Tahquitz My birthday Challenge (31 pitches in a day-although I am turning 28)
May 6th 2012
The Challenge:
Hamik and I somehow got the crazy idea in our head that if it was easy to climb 30 pitches in Joshua Tree in a day, then Tahquitz would be doable. Somehow we talked ourselves into marking it on our calendars and when the time came and the weather was right - we went for it.
Friday Night:
We drove up to Idyllwild and parked at the campground around midnight. I was restless and fidgety trying to sleep and was only able to get about two and a half hours. Our alarms woke us up at 4:30 am and we paced up and drove to the trailhead. It was the fullest moon of the year - we barely needed headlamps.
The Start:
We approached our first route and there was a little snow at the base that we skirted up. We simil-climbed Northeast Face West - which was a little bit of a leg workout with packs containing food/water/extra rope/etc...We made it to the top and stashed our packs and water. We each had 3 liters of water. Hamik brought 12 cliff bars for food (I would have gagged if I had to eat that) and I brought an assortment of banana bread/sandwich/fruitcup/bars. We walked around near the open book and set up a handline to the rappel rings with a 70 meter rope. We then set up two single rope rappels and began our adventure.
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| This was the handline that we setup to the rappel |
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| Hard to read but left a courtesy note to why we were leaving the line |
Lunch Time at 18 pitches:
We were over halfway done by noon and decided to chow down some lunch. I still can't believe Hamik ate all of those cliff bars
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| Yum-Cliff bar number 9? |
Birthday number 28!
I was stoked to climb my birthday in pitches, so I got out the customary fruit cup to celebrate. Totally forgot to play Jay-Z on my phone. We both felt pretty good and were psyched to end the day on Open Book.
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| Enjoying my fruit cup |
Pitch 31 - Open Book:
We climbed Open Book to total 31 pitches. All routes were done cleanly with no falls or takes. The sun was still up and we had the option of getting in a few more easy pitches, but we were both satisfied and had accomplished our goal, so we were excited to head to town for some real food. We literally ran down the deproach trail, jumped in the car and headed out to dinner.
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| Hamik Following P2 of Open Book |
The Routes (in order climbed:
Northeast Face West 5.6 (6 pitches) simul climbed
Angel's Fright 5.6 (4 pitches) simul climbed
Coffin Nail to Jensen's Jaunt 5.8 (4 pitches)
Fingertrip 5.7 (4 pitches)
El Camino Real 5.10a (3 pitches)
Fingertip Traverse 5.3 (4 pitches) simul climbed
Left Skitrack 5.6 (3 pitches)
The Chauvenist 5.8 (1 pitch)
Open Book 5.9 (3 pitches)
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