Olivia and I did our first multipitch together out at Tahquitz. I lead the first two pitches and she finished the last two. We had gone out to Tahquitz with two guys and had gotten a fairly late start due to morning classes and such. While climbing we took our time making sure our gear was correct and dealing with the snafu of a fallen nut and forgetting to exchange the cordelette. I had to fashion an anchor out of carabiners. That is definitely not the best idea, but at least the pitch was a 5.2 or something, so I wasn't too worried.
Around the third pitch, ever sunny California started rolling in massive fast moving clouds. Olivia and I both mildly freaked out. What had been a warm day turned cold and dark and my stupid Raynaud's disease was turning my hands numb. Thankfully Olivia booked it up to the top and the guys happened to meet us just at the right time to descend. The guys gave me another jacket (I already had on two) and some closed toed shoes to warm up.
Tahquitz has a crazy frictiony decent and we only had two head lamps between the four of us, so we had to go down a bit slower than normal. When we finally got into the town of Idyllwild, it was around 8 or 9PM. I called Darren and he told me he and some of my roommates (poor Burt had damaged his eye on Darren's ginormous car rack getting in the vehicle) were on their way to find us. Olivia and I were shocked they were scared because they knew we had left late. I told him not to worry, and then got some weird rasberry hot chocolate from a devilish cafe. The cafe was scary because there were paintings of devils and heavy curtains draping the walls. I think it contributed to my distaste for the drink. I was too creeped out.
Our epic day ended with some chatting around a bonfire and then a triumphant return to the Linda.
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