RED ROCKS 2016
Having a climbing partner who is actively enrolled in College can be difficult, our schedules rarely line up, especially when I am always working at least part of a weekend due to my job in retail. Reading week, however, is the perfect opportunity to take some time off work and take a substantial trip. When Josh asked if I would join him to Red Rocks, I have to admit, I was a little disappointed. I was definitely not done with winter yet, but everyone else seemed to be keen to chase warmer weather and get on some rock. I was optimistic though, because I knew that Red Rocks really could not disappoint. It has such a high density of climbing in a relatively small area, and the number of classic climbs in the area is astounding.
Originally we had a large group of friends who would all be coming on the trip, but in the weeks leading up to our departure, everyone except Josh and I bailed on the trip. This didn’t bother us too much though, there was little that could squelch our excitement for the climbing, but it did mean that we had to make some changes to plans. The UofL climbing club also does a trip over the same week, and now with way less drivers and contributors to campground fees, the best choice was to join the group for the trip. It ended up working out great, we got to take out some new partners, we saved money on camping and gas, and it was awesome to have more people to share the excitement with.
We had some pretty high hopes for the trip. There were plenty of classics we wanted to tick off, but we were unsure how we would fair in terms of difficulty of climbing in relation to how it was graded, as well as the amount of climbing we could achieve in a day. Our list of climbs grew pretty quickly prior to the trip, but once we got out there and started climbing, we quickly got a feel for what we could achieve and our list dwindled to a realistic handful of goals.
The drive started on a Friday afternoon, and by sunrise we were pulling into Vegas. It’s a pretty straightforward drive, and since we did it in the cover of darkness it was easy to rest up. We were the first to arrive from the group so we checked into the campground, set up, and got some food. But still no one else had arrived, so we decided to climb. There was a shorter climb (3 pitches) that I had seen highly recommended online, so we thought it was the perfect way to stretch our legs after the drive, and get our feet wet to find out what Red Rocks climbing was going to be like.
All week, Josh cleverly took all the leads he wanted so that I got the harder ones, but this meant that he had to take the first pitch of the week. It turned into a bit of an adventurous climb as we had a lot of route finding things to learn along with the guidebook, but we found our way with minimal down climbing. The first pitch was great crack climbing with a pretty tough roof move, the following “money pitch” had a couple of bolts with difficult slab climbing which only scared me a little bit, and the final pitch an half had some awesome juggy moves in a dihedral. It was an insanely fun and varied climb for our first day.
We got back to camp a decent time, with light left to make some food and great some more group members who were arriving. The next day we brought along a third climber, Nathan, who had come with some others from the University. Nathan was very green in terms of outdoor climbing experience, but we assured him that he would second all day and that we would have a riot climbing a very notable objective. With a couple more twists of his arm, he agreed to join us.
Solar Slab is 7 pitches long, but requires 4 pitches on another route before starting up the slab. All told, its about 1800 feet of climbing. For the first three pitches, we selected another climb called Johnny Vegas. Josh took the first pitch and it was a delight, I took the next pitch and it got harder and steeper, with some really long stretches without protection, but I felt secure. Then we had another easy pitch to get us to the start of Solar Slab.
Most of the pitches on Solar Slab are a blur in my mind now, but I do remember how incredible it was. We thought this day was going to be a good warm up for the rest of the week because of the easy grade, but it was difficult (relatively, especially for the grade), sustained, and unrelenting. We really gave Nathan his money’s worth, for sure. There were long pitches of amazing hand jams, steep laybacks, difficult traverse moves, and all-in-all extremely high quality climbing.
The top out was gorgeous. We could see all of Las Vegas to one side, and a beautifully rugged canyon on the other. But not soon after arriving at the top, the sun began to start plummeting quickly. We grabbed the pack, realized we only had one headlamp for the three of us, and started to boogie down. Our descent and walk out turned into a bit more of an epic than I’d like to admit. It was certainly difficult to navigate the descent route in the dark, especially when we had to share one light. But we figured it out until the last couple rappels when we met another group and shared ropes to get to the ground. We bushwhacked out for quite a ways until we were able to find the trail to the car. All things considered, we faired pretty well.
Exhausted from our big day, Josh and I ate a mediocre meal and when straight to bed. We didn’t set the alarm and planned for a shorter route the next day to rest up a bit. We arrived at Cat in The Hat the next day around 10:30 to find 3 or 4 other parties on the route already. In the Rockies that would mean turning around or finding another route, but with the awesome sandstone in Nevada you can get on the route right behind other parties. We waited around for an hour or so for the other parties to get high enough up the wall so we could begin the climb.
I took the first pitch and I’ve got to say, it was really no fun. It was severely under-graded and the quality of movement was just not what we had experienced days prior. Fighting rope drag to the top I made an anchor and pulled josh up so he could take the next pitch, which was equally disappointing. Arriving at the top of pitch two we had quite a while to wait for other parties. This break was long enough for us to get really comfortable on the generous ledge, close our eyes, and consider why this crappy climb made it into the list of classics.
Finally we had some room above us, and pitch three did not disappoint. It was hard, but super fun. Big moves in a big crack up a steep face, and after one awkward traverse Josh got the final pitch, which was probably the most fun of them all. Two amazing pitches and three rather poor pitches made for an amazing day. We rapped down with another party and started the walk back as darkness fell, this time though, with a more straightforward walk back.
The next day would involve a route-finding and guide book reading disaster that ultimately ended up with us getting super lost on the approach, and by the time we realized where we were, it was too late to get on route. We weren’t too bummed though, we were feeling pretty tired anyway, so we took the chance to explore Vegas a bit and rest up. The route-finding day also helped us find our route for the next day.
After a solid rest and some time to convince another climber to join us, we headed back to Black Velvet Canyon to get on the ultra classic line Froglands. We got an early start alongside a guided party and made quick work of the route. The grade intimidated us at first, but it ended up being right within our wheelhouse. The climbing was hands-down the best we had found on the trip. I mean, it was all unreal, but the quality and steepness and exposure on Froglands was relentless. The third member of our party that day, Brian, had not been multipitching or trad climbing before, and he got a wildly fun route for his first time.
Josh and I swung leads for the bottom few pitches, and then I took the two crux pitches. One pitch had a tricky slab traverse with delicate movement, but was relatively well protected due to a fixed piece. Pulling over a juggy and steep bulge after the slab provided us with amazing exposure: steep crack moves over a roof, 5 pitches up. I built an anchor and brought the others up, and then started up the next crux pitch, probably the coolest pitch I’ve climbed. Down low it was slabby, traversing from crack to crack, but once it reached the main crack, it brought me into a chimney, where I made some tight moves and tunnelled my way underneath a ten foot wide chock stone. A spectacular move, which would precede a heartbreaking end to the day.
Josh was to lead the next pitch, and as he moved right out of the chimney, he put on the gear sling, which contained 80% of our safety gear. The sling promptly broke, dropping all of our gear down the route, hopelessly far away. I watched Josh’s face drop as his last year of savings in the form of climbing gear feel down the mountain, and as I tried to figure out how we were going to get off the climb, I realized Brian was standing next to me wondering if we would be able to leave our ledge at all without a dramatic rescue.
We were standing on a large ledge, and so Brian and I felt comfortable to stand there without an anchor. So we removed the 3 pieces we had that were keeping us attached to the wall, but this left us vulnerable to being ripped off the mountain if Josh were to fall before getting a piece in on his lead. Josh had a couple of pieces that weren’t on the sling and whatever we gave him from the anchor, and we were comfortable that he could lead the pitch and make an anchor for us to finish the climb.
We also came up with a solution if Josh were to fall before placing a piece. Since we were on a huge chock stone with a tunnel behind it (a chock stone is a rock lodged in a crack), if Josh fell, the belayer would jump down the tunnel, Josh on one side of the chock stone and the belayer on the other. It would be an epic way to arrest a fall, one that while definitely keeping us attached to the mountain, would probably still cause some serious problems. Luckily, it never came to this. Josh nutted up and got the pitch done with almost no gear.
And so with that epic of a day over, the wind and rains came, and with a bunch of gear missing from our collection, we headed home feeling great about what we accomplished. The loss of gear was a huge bummer, but all in all we had so much fun that it really couldn’t bring our spirits down.
