We hiked up to the North face of Tahquitz to scope out some cool slabs. I'd done Grace Slick a few years ago, a 3 pitch wandering face climb that surmounts a roof to a hidden slab above near Northeast Face East. Put up ground up in the 70's it's classic 5.10 friction, where bolt placements seem arbitrary and distant and a sea of smears is all you get. It was a wild afternoon, prompting me to come back this September day with my Buddy Jackson to try out one of the other lines that skate up the hidden face above.


The big section of blank rock that holds these three routes, Partners in Crime, Grace Slick and Coup de Gras (our choice for today) is a hanging slab, much like a Serac. Weird and funky cracks lead past bushes and diorite knobs to gain the clean face above, but Coup de Gras had a start off a stacked boulder, the crux moves being in a scoop leading to the small roof.

Nothing like waking up with 5.10 friction! The rock below the face was a bit crumbly and I had a hell of a time committing to the first move, but once established the big beautiful bolts were welcomed and some fun moves brought me to the top of the block, just below the roof and the slab above.


Jackson took the lead up wandering terrain and figured out the best way to navigate the chossy corner and roof system above - there wasn't much gear but it worked out easy enough and he arrived at the bolted anchor at the bottom of the 2-pitch slab.

I remember being on Grace Slick and seeing these awesome knobs and smears over to the right, which was Coup de Gras. Looking up at the face for my lead I was psyched to see holds and a line of weakness travelling all the way up to the next belay, which seemed weirdly close. In fact, I think both these pitches can probably be linked with my 70m....


10 minutes of friction and smears later I was at the top of the 4th pitch after climbing the coolest 200 feet of friction I'd done. Near the end I'd forgotten about protection or sliding and just breezed up, enjoying the momentum.

I maybe felt a bit bad for robbing a lead from Jackson, so we decided to rap off and head up to the North Gulley for a couple quickies.

There was a few slabs with some moderate routes, but the majority were taken up by a couple of climbers. Literally, a couple, a boy and girl. She had led a 5.9 on the right to a shared anchor and he was working some 5.8 corner system - yarding on every piece of gear, extending none of it, taking on each stopper and refusing to do any actual climbing. His lady was fairly frustrated, and while Jackson and I each led a fun 5.10b sport route "Maneater" he had gone from 1/2 to 2/3 of the way up the route.


As we hiked out we heard him top out amidst woops of joy. I think the route was called "woman up," hilariously.

We chuckled at ourselves as we walked down the trail, at the awesome climbing, the lack of crowds, the weird dude hanging on every stopper. Just as we were wrapping up laughing at some poor sods expense we stepped on a log that had a beehive in it, or something, because I felt like dozens of darts were being thrown at me.


"BEES!!!!"


I blasted head first down talus, sliding and scraping and putting as much distance between me and whatever the f*#k was happening, meanwhile my mind kept saying over and over again "Bees can chase you a mile. Bees can chase you a mile. BEES CAN CHASE YOU A MILE."

Eventually I stopped, whipped off the pack and fought the single bee left in my shirt to the death (I won). Jackson walked up later and judging by the number of bees still in his hair I felt really great about getting that buzz cut.


So, there you go. A weird day at Tahquitz. Aren't they all?


BETA:

Rack: 1 ea. from .5" to 2.5", extra 1.25"-1.75" (green camalot) helpful for pitch one belay.

Can link pitch 1+2 with a 70M (5 bolts, 210') and 3+4 with a 70M (7 bolts, intermediate belay and a 2" peice or two for the last 25 feet).

Need 2 ropes to rap, can rap with 60M ropes.