Lichen to Liken  5.8

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Type:  Trad, 2 pitches, 200 feet Consensus:  5.8- [details] FA:  ?, pre-1981 Submitted By:  Chris Wenker on Sep 22, 2009 You & This Route  |  Other Opinions (2) Your todo list: Your stars: Your rating: -none- [change] Your ticklist: [add new tick]

BETA PHOTO: Lichen to Liken (5.8), Mosaic Rock, Tres Piedras, ...

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Some rocks in this area are on private property. Property owner requests signed waiver. MORE INFO >>> The remainder are on US Forest Service land. A map detailing the public areas can be obtained from the ranger station en route to the rocks from the village of Tres Piedras. According to Jan Studebaker: "The property line runs from approximately the current east corner by the access gate in a straight line over the top of South Rock to the top middle of the Chicken Heads/Mosaic Wall mount, and from there west down the mount slope to the meadow just south of the Alley climbs. Some of the most popular routes are completely on private property. There are survey markers on the top of South rock (the mysterious aluminum stake stuck in the rock) and on top of the Mosaic rock (most of the time buried in water in a pot hole.)" A new online Tres Piedras Route Guide from LA Mountaineers has been updated with the latest access information, and should be read by all Tres Piedras climbers. Group climb leaders, and Climbing Directors (future or past) should take particular note. From the guide: Access Notes: Tres Piedras climbers should sign the waiver found on this page because the popular South Rock is mostly on private land, as is some of the access to the area. The landowner, requests a waiver, NO fires, no chalk and "please close any gates". In order to nurture greater landowner acceptance of climbers, participants of group climbs are requested to organize quick clean up activities before leaving the area; this should include the climbing area as well as the access roads (trip leaders could supply plastic grocery bags). Small parties should practice "leave no trace" principles. On August 19, 2009 the landowner stated: "Yes I still own the property, and yes I'd still like to have waivers on hand - even or perhaps especially from your organization. Only once in awhile do I have problems with climbers, mostly not picking up after themselves. My biggest gripe is that despite repeated requests, the climbers don't remove protection (edit: colored webbing, shiny hardware) from the climbing routes, which is both lazy and unattractive. Your organization could do me a big favor by doing a group climb and removing the crap that others have left on the various routes so that it is both a pristine part of the landscape, and so that each climber must figure out his own route without relying on the handiwork of others." This information is a public crowdsourcing effort between the Access Fund, and Mountain Project. You should confirm closures, restrictions, and/or related dates. Keeping climbing areas open and conserving the climbing environment

Description 

This route is written up in the 1981 guide and in the 1984 "Tao's Rock II" guide, but I don't know that I would have been able to find it, based on the written description, if I hadn't had the help of a long-time TP climber to point it out to me. He had climbed this route back in the days before the Thunder Toad anchors went in, so we think we have the correct line of Lichen identified here.
Start up the thin face just to the right of Thunder Toad. Get established in the wide fissures under the little roof, then head up the wide seam out the left side. If you want to do this route as 2 pitches, at about 85 feet, you can belay at the chain anchors for Thunder Toad and Danger Mouse, or ignore the bolts and build a gear anchor. From that ledge, continue slightly right, up the easier, but interesting layback seam. At about 190 feet off the ground, a nice tinaja just below the summit provides some good gear placements for an anchor.
There's some awkward 5.8 moves at the start, but the rest goes at ~5.5 or below, so it's a good easy adventure.

Location 

Starts from the most westerly point of Mosaic Rock, just left of Beastie Alley.
There's no anchor on top. My source reported that in days gone by, the descent involved doing an easy gear-protected downclimb off the east side. However, having done it once, that's an awkward and unpleasant option. It's probably much easier and faster to simply downclimb P2 back to the bolted anchors and rap from there.

Protection 

Standard TP trad rack; cams from tiny (for the start) to #3 C4. An optional bolted anchor is less than halfway up; gear anchor on the summit (takes bigger cams).