Tahquitz — Coffin Nail + Traitor Horn Linkup
20 July 2018
Welcome to the laziest trip report evah. Garrett and I climbed this hella sweet linkup the other day. Funny enough, we had each got wind of it independently and when Garrett suggested it, I jumped and said, ‘Oh Yeah!’ Then, scared myself silly looking at pictures of True Horn.
We got off to a somewhat convoluted start as Garrett accidentally solo’d the first pitch of Coffin Nail (one 5.3 slab move) into the alcove with a tree. I characteristically balked at the move and had Garrett toss me the rope.
This had me thinking the slammer crack above was pretty stiff for 5.3 (in actuality, it’s 5.8!). No mind, the jamming was so nice. I ended up setting a belay just below the namesake coffin dihedral; the spot had a smallish stance and more importantly, a great view of both Traitor Horn and True Horn to get us in the mood.
Our second roped pitch took us to another semi-hanging belay in yet another alcove, this time right in front of True Horn. Oh. My. Goodness! I recommend slinging your last piece long, before traversing to the right underneath the Traitor Horn. This will keep the rope drag to a tolerable level.
I thought I was prepared for True Horn. I was wrong. Got a big adrenaline rush pulling it and had to straddle the thing for a few minutes to calm my nerves. What got my heart racing was the slick feet beneath the horn. But thankfully, there are some big holds on True Horn that allow the adrenalized gumby to mount it with brute force, rather than any semblance of technique or style.
WARNING! SPOILER BETA ALERT BELOW!
To move off the True Horn, tip toe along its left side like you’re walking a diabolical plank. Reach up and grab a nice hold with your left hand. Pull and off you go onto the slabby, but very featured dished out rock above the horn. It took me a while to figure this out; but the moves right off the front of the horn (furthest out in space) are more difficult than the exit to be found after walking the plank on the left.
After that all I had to do was come down from the massive high of pulling the horn. What a cool linkup. Coffin Nail provided a longer stretch of clean crack climbing, and Traitor Horn came through with the knockout punch finale. Good stuff.
