White Maiden's Walkaway 

Careful, it is easy to get off route. There are a lot of clean lines up the buttress that climb harder than 5.6.

The natural line of this climb should take you through some 5.4 to 5.6 movements. I'd highly recommend finishing WMW via the direct 5.7 line. Highly enjoyable and protectable.

Awesome climb! For anyone who doesn't bother climbing anything this "easy", you're really missing out on a fun climb. Not sure why this page rates WMW as 5.1, it's listed as 5.4 in the guide and I agree. P4 is the money lead - that exposed step around makes the climb, when after almost 4 pitches of comfortable climbing the rock falls away beneath you, 500 feet to the bottom of the Long Climb.

Although the 5.3 finish is exposed and fun, you're right about the final pitch Marc. Great 5.7 finish! And the 5.3 traverse variation to pitch 3 is a lot more fun than the 5.1 standard line.

The 5.6 variation to the first half of the second pitch (a little to the left of the original route) is a great hand and lieback crack that will call your name from the belay. Make sure to cut back right to the top of a tower feature for a comfy belay.

Unless your looking for an adventure, bring the route topo photo someone kindly included and try to follow it.

I found many moves on this climb which are in the 5.6 or even 5.7 range, (particularly going up and right from top of gendarme rather than up and left).

The pro is not always as available as one would think for a supposed 5.1. The rock on this side of Tahquitz is pretty weathered compared to the west and south sides, with flared or pod like cracks that are not as easy to place pieces in. If you can bring thinner cams that might help. 1/4"-1" gear seems most usable.

I wouldn't recommend this route to slow parties starting late or new leaders - it takes more route finding, has tougher moves and more difficult pro placements than many other higher grade routes at Tahquitz.

From the top of pitch 3 (the first pitch after the lower buttress spike) we deviated straight up instead of going left on the big ledge to the bushes. The climbing was excellent, but the rock was pretty hollow. This ended up connecting us to the Fools Rush as it switched dihedral directions.

Great route! Agree with the other comments about getting off route and route finding. My partner and I agreed that we were pretty certain we made a number of 5.6-5.7 moves. Never got into any sections of 4th class like the guidebook states. We were able to do the entire route in 4 pitches with a 60 meter rope. We finished off right going over an exposed lip with marginal hand holds. Anybody ever finished this way?

As per the Tahquitz/Suicide guide, the route checks in at 5.4, not 5.1.

Gray Tradster....care to explain "exactly" where the 5.1 is at? Randy Vogel will want to know first hand! Done this route solo and find several spots that would compete with other "old skool" 5.5/5.6's put up in the 40's. Today, the YDS has adjusted as the grades continued upward. We all know that for many years, 5.9 stayed that way until someone was bold enough to slap on a 5.10 label on many of those so called "5.9's" (later, some of those 5.9's were given 5.11 ratings by the original FA.)

There's been serious grade inflation since Chuck Wilts established the decimal grading system at Tahquitz.

The Maiden is 5.1

I guess we did the two 5.6 variations on the first and second pitches per the guidebook. Never found the 4th class section per the guidebook so we probably were off route a bit. Wasn't my intention to inflate the original rating be it 5.1 or whatever.