Red Rocks 2010
So it’s been six months since my last real climbing trip. That was Yosemite – a humbling or should I say humiliating experience that may have set back my rock climbing ambitions by a couple of decades. Although I have been hitting the gym moderately hard, have kept up the running (have you done 3 miles with weights in your hands lately?), and have also managed to get in one day in Oklahoma about a month ago, it’s not the preparation I had hoped for. I am as rusty as a piton in acid rain. My lead head is a thing of the past. That one day in the Narrows, staring up at “Ker Plunk”, I quickly passed the sharp end to Hardman Dahlstrom who proceeded to send without blinking. Long story short, I’m in poor mental shape, just about ready for the climbing shrink. The good thing is my buddie Dan has climbed even less outside the gym than I have, and together we are Climbers on Crutches. Ergo, we have agreed to fool around the bottom rungs of the YDS scale.
We arrive in Vegas at 8:30 Friday morning. I’ve never tried this before. Usually we fly in at night and climb the next morning. But the extra night seems like a waste of time and money. So, after getting an early start in Texas, enduring starvation (where are the Pretzels?) on the flight, picking up our rental car (we’re cheap and opt for 2” inch clearance, no dirt roads this time!), making it to the motel (nice place!), changing into crag uniform, grabbing lunch, driving to the park, and donning our packs, half the day is shot. (Should we have left the night before after all?) What to do with an afternoon of climbing at Red Rocks ? Head for one of the crowded classics ! Why ? Because it’s the smart thing to do. All the dummies will have gotten there early and started climbing hours ago. We’ll have the route to ourselves !
So we decide to climb “Cat in the Hat” which neither one of us has ever done. It’s a short and uncomplicated approach, and as we round the SE buttress of Mescalito, all appears quiet. Our expectations promise to be met. Then we reach the bottom of the first pitch and stumble upon a pile of packs from those that have indeed started early but are still busy on the route. The girl perched on top of the pile of packs, ready to launch for the ascent, informs us that she is the last of three teams toiling on the route above. Then, as she starts climbing at the speed of someone struggling up and escalator going down, it’s time for us to get out the dental floss, watch the jammed-packed jets soaring above head for sin city, and wonder why in a place with a lifetime’s supply of climbing routes all around, we have to pick the one route everyone wants to do. Thus continues the curse of the classics.
P1 goes up a corner littered with hueco-like jugs. P2 starts as a stupid traverse and then heads up to a corner. P3 is a fun crack with a traverse above a roof to another crack. P4 is aother stupid traverse. P5 is a fun crack to the finish of the route. Get the picture ? There are a few exciting moves and views on the route. But it feels like the Vegas Strip with all the climbers going up and coming down. We are mostly able to set up our belays away from other teams as good ledges abound on this route. But I guess, to me, climbing’s not a social sport. I prefer to be alone on the rock.
On the first rap, our rope gets stuck. I have to prusik up a slick 5.10d face to realize one of the quick links on the rap chain is twisted and pushes down on the rope every time we pull. I am able to fix this quickly but in the process I drop my digital camera into the abyss of Pine Creek Canyon. Miraculously it shatters on the ledge in front of Dan’s feet, both batteries and the memory card pop out, before the rest of the hardware bounces over the edge. Very strange ! But at least the pictures of that survive this way. Needless to say, I don’t intend to visit Cat in the Hat again.
On Day 2, we head towards Jackrabbit Buttress to climb MysterZ (5.7, 7P). P1 and P2 are little memorable with cracks and corners consisting of decent rocks. P3 is a long sunny traverse, supposedly 3rd or 4th class (does anyone at all know the difference anymore or care to differentiate even from 5.easy ?). P4 is a good crack that turns wide and gearless forcing me grudgingly on the sandy, white face for the finish. Dan’s P5 is a good corner followed by face moves to a short splitter in dark varnished rock. P6 goes up a super wide chasm on thin brittle flakes with virtually no gear. The climbing is maybe 5.4 but any fall will belong in the 40-footer league. It said “gear up to 3″. Yet I wish I had a #6 Camalot ! The rest is several hundred feet of easy 5th class, and we simul-climb to the top. As you gain elevation, the panoramic views of Rainbow Wall, Crimson Chrysalis – another classic crawling with climbers rubbing elbows at every anchor, and Bridge Mountain are spectacular. — I had read on mountainproject.com about a stellar little hand crack on Luxor Wall, which crowns the summit of Jackrabbit Buttress, and can also be located by following Brownstone Wall to the far right (if that helps). So I make poor Dan scramble another 1000 feet higher to check it. Looking at Luxor Crack, you’d think it’s 5.11 fingers. But once you get on it, you realize that it’s got 80 feet or so of bomber jams all the way up and would’ve taken all the medium and bigger gear I left on the ground. If you’re ever up there, go do it, even if you normally climb only hard stuff. The view of the surrounding walls and canyons are breathtaking, and you feel like this is the splitter crack to heaven…. Hahaha. For me, it was the icing on the cake that day.
On Day 3, we strayed even farther from the crowded classics. I almost want to keep the routes a secret. But I won’t. Way south of all the familiar crags and canyons is Disappearing Buttress. The way there goes via dirt road, which at 2″ clearance in our compact leads to a few bumpy encounters with big boulders littering our path. But somehow we make it. Disappearing Buttress has some of the best 5.7++ climbing you will ever do. “Prime Rib” has it all. An adventurous approach and descent, stellar exposure on almost vertical rock, bomber holds on varnished rock, loose and crumbling holds on crappy rock , mysterious pitons, and at least one other fixed piece of gear (as of Sunday), total peace and quiet, and a little, exposed summit with great views of Windy Peak. This is one of the most enjoyable routes I’ve done at Red Rocks.
On Day 4, we climbed Fold Out, 5.8. The guidebook says 5.7 crack plus 5.8 face. But it’s a Joe Herbst route. That means the crack was a sandbag. It’s a hundred feet of vertical of 5.5/5.6 jugs and then two committing jams that I would call 5.8. P2 goes up the crack and then makes a funky traverse ( I tied off a chicken head for protection here) before heading up a water streak with a bolt. It’s overall a little spicier than P1 but doesn’t have the same scary crux. Because of rope drag I split P2 in half and we finished P3 on a small summit. This is another must-do that I personally found more interesting than for example “Dark Shadows”. If you’ve got only a few hours to kill, head for Icebox Canyon and climb “Foldout”.
21 pitches (if I can count) of mostly 5.7. That’s my kind of fun climbing weekend.
Okay, time to pick up this climbing blog again. I had almost forgotten it existed.
Here is a link to the west face of Lost Dome in the Wichita Mountains. This face ought ot have some routes on it.
