My good friend made his way over west from Colorado this past weekend and we headed up to Idyllwild early Friday morning. It's not a place I've spent much time in besides passing through to climb a few times at Tahquitz rock. My first memory of it was when I bailed on the PCT in 2009 and camped at the San Jacinto State Park reading some random Michael Crichton book I picked up along the way, though I don't know which one it was. The PCT wasn't as exciting as I hoped it would be; the JMT spoiled me, though in hindsight I didn't give it a chance and I wasn't mentally prepared for that type of journey. One day I will walk this long path. Ironically it's the perfect time of year to see the herd of PCTers pass through and there was no shortage of them.
We climbed a 5.7 five-pitch route called Fingertrip on Friday, which was really fun and heady at times. Climbing a lot more trad and outdoors this year has helped my head game tremendously and it showed on the run-out slab sections of pitch 2 and 5. Last time we climbed out here we had an "epic" and didn't get back to the car until midnight. This time was much different. My plan Saturday was to run an 18.5 mile "lollipop" loop to the top of Mt. San Jacinto via Deer Springs Trail while my friend put in another day of climbing. I'm somewhat ashamed to admit I had never summit San Jacinto and I was thrilled to be able to ascend a peak of it's stature on all new terrain. It was a great loop.
We climbed a 5.7 five-pitch route called Fingertrip on Friday, which was really fun and heady at times. Climbing a lot more trad and outdoors this year has helped my head game tremendously and it showed on the run-out slab sections of pitch 2 and 5. Last time we climbed out here we had an "epic" and didn't get back to the car until midnight. This time was much different. My plan Saturday was to run an 18.5 mile "lollipop" loop to the top of Mt. San Jacinto via Deer Springs Trail while my friend put in another day of climbing. I'm somewhat ashamed to admit I had never summit San Jacinto and I was thrilled to be able to ascend a peak of it's stature on all new terrain. It was a great loop.
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| Joel leading 3rd pitch |
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| End of route: Final belay from top of 5th pitch |
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| Shelter built by the CCC in 1933. There were four bunks. |
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| One of several USGS markers from the 1800's at the summit of San Jacinto |
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| San Gorgonio (11, 503') from San Jacinto (10,833') |
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| Lily Rock (Tahquitz) coming down from Wellman Divide |
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