us.

The sixth pitch traverses off to the right some more and then on to the top. As with most of this route, the climbing was on easy excellent rock and very exposed. We were all soon on top and as we coiled the ropes and racked the gear, the party from the Long Climb joined us. We had been in the shadow on almost the entire climb and now up on the shoulder of the rock we were in full sun and the wind died down. The increase in the heat was almost unbearable. We also noticed the start of the Vail fire near Vail Lake in the Temecula area.

The Vail Fire just starting over by Temecula

We moved on up to the true summit and then had water and snacks while we enjoyed the views. Kevin signed the register and everyone took and posed for photos and video. Then it was back down the east gully and to the cars.

Scrambling to the summit

Albert pausing to enjoy the views

Kevin reaching the true summit

Kevin signing summit register while Albert looks on

The weather was great and the climbing was also. It's a joy to experience days like this one and I"m lucky that days like this are the norm.

On top with Kevin, fire to the left of me

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

White Maiden's Walkaway

Sometimes a name can be deceiving. Such is the case for the climb we call the White Maiden. The true name is the White Maiden's Walkaway, but that's kinda long, so it's the White Maiden for normal conversation. The deception is that I almost never do the walkaway. This climb is a special for me, it was my first climb at Tahquitz Rock(on the maps known as Lily Rock). This is one of the longest climbs on the rock, going up the northwest buttress of the rock. It has great views by virtue of being out on the buttress proper, beautiful rock and great climbing.

Roy and I made our normal approach, from the Devils Slide trailhead, across the creek, up the talus slopes and then along the base of the north face to the buttress. Once at the buttress, I've seldom followed the original route, instead I take a variation that provides a direct route up to the top of the prominent gendarme on the buttress. This is slightly more difficult than the 5.1 version of the climb, but it's great crack climbing and truthfully, for many years I didn't know that this was a variation, I didn't know there was another way to go. In order to do this start we had to do some scrambling, in fact at the belay ledge Roy asked me if we could use the rope yet. We started off and the climbing was good. A little higher I continued climbing cracks off to the left of the regular route, more difficult, more better. I ran the rope out almost the full 200 feet and set up the belay. Roy came up and made some comments about the party climbing the Long Climb, which almost shares the same start. I assured him that they were no doubt better climbers than us and not to worry about them.

Moving up the first pitch

The next pitch was on easier ground up to the top of the gendarme and then up to some beautiful fine grained white rock. By this time we had bypassed the walkaway portion of the climb. The walkaway is some very fun and easy climbing, almost like a staircase. That's the way we take beginners. The white rock has some large flakes and blocks that seem to be loose, so climbing in this area takes a little more thought. One thing that I noticed was that there were several newer fixed pitons. This area can be a little tricky to protect with normal pro, so the fixed pins are a nice touch. Too bad you always have to question if the fixed pins have worked their way loose. So much for mental calming. Thank goodness the moves are easy, fun and have some nice exposure. I was soon up on the belay ledge, a big one, and had my belay anchors set with some bomber nut placements. Roy climbed up and I noticed that he was laughing. I asked him why he was laughing, had he thought of a good joke and he said something about being afraid. It's terrible to watch a mind fail before your eyes.

On top of the gendarme

The next pitch is one of the most famous on the climb. The route traverses the ledge and then heads up a large crack, that gets progressively narrower until it reaches a ledge, where it becomes a seam. The rock outside of the crack is good quality and has lots of features for feet and handholds. Once you reach this ledge, you can make a great nut placement on the right hand side, cross over about 8 feet to the left and then look around the corner. This is doubtful corner. At this point the rock is overhanging below you, the outside edge of the corner is trying to push you off the rock and there are no good handholds as you make the step around to the inside of the corner. When I first did this climb, almost 35 years ago, you could reach out and grab the branch of a large Mountain Mahogany and pull yourself around the corner. Now that I have more experience, it's probably good you can't reach the branch, since so many accidents over the years, many with fatal results, have been due to the failure of vegetation when used as holds and anchors.

Looking down doubtful corner

I have learned the trick of stepping down low around the corner and one can reach a finger sized crack behind a small flake that makes it quite secure. Once around the corner, it's up on the tree and set up the belay. Then up came Roy, who was kind enough to pose for a video shot at the corner.

Looking down the north face

The next pitch was another 200 footer. The climbing was easy and the location fantastic, it's hard not to have a good time when conditions are like this. I only put in 2 pieces of protection, but had a lot of rope drag towards the end of the pitch. On one ledge there was a columbine with two pretty flowers on it. Other than penstemons in abundance on the hike in, there weren't very many other flowers to be seen.

Columbine on a high ledge

The end of the fourth pitch brought us to the same belay that we used for our last pitch of the Long Climb. Since the climbing had been fun and not very difficult, I decided to finish the climb with the 5.7 overhang variation. I hadn't done the variation in a number of years and I found out why. The protection was adequate, which was fine for me years ago, but now that I have to put forth more effort, I like to be able to add excessive amounts of protection when my reserves run low. In this case, that was a luxury that I wasn't afforded. I hemmed and hawed and finally stalled long enough to hear Roy muttering something about how it doesn't look that bad and I made the moves. I think I turned a 5.7 into a 5.9, but maybe I flatter myself.

Once over the roof, it was some delicate climbing across some broken ledges till the next belay. The broken ledges had a lot of loose rock which was a concern, since the party on the Long Climb were below us at that point. We didn't want to knock any rocks down on them. From the belay we had one more short pitch, about 30 feet and then we were on the top.

We hiked up to the actual top of the rock, changed our shoes, drank our water and split a power bar. We also watched a glider that was soaring above the peaks. I mentioned to Roy how the pilot is no doubt the same one we saw a few weeks ago and how special it is that he is so interested in us that he comes out to watch us when we climb.

Checking us out

As we prepared to start down we noticed a long line of debris in one of the gullies coming down of Tahquitz peak. This debris is from a recent avalanche, it had been more or less green earlier in the season, but now it has turned brown, we took a picture and commented on how much force there must have been to create so much of a debris path. Nature certainly is non-stoppable. Then, it was back to the car.

Notice swath of debris running through the middle of the photo

On the way down we stopped to look at a rock that had fallen off the rock formation behind Tahquitz a few years ago. We had our usual conversation regarding wether or not the rock had moved since our last visit, including documenting the rock with photos. Then on down the trail. Once again another good day on the rock. To view some video we took go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxGEQmGBf28

Has it moved?