On November 30th Bobbi and I dusted off the Thanksgiving rust with a quick lap on the Tahquitz moderate classic, Fingertrip.
After 12 days with family for Thanksgiving, Bobbi and I hit the road again. Before heading to the warmer lands of Joshua Tree we jumped on a brief late season weather window in Idyllwild. Multi-pitch alpine granite is our favorite climbing style, and the season for climbing anywhere besides the desert is rapidly closing. To dust off the cobwebs of food overindulgence and late nights, we kicked off our three day Idyllwild stay with the Tahquitz’s most popular moderate classic, Fingertrip.
Fingertrip is given four stars on Mountain Project and the highest guidebook praise of three stars. Perhaps sluggishness and numb digits were to blame, but we weren’t quite sure it deserved such marks, especially in one of the epicenters of North American climbing. However, the route really was great. The first pitch is the most sustained, with 40+ meters of 5.7 laybacking through a series of clean polished corners. Towards the top of pitch one, the original route departs the corner for a splitter 5.6 handcrack. A more popular variation stays in the corner via 5.8 tips laybacking. We chose the latter to keep a linear rope line for simul-climbing, and found the difficulties surprisingly soft by Tahquitz standards. Pitches two and three were both interesting and unique, following an “improbable for the grade” system of flakes, cracks and slabs into an imposingly large arch with several overlaps. Reaching the arch involved a memorable, albeit trivial, 20 foot unprotected slab traverse. A sequence of sustained 5.7 laybacking and underclinging across multiple layered crack systems led to the leftmost terminus of the arch and a short punchy mini-roof with excellent exposure. A final pitch of quintessential alpine rambling capped with a one bolt 5.4 slab took us to the top. A “5.4 slab” may seem benign, but this particular one was a completely smooth pane void of handholds, making it anomalous.
To climbers interested in Fingertrip, I’ll offer a few notes. If you’re confident at the grade, a single rack of cams from fingers to large hands, plus the standard nuts, should get the job done. We linked pitches one and two, but regretted it. Instead, linking two and three would make the most sense, eliminating the semi-hanging belay atop pitch two. We climbed summitted in about 90 minutes with little rush, and were back at the car in under four hours. Whether or not this is deserving of top-tier-classic status is up for debate – but there’s no debate that Fingertip is an excellent climb on sound rock with unique and memorable movement. For us, it was the perfect way to dust off the Thanksgiving rust.
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DISCLAIMER
Ski mountaineering, rock climbing, ice climbing and all other forms of mountain recreation are inherently dangerous. Should you decide to attempt anything you read about in this article, you are doing so at your own risk! This article is written to the best possible level of accuracy and detail, but I am only human – information could be presented wrong. Furthermore, conditions in the mountains are subject to change at any time. Ten Thousand Too Far and Brandon Wanthal are not liable for any actions or repercussions acted upon or suffered from the result of this article’s reading.
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