Red Rocks 2010
March 3-8
Like last year, Annie and I took advantage of the coincidence of our spring breaks to get in some early season rock climbing and tick some of the classics. This year we stayed at La Quinta in Summerlin which was very convenient to the climbing. We found last year the strip was fun for a bit but had limited appeal for us. We did catch another Cirque de Soleil show, though, Ka, which was fun.
Photos at my picasaweb site
Day 1
An early flight and not much sleep the night before landed us at the area around 11am in a rather tired state but we rallied and did
Sacred Undergarment Squeeze Job 5.8*** 1p (bolts)
Brief Encounter 5.8** 1p bolts
at the Panty Wall (shaped like women's panties, I kid you not). Then at the Parking Lot area we did
White Slab 5.8* (but where were the bolts--this was a bit runout--was I on route?)
Man's Best Friend 5.7** 2p bolts
Day 2
Hoping to take advantage of our East Coast internal clocks, and fearful of the crowds on popular routes that gave us fits last year, we got a very early start for Tunnel Vision. However, the weather was not cooperating, high winds and some snowflakes were dogging us on the approach. We bundled up and did the first pitch, 5.7+ but the rock was too cold and we were not having fun so we bailed and headed for sunnier rocks. We returned to the SW facing areas, in particular the Magic Bus which had some nice bolted routes:
Neon Sunset 5.8***
Ken Queazy 5.8 (D)
Technicolor Sunrise 5.8* (A)
Electric Kool Aid 9+* (D tr)
Then we headed up to do
Great Red Book 5.8*** 2p
We misunderestimated how serious this route was, just figured we'd stroll up to it and how long could two pitches of 5.8 take anyway. But the approach was convoluted and then I realized I did not have a second rope which it looked like we would need to rap off. However, I convinced myself we could rap the route next to it with 1 rope and we continued on up (Ka tickets at 7 gave us little margin for error!) The climbing was great, clean liebacking up huge corners. The second pitch (5.8) was pretty testy but Annie did great. The usually very accurate Handren guide did not say how to descend here, so I had assumed it was a rap off. However, when we got to the top it was clear the bolts were just for anchoring, not for rapping. It was not obvious how to descend, and given how convoluted the approach was, with all the zigzagging to get around walls and box canyons, I was not very interested in trying to figure it out. Going with the plan to rap the route next to us (which was actually separated by a huge gap) I got the rope to span the gap and probed down for the anchors, but nothing there! So we just ended up rapping the route, leaving a sling at the top anchors and using a protection bolt in the middle of p2 to get down to the chains at the end of p1. I was able to downclimb from the end of the rope on p1 with a 60 meter rope. Then we really had to hoof it for the car and the MGM Grand!
Day 3
This seemed like a good day to do
Olive Oil 5.7*** 5p
but given our long day yesterday and late night on the town, we did not get a particularly early start. It was not a good sign when I had to park my car up on a bank on the main road because the parking area was full. Sure enough there were about 3 parties at the base and one on the route. I was told to take a ticket! However I did not like this scenario having been burned last year waiting for extremely slow parties on Birdland. The first two pitches were under 200' and looked pretty straightforward, though the second was 5.7. So I soloed up them to quickly get far above the maddening crowds. One guy gave me a hard time, but what the heck. On the last pitch, the party above us for some reason went up a crack in a buttress to the left of the main corner. This route was not in the guide but looked interesting. We stuck with the corner. The crux for us was a testy chimney on the last pitch where I had to clip my pack to my harness and grovel a bit. Very nice route and the gully descent was not bad.
Day 4
Some of the longer *** 5.8's are not particularly sunny, but they are protected from wind, so we decided to try some of them. Today we did
Black Magic 5.8*** 4p
which was indeed a fine route, mostly face climbing, which suited Annie well. The first pitch was a little tricky, but I had trouble figuring out where to belay. The color photos in the guide clearly showed where the route and belay was, but I was looking for a regular stance with two bolts. I climbed higher and back down to the single bolt. Guide says bolt and thread anchor. I guess this means you're supposed to thread a sling through the rock but I didn't realize this until just now. The later pitches look way scarier than they really are. All in all a really fun climb, but it took us a while, maybe 4 hours with the descent which involved a bunch of single rope raps (more than indicated in the guide) and some routefinding to get back to the base. Since we were here we decided to tick a couple of starred routes in the Romper Room area right next door:
Kindergarten Cop 5.7** 1p
Romper Room 5.7*** 1p
Day 5
There was rain in the forecast, and it was cold, so we stuck to short routes.
Ultraman 5.8*** 1p
This was funny as we tried to use a second rope to enable a bottom belay on a 120' route with a 200 foot rope. Next to it was
Clutch Cargo 5.9* (Annie's first 5.9)
both bolted. We went over to do
Ragged Edges 5.8***
but it was getting really cold and some of the crack was wet. Second pitch is wide, also, somewhat reminiscent of Rat Crack on East Peak, CT. Anyway, we figured the first pitch (5.7) would be OK but it was still somewhat intimidating and the crack climbing did not suit Annie very well. She was climbing in the belay gloves--this is not the warm Red Rocks experience we had come to expect from last year! Anyway, I finished by toproping the first half of
Plan F 5.11** to the anchor on Ragged Edges.
Day 6
We had a flight at 4 but figured we'd have time to get in
Dark Shadows 5.8***
Not ideal conditions, with a cold early start and some wetness from the rain the day before. We botched the approach by trying to cross the stream too early. The first two pitches were fine. The third was kind of intimidating. I ran out of pro at about the 100 foot point (despite the fact that the guidebook says single rack of cams!) I think the conditions made me climb conservatively, but it did seem like there were several cruxes and the first one was hard for 5.8. In any event, I lowered and collected enough gear from the first half of the pitch to finish the pitch. I think I might have gone for it if I had saved at least a number 2 camalot for some wider cracks at the top 50'. Annie was not managing this pitch, however, with the cold temps and all the crack climbing. We had overreached. Time to get back home. I was able to tension over to the rap station on the next route over so I could get down with one rope. I toproped that pitch of Chasing Shadows 5.8* and then we were out of there. All in all a great trip, and we managed to do a lot of great climbs despite the unseasonably cold temperatures. Reminder to self to check the weather conditions before making plans!
Like last year, Annie and I took advantage of the coincidence of our spring breaks to get in some early season rock climbing and tick some of the classics. This year we stayed at La Quinta in Summerlin which was very convenient to the climbing. We found last year the strip was fun for a bit but had limited appeal for us. We did catch another Cirque de Soleil show, though, Ka, which was fun.
Photos at my picasaweb site
Day 1
An early flight and not much sleep the night before landed us at the area around 11am in a rather tired state but we rallied and did
Sacred Undergarment Squeeze Job 5.8*** 1p (bolts)
Brief Encounter 5.8** 1p bolts
at the Panty Wall (shaped like women's panties, I kid you not). Then at the Parking Lot area we did
White Slab 5.8* (but where were the bolts--this was a bit runout--was I on route?)
Man's Best Friend 5.7** 2p bolts
Day 2
Hoping to take advantage of our East Coast internal clocks, and fearful of the crowds on popular routes that gave us fits last year, we got a very early start for Tunnel Vision. However, the weather was not cooperating, high winds and some snowflakes were dogging us on the approach. We bundled up and did the first pitch, 5.7+ but the rock was too cold and we were not having fun so we bailed and headed for sunnier rocks. We returned to the SW facing areas, in particular the Magic Bus which had some nice bolted routes:
Neon Sunset 5.8***
Ken Queazy 5.8 (D)
Technicolor Sunrise 5.8* (A)
Electric Kool Aid 9+* (D tr)
Then we headed up to do
Great Red Book 5.8*** 2p
We misunderestimated how serious this route was, just figured we'd stroll up to it and how long could two pitches of 5.8 take anyway. But the approach was convoluted and then I realized I did not have a second rope which it looked like we would need to rap off. However, I convinced myself we could rap the route next to it with 1 rope and we continued on up (Ka tickets at 7 gave us little margin for error!) The climbing was great, clean liebacking up huge corners. The second pitch (5.8) was pretty testy but Annie did great. The usually very accurate Handren guide did not say how to descend here, so I had assumed it was a rap off. However, when we got to the top it was clear the bolts were just for anchoring, not for rapping. It was not obvious how to descend, and given how convoluted the approach was, with all the zigzagging to get around walls and box canyons, I was not very interested in trying to figure it out. Going with the plan to rap the route next to us (which was actually separated by a huge gap) I got the rope to span the gap and probed down for the anchors, but nothing there! So we just ended up rapping the route, leaving a sling at the top anchors and using a protection bolt in the middle of p2 to get down to the chains at the end of p1. I was able to downclimb from the end of the rope on p1 with a 60 meter rope. Then we really had to hoof it for the car and the MGM Grand!
Day 3
This seemed like a good day to do
Olive Oil 5.7*** 5p
but given our long day yesterday and late night on the town, we did not get a particularly early start. It was not a good sign when I had to park my car up on a bank on the main road because the parking area was full. Sure enough there were about 3 parties at the base and one on the route. I was told to take a ticket! However I did not like this scenario having been burned last year waiting for extremely slow parties on Birdland. The first two pitches were under 200' and looked pretty straightforward, though the second was 5.7. So I soloed up them to quickly get far above the maddening crowds. One guy gave me a hard time, but what the heck. On the last pitch, the party above us for some reason went up a crack in a buttress to the left of the main corner. This route was not in the guide but looked interesting. We stuck with the corner. The crux for us was a testy chimney on the last pitch where I had to clip my pack to my harness and grovel a bit. Very nice route and the gully descent was not bad.
Day 4
Some of the longer *** 5.8's are not particularly sunny, but they are protected from wind, so we decided to try some of them. Today we did
Black Magic 5.8*** 4p
which was indeed a fine route, mostly face climbing, which suited Annie well. The first pitch was a little tricky, but I had trouble figuring out where to belay. The color photos in the guide clearly showed where the route and belay was, but I was looking for a regular stance with two bolts. I climbed higher and back down to the single bolt. Guide says bolt and thread anchor. I guess this means you're supposed to thread a sling through the rock but I didn't realize this until just now. The later pitches look way scarier than they really are. All in all a really fun climb, but it took us a while, maybe 4 hours with the descent which involved a bunch of single rope raps (more than indicated in the guide) and some routefinding to get back to the base. Since we were here we decided to tick a couple of starred routes in the Romper Room area right next door:
Kindergarten Cop 5.7** 1p
Romper Room 5.7*** 1p
Day 5
There was rain in the forecast, and it was cold, so we stuck to short routes.
Ultraman 5.8*** 1p
This was funny as we tried to use a second rope to enable a bottom belay on a 120' route with a 200 foot rope. Next to it was
Clutch Cargo 5.9* (Annie's first 5.9)
both bolted. We went over to do
Ragged Edges 5.8***
but it was getting really cold and some of the crack was wet. Second pitch is wide, also, somewhat reminiscent of Rat Crack on East Peak, CT. Anyway, we figured the first pitch (5.7) would be OK but it was still somewhat intimidating and the crack climbing did not suit Annie very well. She was climbing in the belay gloves--this is not the warm Red Rocks experience we had come to expect from last year! Anyway, I finished by toproping the first half of
Plan F 5.11** to the anchor on Ragged Edges.
Day 6
We had a flight at 4 but figured we'd have time to get in
Dark Shadows 5.8***
Not ideal conditions, with a cold early start and some wetness from the rain the day before. We botched the approach by trying to cross the stream too early. The first two pitches were fine. The third was kind of intimidating. I ran out of pro at about the 100 foot point (despite the fact that the guidebook says single rack of cams!) I think the conditions made me climb conservatively, but it did seem like there were several cruxes and the first one was hard for 5.8. In any event, I lowered and collected enough gear from the first half of the pitch to finish the pitch. I think I might have gone for it if I had saved at least a number 2 camalot for some wider cracks at the top 50'. Annie was not managing this pitch, however, with the cold temps and all the crack climbing. We had overreached. Time to get back home. I was able to tension over to the rap station on the next route over so I could get down with one rope. I toproped that pitch of Chasing Shadows 5.8* and then we were out of there. All in all a great trip, and we managed to do a lot of great climbs despite the unseasonably cold temperatures. Reminder to self to check the weather conditions before making plans!
posted by John Imbrie at 7:21 AM
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