Northeast Rib

This was one of the first trad routes on Tahquitz. The standard Wilts and Vogel guidebooks describe it in vague terms and don't provide topos, saying that there are many possible variations. The route we found felt like modern 5.6 on pitch 3, which doesn't seem consistent with Wilts' and Vogel's ratings, so there may be an easier way to do that pitch.

P1. Class 4 climbing to the top of the bus-sized boulder at the base of the Northeast Farce dihedral, which is also the start of El Whampo. P2. Climb brushy ledges and a chimney to the left. Mostly 4th or easy 5th class, with a  protectable 5.6 move in the chimney. Continue past a ledge with a pine tree, then through an overhang, 5.6, to a large sloping ledge next to a right-facing diheadral. P3. Climb a double crack system up the dihedral, with easy climbing mixed in with two vertical or overhanging cruxes, 5.6/7. The dihedral tapers off and vanishes. Exit to the left, being extremely careful of a band of loose rock. Semi-hanging belay on orange-stained slabs. P4. Climb the orange slabs, bushwhack left through chinquapins, and continue left to a shady belay in the branches of a huge tree. 4th class. (Optional exit from here to the north gully.) P5. Regain the rib by stepping off of a boulder next to the tree. Climb face to a ledge. Optional belay to avoid rope drag. Continue up a double crack from the right side of the ledge. Belay at the apex of the rib, at a saddle behind a car-sized boulder. 5.4. P6. Bypass the boulder by passing around it on the left. Continue up a low-angle crack. 3rd class

This route lies at the extreme left side of the northeast face. The biggest landmark, just to the right, is the inverted-Y shape of the two big dihedrals that form the two variations of the Northeast Face route. Start up from a pine tree 6 feet in diameter near the bottom left corner of the squarish El Grandote overhangs.

to 2"