Originally we had a trip to the east side planned for this past weekend, but those plans got derailed by the deluge that's continued to bless the western states in the past few weeks. As a result we had to scrap all plans, and begin fresh. As everyone knows it never rains in southern California so once we verified hunches with NOAA forecasts, and backed that up with a wunderground references we were off for Idyllwild. Grandiose ideas of crushing stone master routes were laid, and gear piled into the rental. We were off for the legendary crucible of American freeclimbing - Tahquitz, and Suicide Rock.

Naturally Murphy's Law made sure to put us in our place.


So we kicked it in town for the day, and pretty much had drinks at every bar in town. Running into a couple PCT through hikers that were zeroing we had the chance to kick it, and relax from the long drive.

We started the trip off at Suicide as it was the only crag we could see from the valley, and figured it would be the driest. Not sure if we were right, but we still had a blast.


Unfortunately those are the only shots we have form Suicide. My iPhone died, and we forgot the real camera we brought in the car. All in all we ticked a bunch of good routes (Flower of High Rank, Graham Crackers, Johnny Quest, Flakes of Wrath, Jizz, The Hernia, Winter Solstice, and Insomnia were all ticked).

Following a badass day at Suicide we hoofed it up the hill to Tahquitz to sample some longer route awesomeness. We started on Dave's Deviation (pitch 1 only), tr'd Manwich to it's left). After this great start to the day we rallied up Super Pooper. Pretty neat getting over to Super Pooper from the start of the Trough. Some simul scrambling, and tree climbing mixed in with good route finding to the base.


The views were MEGA.


That final slab gave me pause...


Super Good route!


Summit selfie


Then the mandatory basking in the alpen glow glory whilst swilling the local brews.


So psyched we made it down there.