Booty Quest
by SCMA Member Dave German

Recently Climbing Magazine had an article entitled "Return of the Booty Snatchers" or some such. I read the article and I got fired up – think of all that free gear out there. Next thing I knew, Don Porter is mentioning that he knows the location of 5 cams up at Tahquitz from his last trip. 5 cams – why that’s $250 worth of gear.

I had visions of cams in my head as I lay down to sleep that night. I dreamed of cleaning gear – free cams, stoppers and tri-cams; mine all mine. I knew that the next weekend was to be at Mount Williamson, so I had to restrain myself for another week, but the following weekend Tahquitz! and hopefully booty galore.

The intervening weekend at Williamson turned out to be solid rain, both Saturday and Sunday. Since Tahquitz had similar weather, to me this translated as more gear – I was sure that plenty of people bailed out on good gear due to rain.

Finally, the weekend arrived. I made plans to climb with Judy R. We discussed which routes might have gear and how to link them up. How could we maximize the booty score? After arriving on Friday, we consulted with our prime source – Don Porter. He indicated that the cams he knew about were on lower Jam Crack and upper Angels Fright. We thought we could see a way to link the routes based on the topos.

Saturday dawned and we had a quick breakfast at Jan’s. As we packed, I assembled my tool kit. I brought a small hammer, four cleaning tools, a screwdriver, needle nose pliers, several bent wires, a coat hanger, tape, a set of aluminum tent poles and a little bit of mechanical know-how. If I can’t get it with this stuff it will be there a while I thought to myself.

We rapidly hiked up the trail to lunch rock after signing in with LeRoy, who didn’t seem to appreciate my indication that we might be coming down after dark. He didn’t think it was funny and requested that we return to Lunch Rock at a reasonable hour so he could go down.

On the way up from Lunch Rock to Jam Crack I found a # 13 BD stopper laying on the ground - BOOTY! I yelled. I was convinced already, that I would acquire a whole new rack that day. We scrambled and climbed up to Jam Crack, having to use a rope due to my poor choice of routes. I led the first pitch up to the bolted belay, carefully going straight up over the difficult roof in the middle of the route – awesome, but not on route. Slightly above the belay, I spied the first prize, a .75 Camelot. Judy belayed me up and I went to work. Judy, meanwhile was snacking and watching the crew top-roping Dave’s Deviation and the bolted route adjacent to it. About 20 minutes later I was finished –SCORE! - more booty, that new rack was growing already.

Judy suggested we go ahead and climb Dave’s Deviation too, so I hung my pack and we rapped down. We made short work of the route, enjoying the fine quality thin crack climbing. After talking with the party now ascending Jam Crack, we found out that one of the cams Don had located was, in fact, a pink tri-cam on the second pitch of Jam Crack. Upward we climbed, making sure we stayed ahead of the other party, who also had designs on "my" tri-cam. When I got to the arching roof, sure enough, a pink tri-cam. Judy tied me off again, patiently waiting at the belay and having one more small chocolate snack.

After seconding the pitch, Judy rapped down the edge of the Trough to clean a couple of poot slings. Climbing back up proved to be a little more difficult than anticipated. The next pitch was a traversing pitch from Pine Tree Ledge to Lunch Ledge. I found a loose biner on the way – BOOTY! I yelled again. It proved to be a beautiful traverse with maximum exposure and mostly good pro – very good climbing. The only really exciting section had a loose ring angle piton protecting a twenty foot section of 5.8 face climbing.

When we arrived at Lunch Ledge we realized that a crowd of 12 were already there. I pulled out my tool kit to clean the #1 Friend. I bragged to all within earshot that I wouldn’t leave without that cam on my hip. 45 minutes later, a woman, who had been closely following my progress and was just leaving, asked "Are you really that cheap, or are you doing this for environmental reasons?" I replied, "I am that cheap and damn proud of it. Any more questions?" After an hour of relaxing, Judy was ready to leave when I finally gave up on the cam. It’s still there, buried deep in the crack on Lunch Ledge, although loose. The next pitch was slated to have another cam, just below the face climb to the top. I led up the pitch. Halfway up the pitch, I looked down and found a BD cleaning tool – SCORE! As I finished the pitch I realized the cam was long gone – I was saddened by my loss. By this time it was late and we headed down to Lunch Rock.

We signed out, since Leroy indicated we didn’t need another route on his time and headed up to finish the day on Human Fright; a nice finish to a productive day.

After dinner, we headed back to camp. I was feeling pretty self-satisfied until Annie Stockley came up and told us about her day. She and Clay Trager had polished off two long routes on the north side. By the way, she said, I found some gear too. She proceeded to reel off a long list of found gear, making my minor acquisitions pale by comparison. Damn, she hadn’t even been on the Quest – just climbing for enjoyment.

Sunday, as we headed up to Tahquitz again, Mike Gordon joined us, anxious to observe the finer points of the Booty Quest. We didn’t sign in, since the "official" club trip was to Suicide and we weren’t headed that way. Signing in and out simultaneously to get climbing credit wasn’t an option that day.

Based on beta from some of the Lunch Ledge crowd, we decided to climb Super Pooper, due to the plethora of gear reputed to be there. The approach hike proved to be quite a hike, requiring 5.6-5.7 climbing on some of the third class sections. We elected to use a rope. A loose #1 BD stopper appeared in my path on the way – BOOTY! – I yelled.

As I set off on the first pitch I could see several stoppers on the route above. I was so excited by the obvious booty, I momentarily forgot why we were there – to climb. I climbed about 30 feet, and set a #3 Camelot to allow me to traverse to a tiny crack adjacent to the route containing a #1 stopper. As I stemmed across and hung on two fingers I pounded on the stopper with my cleaning too and hammer. I couldn’t quite get the leverage to clean it. Judy called time at five minutes and the stopper still wasn’t loose. Damn – I hate to give up. After getting back on route, I looked back toward the belay and just below me I spied a yellow alien – BOOTY! I yelled again. I set another cam and had Judy lower me to the cam. I pulled the trigger and wiggled the cam out.

I climbed up to the harder 10a section above – suddenly I had to think about climbing. I surmounted a small roof and clipped a fixed #3 stopper, inspecting it to see if it would yield to Judy’s hammer. I felt sure it would, so I continued on through the next section, a difficult crux (10c according to locals). The next fixed stopper a #5 Wallnut was after the crux and just below the final harder sections of climbing. I again inspected the piece to see if it looked easy enough to clean. Yes, I thought to myself, Judy & her hammer can clean it. Judy seconded, taking about 3 minutes extra to clean the fixed #3 stopper. At the crux she paused and finally decided to aid on through. The other moves I had struggled with Judy pulled with no problem, climbing strong. At the second fixed stopper, she indicated I should rap down and clean it, while she belayed up Mike. While Judy belayed, I set up a rappel and lowered down to the piece. A couple of sharp taps with the hammer and it came free. SCORE! I yelled. I climbed back up on self-belay, careful to stay safe.

The next two pitches proved to be moderate, but beautiful climbing. We all felt satisfied; the climbing was great, but the booty made the day.

On the way down, we decide to climb the first pitch of Fingertip Traverse to wind down before dinner. It has proved to be another great day on the rock. And so the booty quest goes on……

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