Mescalito E- Too Many Tantrums

SUMMARY HAIKU

Too Many Tantrums here
Do the roof, traverse, or both?
What the FUCK today!

Mescalito East

DATE OF CLIMB: DECEMBER 20, 2019

WALLS HIT TODAY: 1 (Mescalito - E Face)
NUMBER OF CLIMBS TODAY: 1
NUMBER OF PITCHES TODAY: 2 (often done in 3 pitches)
VERTICAL 5.7 FEET CLIMBED TODAY: 290'
NUMBER OF FALLS TODAY: 0
NUMBER OF TAKES TODAY: 1

This is Rick's first take on the 5.7 tour!

DIRTY UNDERWEAR ENCOUNTERED TODAY: 0

TOTAL CLIMBS SO FAR: 73
TOTAL PITCHES SO FAR: 90
TOTAL 5.7 VERTICAL FEET ON THE TOUR SO FAR: 6,985'
NUMBER OF CLIMBS REMAINING: 176
VERTICAL FEET REMAINING: ~43,382
FALLS SO FAR: 0
TAKES ON LEAD SO FAR:

Stef – several (on the two WTF climbs she has lead so far - Miniwanka and Lean & Languid)
Rick - 1 - on this climb

DIRTY UNDERWEAR ENCOUNTERED TO DATE: 3

VIDEO NOTE: We planned to do two climbs and ended up just doing this one. It's actually a good thing we did, because the next day we did Pauligk Pillar and that was even more of a What the FUCK!-er! (see Day 23).

START & END TIMES:

Arrived Parking Lot: 6:45 a.m.
Arrived at Mescalito E Face: 7:45 a.m.
Began Climbing: 8:10 a.m.
Back at Base of Climb: 12:10 p.m.
Back at Car: 1:00 p.m.

Pitch 1

Climb: Too Many Tantrums (Trad) (5.7)(2 pitches - often done in 3 - 290')
Wall: Mescalito E Face

Conclusion WTF? What the FUCK!

We had originally planned to do two climbs today (the second being Pauligk Pillar, which is to the left - see labeled image). But we both were getting over a cold, it was a really cold morning and no sun hit the rock (so the rock was cold too), and the climb took a bit longer and more energy than expected - so we ended up just doing this climb (that turned out to be fortuitous, because Pauligk Pillar was significantly more of a What the FUCK! climb!)
All in all this is a good climb on decent rock, despite the What the FUCK! rating. You might be able to "un-fuckify" Pitch 1 via an alternative start on Splitting Hares - which is around the corner on the right side of this block.
The top of Pitch 2 gets challenging again, and may not be good for a newer leader. This also contributes to the WTFuck rating.
Someone on Mountain Project commented that there is poor quality rock on this climb. As far as Red Rock sandstone goes, the rock quality is pretty darn good.

Pitch 1 starts off with a bang with this quite challenging mini roof with no holds. It is cussing and grunt-worthy for sure. Meeting our WTF criteria, Rick said "fuck" multiple times on this section - he also "took," which was the first time for him to take on this tour!

The climb gets back to (mostly) 5.7 terrain for the rest of this pitch.

Sometimes this climb is broken into three pitches. Rick decided to do a rope stretcher, taking our 60m twins all the way to a decent belay ledge about 190 ft up (placing pro in pockets). This was to minimize rope drag on the traverse to the anchors on pitch 2.

Rick's first take and hang on the WTF 5.7 tour! He also said "fuck" several times. This mini-roof is the first element contributing to the WTFuck rating of this climb.

Start of Too Many Tantrums - Rick and I estimate this to be about a 5.10b start.

With some grunting and try-hard moves, he made it!

Pitch 2

Stef on pitch 2 of Too Many Tantrums.

Stef on rappel.

The main issue with pitch 2 was deciding to do the traverse versus the roof then traverse.

The supposed 5.7 version is to cut below the roof and traverse right to the anchors for rappelling (the anchors are at the top of the climb Next Century.) The entry into the traverse was bulgy and committing, and difficult to see holds to get out onto the face. Trying to get into the traverse felt less comfortable than the roof. It's difficult to see the holds and protection possibilities on this traverse. A Mountain Project description also describes it as difficult to protect for the second.

Although the roof is technically on another climb (rated 5.8+/5.9-), it just seemed more straightforward. You can (sort of) protect the roof from below (though with the sling a fall would likely be a small deck), then do some scrappy moves to get up and over. The holds are there, you just can't place any pro once you commit - you gotta go.

Mountain Project descriptions from the roof, talk about going up, over and down to the anchors, but we just traversed after gaining the roof. This traverse is protectable and straight forward.

Rappel down Next Century with two ropes (we used two 60m ropes).

The End

Stef points to the major What the Fuck part of this climb (which is avoidable by starting on a different climb). All in all this was a good climb, just not for a beginner and not a 5.7 the way we went.