PRINT: Rock Climb Questionable Timing, Taos Area

Questionable Timing

5.12 PG13, Trad, 500 ft (152 m), 3 pitches, Grade III,

Avg: 4 from 5 votes
FA: Kevin Boyko, Nick Levin, Peter Yeo
New Mexico > Taos Area > Questa Dome > Questa Dome

Access Issue: Seasonal Raptor Nesting Details

This climbing area is shared with raptors that nest on the cliffs. Help us maintain access and please avoid climbing near active nests/ledges that raptors are using. If a raptor is disturbed during nesting season it may exhibit aggressive defensive behaviors like vocalizing or dive-bombing. If you witness this behavior, retreat from your climb immediately and find a location on a different formation or a different part of the wall far enough away from the raptors that they are no longer noticeably agitated. If they remain agitated, then please leave the area immediately.
Raptor awareness is especially important during nesting season from mid-February to late May but needs to be considered through the end of August. Please report disturbed and/or nesting raptors to the Carson National Forest the appropriate district office (see below) and share relevant information here on MP. Human-raptor encounters can have negative impacts for the birds and climbers in the area. The Cason NF wants to maintain climbing access while protecting raptor reproduction and relies on climbers to recreate responsibly and share information in order to avoid the need for formal raptor closures.

Questa Ranger District
(575) 586-0520
Camino Real (Comales Canyon) Ranger District
(575) 587-2255
Tres Piedras Ranger District
(575) 758-8678
El Rito Ranger District
(575) 581-4554

Description

Edited after it went completely free:

This climb may be considered new or a large variation. Either way it offers excellent varied climbing on consistent grades.

Pitch 1: 5.11+, 60m:
Start at the giant obvious dihedral. Same start as "Tostadas Comquesta." Get in the angling right corner. From under the mini roof, layback it, go left (not right, which is "tostadas") follow the dihedral right until it gets to a decent ledge. At this ledge punch it left to the 12ft overhung face on dark orange rock. Climb out left on a jug and mantle to find a bolt anchor. (full 60 meter pitch is great or break it up under the small roof).

Pitch 2: 5.11+ PG13 200ft:
Slab it up directly up the thin face. Tiny cam/tricam protects the first pocket. Swag the rusty buttonhead out right.
Now tread left to the small feature jutting out of the wall. It's pretty run out and very thin. If you punt and the pin holds you may swing 30ft off the huge dihedral.

(UPDATE: The beginning of this pitch now has an additional bolt through the crux and the old buttonhead has been replaced thanks to Josh Smith and Jason Halladay. There is still some runout climbing on the easier top, but it is much safer.)

Climb to the ledge, protect it, and continue towards the giant overhang past a shiny new hand drilled bolt.
At the overhang traverse right until your under the huge corner.

Pitch 3: 5.12- 70ft:
From what I understand this pitch is called Questober? I was told it had not gone free? Climb up the techie overhung face into the overhung dihedral. Unless you are 9 years old: the crack is less-than-fingers. Stem up, match a pinch on the left and jump left into another overhung even less-than-fingers dihedral. (Use a 00 or 000 C3, or 00 TCU. It's small)
Build an anchor at a small tree after the lip.

If you just climbed this, feel free to tie the rope on your back and free solo the bomber chicken heads. It's pretty solid and has a lot of ledges
or rope up and climb to the top at 5.5.

Walk off.

Location

Start on Tostadas Comquesta. On the large, err huge right facing overhung dihedral in the middle of the cliff.

Protection

Double rack from .4 to 3. Small RPs and less-than-finger cams.
First pitch has bolted anchor
Second pitch has two bolts on the climb, build an anchor.

I climbed it with a 60m.

Photos [Hide ALL Photos]

The slab climbing early in the second pitch. July 2020.

The intimidating, thin and difficult roof on pitch 3. Some wild, weird and hard climbing. July 2020.

You can see the rope going over the first "mini-roof" below the tree in the photo. Pulling the roof is the first crux. If you take the dihedral to its end and belay on the ledge at the top, the pi…

We added two bolts to the slab. Both were hand-drilled. One is at the same level as the old buttonhead and replaces it. The other you can see below the corner.

This was on the Questa overview

Comments [Hide ALL Comments]

Scared on Toprope
fort collins co

sounds like some SICKness ~ Aug 17, 2013

George Perkins
The Dungeon, NM

Talked the other day to a guy who used to climb in the area, Peter Walsh, who said he belayed Rick Smith on the FA (not done free, at least not then) of the Octoberquest roof. I inferred this would have been late 80s/early 90s. Peter said he led a quite runout slab on the pitch prior to the roof, that they solo'ed the final easy chickenhead pitch, and the overall experience was basically the most epic climb he ever did. Not sure how this relates to the full line described here, there was some ambiguity in his account.

[After we went and checked it out... The buttonhead on p2 looks like a Rick Smith bolt- according to Josh, who climbed with him some- but that doesn't mean they sent or finished the line from there. Chuck Calef also told me he thought Rick tried a line in this section, wasn't sure if he finished it. Rick's climbs in northern NM, and some of the stories about him from those who climbed with him when he lived in Los Alamos, are pretty impressive; some are harder than this is, so I wouldn't be surprised if pieced it together up to the big roof.] Dec 12, 2018

Kevin Boyko
Santa Fe, NM

5.12 PG13

George, that's awesome! Maybe they placed the pin described in the second pitch. It's been a while that I climbed it, but remember traversing hard left from the pin then went up. It's possible they veered right? Or Mr. Walsh may be referencing "Tostadas Comquesta," both may fit the description.

As for the Octoberquest pitch, I'm surprised no one else has had any info on anyone freeing it. It's fantastic! Someone go do it.
The grading is probably a bit soft for that area, I'd rather that than sandbagging someone on a runout route. Dec 12, 2018

Josh Smith

5.12 PG13

P1 variation. We climbed the big dihedral all the way to its end and belayed at the ledge at the top of the slab. The top 15 feet or so of the dihedral is very thin, technical climbing with small but adequate gear and about 11+. I thought it was significantly harder than exiting to the belay on the arete at the base of the slab as described. It's a mega-pitch! We did it in a single rope-stretcher from the ground. It is about 70m from the Tostadas start, or you can walk up a bit from the start of Tostadas and skip the first 15m of Tostadas and climb it with a 60, which is what we did.

P2. With Kevin's permission, we added a bolt below where the pin used to be (it's gone) and put anbother new bolt left of the rusty buttonhead. I asked Kevin if I could add a bolt becasue a fall on the slab would have likely sent you on a swinging fall over the very sharp lip and with a good chance of cutting your rope. Both bolts were hand-drilled. The pitch can now be climbed in relative safety straight up from the belay on the best rock on the face, avoiding the crispy edges near the arete. It is possible to climb this portion of the pitch at closer to 5.10 now by staying left on the good rock. The pitch as a whole is probably still PG. I tried to pull the buttonhead and could not.

P3. Nothing to say about this except that it's probably one of the most interesting pitches I've done on the Dome. Really fun and engaging climbing to the pinch Kevin mentions, then some seriously weird body-tension moves to the lip. I protected the moves past the pinch with a good Green C3 (00) and two brass nuts right next to each other. 12- seems right, though it's difficult to grade. Jul 11, 2020