A couple of weeks ago I got an email from my good friend Riley inviting me to join him and some friends on a climbing trip to Red Rock National Park outside of Las Vegas. I was lucky enough to have two weeks off and nothing to do so off I went. While I have dabbled in climbing over the last year or so, this was my first real climbing trip, and I was excited to get to climb multiple days in a row in an environment that was totally new to me.
My first climb of the trip was Dark Shadows, a 5.8 trad route located in Pine Creek Canyon. We had started off the day with the plan of doing Birdland, but after glancing up at the wall and seeing four parties climbing and a couple more in line, we decided to head to plan B. Dark Shadows is 10 pitches in total, but due to time constraints, our group chose to just climb the first four pitches which were said to be the best of the route. The climb had a beautiful creek running at its base, which made for quite an aesthetic spot as well as adding the extra entertainment value of seeing the various approaches to keeping the rope dry after the repel. As the name implies, the climb was located in the shadows of the canyon making for a nice cool temperature and consisted of some really cool features. On the walk out that day, we were lucky enough to catch a sighting of a huge big horned sheep. It was a magical first day in Red Rocks.
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| Nick on the first pitch of Dark Shadows |
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| Up to the next pitch... |
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| Riley repelling down the route |
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| Look closely and you will find the big horn sheep |
The next day we decided to go "cragging" which basically means we headed out to spot with lots of shorter bolted routes and sessioned them all day. We "boondoggled"(another word for getting lost and generally fumbling around) a bit at the start of the day, all of us with different ideas of what the approach looked like. There were a few of us in flip flops and someone carrying a heavy cooler for what turned out to be close to an hour hike in, up and over a saddle. But alas, we eventually made it to the Sunny and Steep wall and began to climb. The weather was beautiful and the climbs were, well, mostly out of my league, but there were a couple easier climbs that got me off the ground.
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| Nick and Matt both high up on the rock |
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| Sam checking out a tarantula |
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| Matt getting his first 12a onsight |
The following morning, Riley and I committed to getting on Birdland, the six pitch 5.7+ trad route we had wanted to do the first day. Because of the crowds on our previous attempt, we chose to get up early to make sure we wouldn't be stuck behind too many parties. To our amazement, we ended up having the wall to ourselves almost the entire day. We were not only the first ones on it, but we didn't see another party until we were on the repel down. Being high up on a rock like that is what has really turned me onto climbing. I love the exposure that comes with multi-pitch routes and the engineering geek in me loves the gear involved. I didn't lead any routes that day, but following Riley up I made notes of his placements to prepare me for a future lead.
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| Riley on the first pitch of Birdland |
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| Me following on the 5th pitch of Birdland |
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| Time to descend... |
After a nice "easy" day with me, Riley took off to go on a much longer and harder climb, and I teamed up with Audrey, a friend of a friend who was also in town to do some climbing. We decided to call it a "skills day" and spend some time getting better at some general climbing maneuvers. We headed up to the Panty Wall where there was some nice moderate single pitch sport climbing to get feeling comfortable with leading as well as some other basic techniques. Being the more experienced one in the group, Audrey led most of the pitches, though I did take the lead on a nice 5.7 pitch before heading out for our next goal of the day, which was a two pitch 5.6 trad climb that Audrey wanted to try her hand at leading. On the walk out from the Panty Wall we experienced a photo shoot that reminds you that even though you're in a national park in the desert, you're still only 20 miles from Vegas.
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| When Vegas and Red Rocks collide |
Unfortunately, by the time we arrived at the base of the climb, Physical Graffiti, it was already late in the day and we realized that doing both pitches was probably out of the question so we played in conservative and decided to just go up the first pitch. It was a really cool crack and a great climb for Audrey to have one of her first trad leads- it was challenging enough to get the adrenaline going without being above her head skill wise. After she successfully reached the top, I followed, getting to enjoy the sun setting over the Red Rock desert. We walked back to the truck by headlamp, having just enjoyed another wonderful day in Red Rocks.
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| Audrey geared up for her lead |
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| Sunset over the desert |
The next two days were rest days/ harder days for the crew, so I took the time off to get rested up and ready for my final day of climbing. Riley said he'd go up whatever I picked out, and I read that guide book many times over before deciding that I wanted to finish off on Solar Slab, a longer 5.6 multi-pitch trad climb, whose approach was the classic Johnny Vegas, 3 pitch 5.7 route.
To be continued….
