Pockets a' Plenty 

Pockets a' Plenty is a great climb, but watch out for Poison Ivy at the belay station.

Watch out on the ledge at the top. There's a lone cactus defending the area.

Nice route, the crux pockets are fun. The cactus is positioned right where you make a blind reach, it got me. The 2 nostril pockets for your feet while you thread the anchor are an added bonus.

Cactus nearly got my buddy who TRed it, but somehow I missed it. Don't even remember it....musta been in the zone. I'd say the first two bolts are crux. Use the crack to your advantage by starting between a juniper tree and a patch of what we suspected was poison ivy mixed with scrub oak.

This route is the most fun of the three on the Whale's Tail. We weren't even sure what we were climbing until later. Crux is tricky and the finger pockets are fun. Long route! The two big holes below the anchors are interesting and make for a good stance while clipping the anchors. Oh yeah, poison ivy right on the route below and right of the first bolt.

Terrible rock, it just turns to sand under foot and hand.

Of 2 days at RRCOS this was probably our least favorite climb. It seemed contrived with some odd bolt placements. It has some bad rock too - I broke the hold that looked best to me above the sand ledge. The day we did it, it had tons of sand, leaf pieces, and pine needles on it. On the plus side, you can often climb left or right of the bolts and vary the route. Look out for poison ivy growing *on the rock* next to the starting corner and at the base.

Plain 'ol good 5.9 climbing all of the way up. If you belay from the left of the tree, beware that you will use up an entire 60m rope. Interesting start if you don't use the flake on the right of the tree to the first bolt. Climbing the last bolt and the anchors is pretty much free soloing (if you are leading), because if you slip, you will deck on the 4' wide shelf and your partner won't be able to stop you. Fun anyhow.

I thoroughly enjoyed the crux on this route. The name says it all. Definitely a must do route for The Whale's Tail.

Really nice climb. It's the leftmost line on The Whale's Tail. I'd say the first to bolts felt cruxy. Be careful up top, because there is a ledge and you have to climb up a couple feet to the next bolt.

Leftmost? I'd say rightmost, anyhow, the pics give you a good idea of the start of this climb. Not a bad climb, but a couple of the bolts could have been better place, or at least another bolt, to avoid hitting some ledges in case you messed up in the wrong place.

I like this route, but be solid at this grade, and understand RRCOS climbing.

I suppose this is technically a bit easier than Jason's Argonaut to the left, but it is a bit more sustained at the bottom; however, this is a more challenging lead than that route, head-wise and consequence wise.

It spit me off just before bolt three, and I came down to about bolt one. At the first ledge, I was a bit jittery from that fall, and as I set off into the pockets after the first ledge and I was trying to gett to that PG-13 runout to the bolt, my nerves almost spit me off. That would have probably been an ankle buster.

The second ledge also has ledge-fall potential, but it is less serious, and it uses all of a 60 meter rope, especially if you belay left of the tree.