This was an incredibly fun route, I thought. I would give it more than one
star, personally. I also don't think it was 5.8, but then again, I think all
the 5.8 stuff at Tahquitz is starting to feel easy to me. I'll have to start
climbing harder stuff here. I'm not sure where exactly you're supposed to
belay at the end of the first pitch here, but I ended up accidentally linking
the first two pitches. Assuming that you 3rd-class it all the way into the big
alcove before roping up, this is easy to do with a sixty meter rope. Then the
second pitch is short, and basically all fourth class. The ledge that I
belayed from (at the end of what the guidebook calls pitch 2) is super cushy,
quite possibly my new favorite ledge at Tahquitz (or a close second to the one
on the Long Climb.) Also, the 5.6 off-width section before that is neither 5.6
nor an off-width. It's slabby enough that I'm pretty sure you could walk up it
with no hands. Also, one final note, we led this thing with only passive pro.
In fact, we pretty much had an all-passive day. I placed a #1 Camalot as my
first piece on Mechanic's Route, but both Aaron and I placed nothing but nuts
and tricams the rest of the day. This route, in particular, protected
spectacularly well with nuts. Everywhere I wanted one, there was a bomber
(plantation bomber) nut placement. When I got to the belay, I barely had
enough left, until I remembered the tricams.