Hey Susan -- I actually remember meeting you guys at BGS that day. And Nate and I carried on via email a couple years back about some of the routes we did.
The Tempest is one of my favorte formations in SoYo. I climbed pretty much every route on it (at least those that were in the Spencer guide) with one partner or another. One day I climbed from the belay on Pitch 1 of Havana Ball to the second pitch belay on VCD -- not sure if it had every been done before or not but it's a good variation. My notes say 5.7-5.8.
In that area I did two other new routes, one up and left of BGS on No Name Ridge (2 pitches, 5.9 face and crack) and another one further east, on the formation near the entrance to Bowler Campground (5.8, goes over a bulging headwall down low). I also led the short crack on the summit boulder atop Boulder Garden Slab (5.9) -- not sure if that had ever been done before or not. Probably Robbins did it in the Hinterlands era.
As I told Nate previously, climbing with Jocko Holmgren was always an adventure. Jocko was (is) a quirky guy and arch-traditionalist, who was an avowed agnostic yet would yell "Stand up for Jesus!" whenever he was faced with a crux move. No one could better place a bolt from a dicey stance than Jocko, and he was cool in the clutch. He put up a number of gnarly routes at the Pinnacles and seemed to relish the climbing more when the rock quality declined.
Jocko and I both admired Tom Higgins as a master of the Old School, and we scared ourselves silly trying to climb Higgins' routes around SoYo. In June 1991 Jocko and I climbed Elegance on Chiquito Dome. As Jocko was the better face climber we decided he should lead the crux pitch (which we rated 10.d -- neither of us thought it was quite 5.11). All of the bolts on that climb, at that time anyway, were 1/4" and the hanging belays were two quarter-inch split shafts. As with so many Higgins routes, there are substantial runouts on that climb. I was gripped belaying Jocko on the crux pitch, hanging there in the middle of that wall, even though that pitch is the best protected on the route, thinking that if he fell and any force were applied to the anchor we would both be out of there. But Jocko styled the pitch, crowing "Stand up for Jesus!" and "Lord Almighty!" repeatedly.
BTW the second pitch of that route is serious -- the real business of the climb. You have to do 5.10c moves well above protection with a fall there landing you squarely on your belayer's head. Still, Elegance is one of the best routes for the grade, anywhere. I made an annotated topo of it that I can scan and share if anyone's interested.
