Red Rocks, NV



Sunrise near Black Velvet Canyon in Red Rocks.



Landscape around Red Rocks.



Nov. 27^th: Las Vegas aka Sin City

Pat and I woke up quite early (5:00am) to drive towards the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. Neither one of us had a good sleep. Pat, who drove last night, decided to stop along the highway in a pullout for the night. I woke up about half a dozen times from semi trucks blasting by and shaking the van with the wind they created (that’s how close to the road we were). We reached the Grand Canyon by 11:00am and walked for 2 hours along the South Rim and a trail that dipped into the canyon. We didn’t take the time to go all the way down. Its massive size would have taken us a good part of the day and we wanted to make it to Vegas for the night. We made it to Las Vegas after dinner and had a chance to spend one night in a fast paced lifestyle for a change. Was it ever a change to the way we have been living during the trip! As we drove over a pass that dropped into the city, the sky was lit by as many lights as I’ve ever seen. Once in the city, we searched for the main strip where all the action happens. We decided to look at prices to stay in a hotel. All we were looking for was a cheap place with a bed. We didn’t care if it was a small room with a single bed to share. It would still beat sleeping in the van anytime. We ended up getting more than we gambled for. But it took some hotel shopping to find. The first place we looked into seemed pretty cheap. They’re price was 40$/night without parking. We kept shopping and found an even nicer looking hotel/casino for 35$/night with parking. Pat had gone inside to inquire about the price and said there were plenty of “old people” playing on the slot machines inside. A true Vegas experience! We took a last look at another hotel which seemed over the top at first (It had valet parking). It ended up being our best bet. The Fitzgerald hotel had a room with two queen sized beds for 29$/night with included parking. Also, this hotel seemed like the nicest of the three we stopped into. We took care of parking Chico ourselves and settled into our room.  On the main floor were numerous slot machines, over a dozen roulette tables and card tables with as many lights and non-stop music as two climbing bums can take without a sensory overload. I guess it helped keep the gamblers going at their fast paced rhythm. It was interesting at first to see the intense gaze of the people looking at the slot machine as they continually shuffled coins into the slot machines. At the same time it was kind of disturbing. We took a stroll onto the strip and passed by interesting street performers lining the strip. The most impressive part was when an animation lit up on the ceiling along the whole strip. After speaking to a few people we found out that we weren’t actually on the main strip. Rather, we were on the old strip of Vegas. We took a 30 minute bus ride to the main strip shortly after. The hotels and casinos were newer (obviously) and the party atmosphere seemed more closed into the hotel/casinos. We walked through most of the better known casino/hotels and finished the night at a Denny’s for a bite to eat. Before heading up to bed we put a few nickels in the slot machine and broke even. Time flew by and it was 4:00am when we finally made it to our comfortable beds.

The Grand Canyon.

Nov. 28^th: Vegas recovery day. Drive to nearby Red Rocks.

Pat and I started the late morning with an early all-you-can-eat lunch buffet. For 8$ each we ate amazing food until we could no more. The deserts were amazing! Pat and I chose to split every desert in half so that we could taste most of them. Even with that tactic we couldn’t taste them all. With full bellies, we drove out of Sin City and made it to the common campground at Red Rocks within 10 minutes of the city’s limits. We chose to set-up the tent for a more spacious sleep since we planned to stay here for a few days. We hoped to find our Czech friends Zdenek and Lenka who also planned on being here.

Nov. 29^th: Red Rocks, Sport Climbing at Gallery Wall

We woke up to another van parked beside ours. It happened to be Zdenik and Lanka who arrived later last night and recognized our van. We spent the day climbing in an area called the Gallery Wall. The climbs were typically short. Although what they lacked in length, they made up in quality. The “fun factor” was high.

Pat and I climbed the following routes:

            The Runaway 5.10b

            American Sportsman 5.10c

            Super Guide 5.11a

            Range of Motion 5.10d

            Fear and loathing 5.12a

The last one was the hardest climb (for the grade) I had attempted so far. I was able to complete every move. Although connecting them together from top to bottom in one try was a different affair.



A guy we met crushing "Fear and Loathing" 5.12a



Nov. 30^th: Red Rocks, Black Velvet Canyon, Epinephrine 5.9 (16 pitches)

Pat and I woke up early (5:00am) to climb a well known classic. Most of the first half of the route involved climbing up a fun chimney. The upper half consisted of climbing on features that Pat described as “Lego blocks”. The climbing was superb the entire way. One of the more enjoyable climbs we have done in a little while. Highly recommended! By the time we reached the campground a big wind storm had begun. We arrived to our campsite with a few items we had left on the picnic table missing and the tent was blown upside down against a nearby post. We managed to find most of the missing items nearby. We decided to sleep in the sheltered van instead of the tent.

Typical chimney on the lower half of Epinephrine.

Summit photo! Not the most beautiful landscape.
The quality of the climb makes up for it.

Dec. 1^st: Red Rocks, Forced rest day. Wind storm.

The wind was still howling in the morning and there was actually a little snow that fell. We didn’t expect snow this far south! No accumulation though. We spent the day at the library.

Dec. 2^nd: Red Rocks, Black Velvet Canyon, Rock Warrior 5.10b (6 pitches)

The line of this climb has a few bolts to fill in the blanks but still felt very run-out.  The guidebook mentions “the climb is sometimes runout but seldom really dangerous”. They weren’t lying. With only 5 pieces of protection on the 4^th pitch which was 50m long. All the pitches were quite long. With the run-out nature of the route, it took longer than a typical climb of this grade. Delicate climbing was needed. We had planned to climb with our Czech friends Zdenik and Lanka who were going to climb a neighbouring route. But they decided to call it quits after the first pitch because of the cold temperature. Pat and I stuck it out in the cold. We ended up not finishing the route because of the short day and our later start. We only had enough time to reach the top of the fourth pitch. The climb asked a lot of our nerves but was enjoyable.

Cloudy morning bellow Black Velvet Canyon.

Dec. 3^rd: Red Rocks, food sickness?

I woke up with a sick feeling to my stomach and vomited soon after. I spent the whole day semi-conscious, but mostly passed out in the back of the van. I think it might have been food poisoning? It took a lot out of me whatever it was. While Pat was sport climbing with Zdenik and Lanka. I slept in the van at the parking lot and randomly woke up to our friends John and Tiffany, which we met in Moab, parked next to me. After a brief talk we arranged to meet up at the campground tonight.

Dec. 4^th: Red Rocks, recovery day

I’ve been feeling better today, but I’m not even tempted to try climbing. I’m too weak from yesterday and I haven’t been eating much yet. Pat, Zdenik and Lanka went to do some bouldering at the nearby Calico Hills and I followed along to get some fresh air.

Zdenek making the boulder problem look easy.

Brett working a burly boulder problem.

Dec. 5^th: Red Rocks, Sport Climbing at Sunny & Steep

The mojo has almost fully returned. Pat, John, Tiffany and I walked up to a sheltered and sunny crag named Sunny and Steep. Pat and I climbed 4 sport routes ranging from 5.9-5.11b. We left Red Rocks afterwards and drove towards Joshua Tree.

Zion, UT

Nov. 19^th: Drive towards Zion, Utah

Nov. 20^th: Cragging in Zion

We finished the rest of the drive to Zion National Park in the morning. Our first stop in Zion was at the Cerberus Gendarme area. We did three single pitch routes. To warm-up we climbed a stiff 5.7 named Cave Crack. Clint Eastwood was filmed on it for the movie “The Eiger Sanction”. We then climed a route named “Squeeze Play” (5.10) and “Fathedral” (5.10+). It took some adjusting to the sandstone which was different from our previous days climbing at Indian Creek. The rock is generally not as high quality. It’s something to keep in mind while placing gear.

Nov. 21^st: Forced rest day. Rainy day “canyoneering”

We woke up to a grey sky and rain hitting the roof of the van. This means that there won’t be any climbing today. Not a bad thing because both Pat and I could use some rest. We are still surrounded by sandstone here in Zion National Park. So the rock will need to dry out thoroughly before we get on any of the climbs. We spent the morning in the lodge located in the park and caught up on e-mails and reading. We studied the guidebook to and now have a good idea of the climbs we would like to do these following days. We drove down to “The Narrows” and hiked to the end of the public trail. From there we attempted to go canyoneering further up The Narrows. The water was too high and too cold to go very far in my Keen sandals and rolled up pants. Not exactly a canyoneering outfit. Also getting caught by a flash flood didn’t seem appealing.

A few photos taken during the hike. Click on photos to enlarge.

Nov. 22nd: South West Ridge of West Temple Summit (III 5.7)

It had stopped raining by early afternoon yesterday and all the technical climbs needed at least a day or two to dry out and allow the rock to harden to be climbed safely. Pat and I had a climb named “The Big Lebowski” on our mind. It would be one of the bigger climbs of the trip with 21 pitches of steady climbing with a grade of 5.11a/b. It has one of the tallest sandstone cliffs in the world. The descent for “The Big Lebowski” is off the South West ridge of West Temple Summit. So we decided to scope out the descent of our next possible climb beforehand. It turned out being a big hike and exposed scramble with a few 5th class moves which give it the 5.7 grade. It was possible to see quite far over Zion on top of the highest peak in Zion National Park (7810ft).

A expansive view from high on top of the ridge.

Looking down onto the ridge. It was now time to head back down.

Nov. 23^rd: Change of Plans. Coke Explosion (4 pitches, 5.10)

We finished preparing to spend the next two days climbing “The Big Lebowski” last night with enough rations to last a possible third day. This meant carrying 16 litters of water, food and hauling overnight gear (sleeping bags and bivy sac). To carry all the water we used our water bottles and also two 4 litre milk jugs. We started the approach up to the climb as the sun rose. About 15 minutes from the van. Pat, who was carrying the water, felt his back become quite wet. Too wet to be sweating that much already. Apparently milk jugs aren’t very useful for carrying water when they are squeezed in a backpack! We weren’t too sure how much water was being lost and we didn’t want to arrive to the climb with little water. So we turned back towards the van to assess the loss. It was apparent that we needed a new plan to carry the water. We spent part of the day climbing a route named “Coke Explosion”. It was a fun four pitch climb. A good time, but not what we had originally planned.  We came up with a solution to carrying the water later in the afternoon... juice and soda bottles. We found 2 and 3 litre bottles at the recycling centre.

Nov. 24^th: The Big Lebowski

Again, Pat and I started off to climb the Big Lebowski as the sun started to rise. This time no water containers leaked. Success! We did have to negotiate some thick bushes and cactus along the way up the two hour approach. At the base of the climb we found over six litters of water left behind by other climbers. If only we knew! We were looking forward to climbing this long and demanding route. Since this was going to be the first route that involves hauling gear. I was a little concerned how things would go. The water, food and sleeping gear weighed in around 60lbs. All this would be hauled up in a bag using a 3 to 1 pulley system on each pitch we climbed. As we climbed, we noticed our progress wasn’t as fast as we expected. We had reached the 4^th of 21 pitches and it was already mid-afternoon. We were looking at climbing it in three days at this pace and we only planned for two. The third day would be a diet of our remaining energy bars and a small ration of water. Not ideal. We talked about the situation and both agreed on pulling the plug to head back down. After bushwhacking back and following faint trails here and there we made it to the van in the dark.

Approaching up to the Big Lebowski for the second time.

The south-east face of West Temple. The line of Big Lebowski follows up slight

Nov. 25^th: Fixing the first pitches of Moonlight Buttress (9 pitches, 5.9 C1)

We had a relaxed start to the day and stopped for coffee at Oscars Café. We organized our gear to climb and fix the first three pitches of Moonlight Buttress and left the parking near the “Big Bend” around 1:00pm. To access the base of the climb we needed to cross a shallow river (knee deep). It was cold enough to numb our feet! Pat won at the Rock, Paper, and Scissors game and took the first pitch which was quite dirty and not very enjoyable. We assumed the climb would get better considering its overall classic status. It did from the second pitch. I climbed it free at 5.10c and then fixed the ropes on top of the third pitch which was above a bolt ladder.

Moonlight buttress follows up the protruding section of rock.

Starting up the 4th pitch.



Some people we met on the route.
They were kind enough to let us pass.



Summit photo!

 

Indian Creek, UT

Nov. 12^th: Rest day. Visited Arches National Park and relaxed in Moab.

The weather forecast called for rain and we were due for a rest day. We settled down in Indian Creek for the night.

Nov. 13^th: Indian Creek, Supercrack Buttress “The Incredible Hand Crack” (5.10+)

Today was a short but good introduction to climbing perfectly parallel splitter cracks on sandstone at “The Creek”. Pat and I joined up with a group of people to share climbing gear since all the cracks here in Indian creek are so “splitter” that you need numerous cams of the same size to adequately protect a route. Our first route at Indian Creek was “The Incredible Hand Crack”. By the time I was lowered down it had started to rain. We had been told that sandstone loses its hardness when it becomes wet. Pat then climbed the route on top rope since it was somewhat protected from the rain. Afterwards, we didn’t want to find out how easily the gear placements can rip out in the wet rock and called it a day. Apparently you can retrieve stuck gear by pouring water around it!

Nov. 14^th: Indian Creek, Meathook Wall

A long time local named Alf brought us and a few friends we’ve met at the “Pastures campground” to the Meathook Wall. We spent the day top roping the climbs to get a better feel for the crack climbing techniques without having to break the rhythm and place gear. Like our friends would say “There’s no shame in top roping at the Creek”. Out of the three routes I climbed. The first was a tight hand crack. The second was a long 180 foot wide fist crack with some short off width sections. The third was another long 180 foot crack of varying widths. The grades varied from 5.10 to 5.11-

Nov. 15^th: Indian Creek, Battle of the Bulge Wall

We got onto six different climbs today with grades ranging from 5.10- to 5.11. It was great to be able to climb varying cracks one next to the other. Today I learnt how to properly do a thumb stack in cracks that take .75 Camalots. It was awkward at first. But with practice the confidence and technique grew.

Nov. 16^th: Indian Creek, Tenderloin Wall

It’s been another sunny day at “The Creek”. Again, the climbs were spectacular “splitters” one next to the other. It was a great day of climbing with a good group of friends.

Nov. 17^th: Indian Creek, Cat Wall

I was feeling the fatigue from climbing the last 5 days. Climbing “splitter” cracks isn’t an easy affair. It’s been quite different climbing 6 pitches a day at Indian Creek compared to most other places we visited so far.  I wasn’t feeling great on the five routes I did today and took it easy.

Nov. 18^th: Rest day

Pat and I rested. I shot some photos of a few friends climbing on the Scarface wall.

Click on photos to enlarge.

Indian Creek landscape.

The famed South Six Shooter tower.

Reese working a hard (5.12?) finger sized crack.

Typical approach to Indian Creek climbs.

Captured a nice photo of John doing a fist jam.

John showing good form on a 5.10 crack.

Taking in the landscape at the "Creek".

Interesting shadow.

Moab, UT

Nov. 5^th: Drove towards Indian Creek

Pat did some bouldering at “The Happies” while I took it easy resting my ankle in town. We left Bishop after dinner and drove a few hours along the remote and deserted Hwy #6 towards Moab, Utah. We were keeping our fingers crossed that Chico, our van, wouldn’t break down on us here! There were long stretches without any sign of civilisation!

Nov. 6^th: Made it to Indian Creek!

Drove the rest of the way along Hwy 6 and finally arrived in Moab for dinner. We then drove to Indian Creek and parked along an entrance for the night.

Nov. 7^th: Change of plans

The entrance we spent last night in ended up being for a ranch. We woke up to the sound of cows surrounding the van in the morning. As we started the short drive to the “Pastures campground” in Indian Creek we crossed some friends whom we had met earlier on the climbing trip at Trout Creek. They invited us to come along with them to a yurt that a friend of theirs owned and had offered them to stay in while they were gone. I found out later on that the yurt was owned by a well known climber named Jack Tackle. The weather wasn’t very appealing to climb today. It had snowed a little overnight and was still cloudy. We did want to take a look at what Indian Creek looked like. They gave us directions on how to get there in case we decided to leave. We made it to the “Pastures campground” and met Tye, a friend we knew from climbing in Bishop. After eating breakfast we chose to leave the cold and damp weather in Indian Creek to meet up with our friends at the Yurt outside the town of Moab.  

  

A cloudy morning in Indian Creek.





Nov. 8^th: Moab bike and climb

We arrived late in the morning and spent the earlier part of the afternoon mountain biking at the world renowned Slick Rock. We were glad to have brought our mountain bikes on the trip. It was a fun ride! Later in the afternoon we drove up to Potash rd and climbed a classic 5.8 right next to the road. It was surprising to see so many climbs so close to the road. We literally crossed a person who was belaying on the pavement of the road. You could easily belay from the driver’s seat if you wanted! Our climbing needed to take some adjusting to the rock which is sandstone. The texture is quite different from some of the granite we have been climbing on lately.

Nov. 9^th: Castleton Tower; North Chimney (5.9)

We said goodbye to our friends and the comfort of the yurt and headed up to the nearby Castleton Tower just a 10 minute drive away. After 50 minutes of approach we made it to the base of the tower. We approached the Castleton Tower with hopes to climb one of the fifty classics named Kor-Ingalls (5.9+) on the sunny and warmer south face. We arrived bellow it with a party just starting the first pitch and they seemed slow. Instead of waiting a while and being caught behind them we chose to climb the first pitch of the North Chimney. It was a cold climb! This shaded north facing chimney wasn’t our first choice but ended up being a great climb. After warming up our cold hands on top of the first pitch we got motivated to climb the remaining three pitches to the top. The rock could not have been much warmer than 0-5C. The ground was still frozen in the shaded areas as we approached. The following pitches were really fun with an off-width section (5.9) on the second pitch being the crux.

The approach to Castleton Tower.

The shaded and cold North Chimney.

Taking in the last warm rays of the sun!

Nov. 10^th: Castleton Tower, Kor-Ingalls (5.9+) & Anciant Art, Stolen Chimney (5.10-)

Another fun day of climbing on desert towers. Today we planned to climb two towers in a day. We arrived earlier today to climb the Kor-Ingalls on Castleton Tower. It was a good route to work on wide crack climbing skills since every pitch had an off-width of varying lengths. We rappelled down the north side on a single rope without any issues this time. We then wanted to climb Fine Jade (5.11a) on a neighbouring tower.  There was a party on almost every pitch and one at the base waiting to climb. We chose to go back to the van and head towards another tower climb we had on the list. We drove about 30 minutes down the road to the parking lot of the Fisher Towers. We approached to the base of a climb named Stolen Chimney on the Ancient Art tower. It was starting to get late in the afternoon (about 2:30pm) and the days have been getting shorter with the sun setting around 5:15pm. The climbing was “interesting”. The rock was more like a mix of pebbles surrounded by hardened mud that had dried into a sometimes brittle consistency. This made placing protection a spicy affair in some sections of the climb. This didn’t make the climb dangerous but it did take some extra care in placing the pieces of protections. The last pitch brought us onto the most airy summit I’ve ever been on. There wasn’t even enough room for a second person to stand on top!

The corkscrew summit of Anciant Art.

On top of the corkscrew summit!



A long exposure at night while we prepared dinner.



Nov. 11^th: Roadside cragging along Potash rd. (5.9 - 5.10c)

We rested the legs today and climbed along the Potash rd. It was good to climb on harder single pitch routes and work on crack climbing skills. This should help us prepare for the splitter cracks of Indian Creek.

Nov. 12^th: Rest day. Visited Arches National Park and relaxed in Moab.

The weather forecast called for rain and we were due for a rest day. We settled down in Indian Creek for the night.