left ski track, 5.6, 3 pitches: Steep with jugs galore. Until the last polished slab... Excellent winter outing.

sahara terror, 5.7, 7 pitches: A long adventurous excursion on the north side with engaged route finding. You'll find a bunch of overhangs and a well defined crux somewhat out of tune with the official rating. Images

piton pooper, 5.7, 4 pitches: Lots of fair to good easy climbing interrupted by a steep and strenuous crux pitch. Image

el wampo, 5.7, 5 pitches: Mostly known for a fantastic second pitch, sporting a 100' hand crack. A variation to the third pitch makes for more interesting finish. Image

fingertrip, 5.7, 4 pitches: Don't know any better 5.7 in California. Mayby because it is more like a sustained eight in disguise. Image

the jam crack, 5.8: Not the best climb on this list, but worthwhile to do as a warm up to Dave's Deviation..

the chauvinist, 5.8, 3 pitches: Difficult start followed by a fun overhang.

traitor horn, 5.8, 4 pitches: Strange and a bit unnerving. Don't make this your first Tahquitz route. If the whole horn affair is too out there, literally, you can jam straight up the corner at around the same difficulty.

the long climb, 5.8, 7 pitches: Here's a good one. Do the Wong start as recommended everywhere. This climb has a number of distinct pitches, including the locally famous move around the 'downward jutting block'. Images

last grapes, 5.9: Lost and forgotten, judging from the cobwebs and initial dirt filled crack, this finger crack is actually well worth doing.

open book, 5.9, 4 pitches: First pitch is supposedly the crux. It's hard all right, but features straight forward climbing. The most memorable part of Open Book must be the notorious OW corner on the second pitch. Sonja, my wife, recently lead this gaping slot and was happy to have a #4 1/2 Camalot in addition to the usual arsenal of cams. And then there's the baffling 5.6 chimney to top off the route....

hoodenett or whodunit, 5.9, 8 pitches: Without comparison the finest route on this limited list of Tahquitz climbs. There's some low angle, slightly runout climbing lower on the climb, featuring a disappearing seam on a slab. But after this uncharacteristic passage it's steep cracks and chimneys and other similar goodies. Seldom does the overall difficulty dip below 5.8 for more than a few feet, yet the route is never unreasonably hard. Images

dave's deviation, 5.9:This might be one of the finest five nine finger cracks outside of the Valley. Image

super pooper, 5.10-, 4 pitches: Hard and long crux pitch surrounded by less committing, but equally high quality climbing. I do remember some hesitation regarding the routefinding on the last pitch. Did this one in 1991 with my girlfriend Sally on a 2 week trip from Denmark. We were supposed to go to Devil's Tower, our then favorite crag, but got stuck in a fierce snowstorm in south west Wyoming. After spending a day and a half in a roadside motel waiting for the freeway to open we turned around and drove to SoCal. There was still a good deal of snow at Tahquitz, keeping us off the north side.

human fright, 5.10-, 2 pitches: Lieback and smears. No rests to speak off, so climb fast.