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Touch And Go Face
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Touch And Go 

Touch And Go 

5.9

   

FA: Matt Cox, Bobby Kessinger, and Dan Ahlborn - January 1976
Type: Trad
Consensus: 5.9 [details]
Length: 1 pitch, 70 feet
Views: 2,936 page views

Submitted By: Mike Morley on Jun 24, 2002


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Mike Morley starts up the twin cracks of Touch And...


Description 

One of the best 5.9 cracks in Joshua Tree. Start out in sustained double finger cracks until the right crack peters out. Continue up left crack as it turns to perfect hands and finishes with a small juggy roof.

Belay from a large boulder (gear required) atop the formation.

To descend: scramble west through a notch, downclimb into a rock gully and then scramble down the gully (heading east towards Echo Rock) until it opens up and you can make a left back towards your pack.


Protection 

Standard rack to 2".



Photos of Touch And Go Slideshow Add Photo
Touch And Go Face

BETA PHOTO: Touch And Go Face

Mike again.

Mike again.

Wayne Howard climbing Touch N Go. Wayne is my long time climbing partner. He is also the only person I know that has tied into a rope with Lynn Hill.

Wayne Howard climbing Touch N Go. Wayne is my long...

Took a while to set up the anchor in order for me to be able to get this shot, but I think it was worth it!

Took a while to set up the anchor in order for me ...

Near the top of the route.  Took a while to set up the anchor in order for me to be able to get this shot, but I think it was worth it!

Near the top of the route. Took a while to set up...

Great toe jams

Great toe jams

on-sight flash

on-sight flash

Audrey follow T&G, styling it as usual

Audrey follow T&G, styling it as usual

Me with an onsight flash with great jams

Me with an onsight flash with great jams

Touch and Go onsight lead.

Touch and Go onsight lead.

Climber on "Touch and Go".<br />Photo by Blitzo.

Climber on "Touch and Go".
Photo by Blitzo.


"Touch And Go". <br />Photo by Blitzo.

"Touch And Go".
Photo by Blitzo.


Touch and Go

Touch and Go

Very fun sustained climb.  A classic must do if in the Echo Rocks area

Very fun sustained climb. A classic must do if in...

Ginger on Touch and Go

Ginger on Touch and Go

shameless plug... fun climb tho

shameless plug... fun climb tho

Joan P rocking the wide section.

Joan P rocking the wide section.


Comments on Touch And Go Add Comment
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Comments displayed oldest to newestSkip Ahead to the Most Recent Dated Oct 14, 2009
By Anonymous Coward
Oct 21, 2002

Beautiful and classic. Protects well with nuts and small cams. Fairly thin and definitely sustained...10a?

By Tony B
From: Boulder, CO
Jan 6, 2003
rating: 5.9

Larger gear and a long cordilette are useful to builde the belay up top. TO descend walk to the opposite side of the rock (south) and then scramble down to the SW and then around the east back to the trail and then back up to the base if you left your pack there.

By Anonymous Coward
Jan 6, 2003

Descend by short chimmney to the south and then east around the base to your packs. You never get down to the tail...

By Tony B
From: Boulder, CO
Jan 6, 2003
rating: 5.9

Hey AC. You don't get back to the trail, but I do. I looked at the options and found I could bolder hop to the main trail and then walk over to the crag trail and back up. I liked that option better of the two times/ways I did it. Some might not have left the pack at the base, in which case, you just keep walking.Looks liek either way works.

By 5.10b4me
From: Alhambra, California
May 3, 2003

maybe the best 5.9 crack climb in Josh (imo). found it to be easier than Pope's Crack.

By Dynomight510
From: San Diego
Sep 12, 2003
rating: 5.9

A sustained climb the first 10-15'feet which is the crux. Stemming and the abiliting to jam a finger crack are helpful. Pro in this section is yellow Metolius. After this section is a good rest but the route overall is steep. Hand size cams the rest of the way. Pro for the trad anchor is 3/4-1.5".

Great quality

Solid for the grade.

By Dynomight510
From: San Diego
Sep 12, 2003
rating: 5.9

A steep and sustained route the first 10-15' where stemming and finger crack skills play a role. This is the most difficult part of the route but there is a rest after this section and the crack opens to hands. pro on the first section is a yellow Metolius. hand size the rest of the way and for the trad anchor. The walkoff is requires some scrambling and a tiny bit of easy downclimbing. The sustained nature of this route could easy earn a 10a rating by some.

Very protectable climb. Classic for J Tree

Sustained and solid for the grade.

By C Miller
Administrator
Dec 13, 2003
rating: 5.9

One of the best routes of it's grade in the Park with great rock, varied moves and an easy approach. Far better than Pope's Crack IMO. Four stars out of five. Pro to 2.5" for the route, while pro to 3.5" is handy for the anchor.

By namascar
Feb 9, 2004
rating: 5.9

Excellent route. Opposition helps a lot in the beginning of the climb. #3 and #4 Camalot can be useful for the anchor, together with a very long piece of tubular tape.

By Bo Johnston
Feb 9, 2005
rating: 5.9+

I climbed this route on a relatively cold day and wouldn't recommend it. It does help numb the hands for the jamming though... Boy, I really wish there was a rap route on this one! The decent is a pain

By Adam Stackhouse
Administrator
From: Escondido, Ca
Mar 2, 2006
rating: 5.9

Good route, quality rock, great protection, double cruxed, but it is over way to fast. 3 stars out of 5.

By susan peplow
From: Phx J-Tree
Sep 26, 2006

The route has a bit of a reputation which was messing with my head. I was was happy to find the crack clean, easy to pro and fun, fun, fun. Looking forward to doing it again!

~Susan

By SirVato
From: Toyota-rado
Jan 3, 2007
rating: 5.9

This route was friggin COOL!! The tricky twin crack was awesome then the rest was just GOD JAM FUN!!

By Will S
Feb 18, 2007

Overhyped. Awkward down low, but takes great gear. Way too many stars, IMO.

By Bill Olszewski
From: Colorado Springs, CO
Mar 10, 2007
rating: 5.9

Will - Sorry you feel that way. I loved Touch and Go; great variety of technique, double crux, bomber holds up high for the weary leader! Love the start - stemming the double cracks. A back stem also works very well. But whatever you do, don't lieback that first section, unless you really enjoy blowing out your arms to save your legs or have a physique like Popeye. lol

By Darren D.
Mar 11, 2007

Numerous ways to do the crux 15 feet. Lots of rests after that. Felt slightly harder than pope's crack.

By Bowie
From: San Diego, CA
Feb 20, 2008
rating: 5.10a

Stemming the first 30 feet got me pretty pumped. I would suggest possibly getting in some gear then liebacking this section. After the start, the rest of the route is pretty easy. Great fun!

By Sam Prentice
From: davis, ca
Nov 6, 2008

If you've made it this far down the Comments section, you're going to do the route, and so you should take 15 minutes extra to run up the bolted juggy face climb you pass on the descent: north facing, on your right as you scamper down the mini canyon behind touch and go wall, 4 bolts and a grey camelot down low, probably 5.8... a fun and quick bonus prize after a great climb... anyone know the name?

By Adam Stackhouse
Administrator
From: Escondido, Ca
Nov 6, 2008
rating: 5.9

Sam, your probably referring to the climb Jughead

By Dave Cox
Nov 6, 2008

Sounds like Inhaler.

By jj brown
May 22, 2009

Great climb for anyone leading in the grade. Good top-rope for beginning tradders. Start ain't too bad with some strength. After that move into some solid finger-hand jamming. It gets a bit spicy but protection is good throughout. Experienced climber should be good with pro to 2". The top will come as a relief. Nice and juggy to your right.

Pretty easy to set up an anchor at the top and drop a top rope for your buddies.

By ccmski
From: Prescott, AZ
Oct 14, 2009
rating: 5.9

One of the best 9s in the Park. Bottom can be climbed many different ways- just over too fast.