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Hands Masseuse
5.8,
Trad, 275 ft (83 m), 2 pitches,
Avg: 2.6 from 30
votes
FA: Paul Crawford, Mike Shreve, 1976.
California
> Lake Tahoe
> S Shore
> Pie Shop
> 7. Main Wall
> Main Wall (Right)
Description
Good route, but grainy. I don't know what the photo's all about.
Down and to the right of Pie Face are three cracks. These are to the left of True Grip.
Climb the right-hand crack, a bolt protects face moves to a chimney/offwidth. Follow this to a belay. Most folks rap from here, or there is an interesting down climb off the back side.
The seldom done second pitch, goes up and right to a chimney. Climb this until it is possible to move left onto a face, which is followed to the top.
Protection
0.5-3" for the first crack, wider for the OW section. Pro to 4".
[Hide Photo] That other photo by Brad makes no sense. This shows most of the real route (albeit from straight below). Follow the righthand crack 'til it peters out. Move left and head up the gut. You ca…
[Hide Photo] Hands Masseuse, with an alternate finish, heads up the crack and over/up to the belay shared with The Last Dance (5.11b) and New Blood (5.12a). Route description goes to the left.
[Hide Comment] Went to the Pie Shop for the first time a few weeks back, and a party was camped out on this route ALL DAY. I went back and did it today, and now I know why. Way more fun than the two-star reviews suggest. Sure it's grainy, but tape up and enjoy the locker jams. Aside from a couple of psychological cruxes for the leader, it's pure fun - killer jams, and some fun stemming and chimneying higher up. This is a fun route - we each had to take two laps! You can toprope with a 60m rope, but for the rope to reach you'll have to start belaying from 15-20' up to the left, up the footpath along the base.
Feb 6, 2012
[Hide Comment] Good finger, hand, and toe jam practice. Take some laps on this route to improve your skills. Protects well, but of course if you put to much gear in, you take your jams away...
Apr 21, 2014
[Hide Comment] Definitely recommend a #4 for the ow up high. Not that it's too techy up there, but gear gets rather sparse and a fall would more than likely result in a collision with the ledge below the stem. Rad route, though! TR'd the finger crack down and to the left today, too.
Jan 16, 2015
[Hide Comment] The bolt (mentioned in the route description above) protecting the slab moves right below the stem and OW section was chopped recently. There is gear (0.4-0.75 range) available about a body length below where the bolt was but you need to be careful about rope drag depending on where your last piece was in the lower crack.
Sep 25, 2020
[Hide Comment] I love this climb. I've been up Hands Masseuse probably 40 times in the past 15 years and it's always amazing. I still remember the first time I led it, stiching my way up to the chimney. By the time I got to the giant chimeny I had almost run out of gear, so I built an anchor and belayed my partner to me just so that I had enough gear to finsih the climb. Now, when I climb it, I only place a handful of pieces. It's just so amazing to gauge your progression as a climber on a fun and exciting climb like this.
May 17, 2023
Avg: 2.6 from 30
votes
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