laurel

This looks it could be a good deal: about $200 for a flight and hotel room: http://www.travelzoo.com/vacations/las-vegas/895362/?utm_source=top20_us&utm_medium=email_top20 Places I've stayed: Luxor, it's cheap and clean. Only downside is that like most of the casinos it takes half an hour to get from the room to the car. A pyramid shape may be great for building large structures with bronze age technology but it kind of sucks for optimizing elevator distribution. Emerald Suites: plenty of space for the price, it was nice to have a kitchen (late night food on the Strip is surprisingly hard to find and maybe-not-surprisingly bad). I booked through expedia so they gave us a smoking room. They claimed that we could have reserved a non-smoking room if we booked directly. Cliffs at Peace Canyon is supposed to be a better place for a kitchen suite but it wasn't available when I was going. Campground: I don't really mind it, but does get excessively windy and dusty sometimes (had to put the stove in the BBQ grill a couple mornings because the windscreen kept blowing away). Can't beat the location. Don't buy the fire-resistant wood from the campground, get some from the grocery store.

A few non-comprehensive Leavenworth suggestions for 5.10- climbers: Single Pitch: Clem's Holler: favorite 5.9/10 sport area at Leavenworth (that I've been to), also one worthwhile trad route. Lots of multipitch sport routes, but they can all be done first-pitch only. Classic Crack and Dogleg Crack are both 5.8+ trad and close to the road. Most people agree with the + part (hint: if you have small hands, it is much easier to lead Classic than TR it) Pearly Gates: one of my favorite 5.8/5.9 trad areas. Especially if it's hot out because it's in the shade until afternoon, which is pretty rare for LW. Hobo Gulch: quite a few mostly-bolted-bring-a-couple-cams routes in the 10- range. Watch out for hornets. Multipitch: Givler's Crack: easy 5.7, but lots of fun Condorphamine Addiction: 6p 10b bolted slab. Careno Crag Regular Route: (the crux is on the first pitch, slab climbing on gear) Duty Dome, Straight Street: 5.9+ (the 9+ part is the bolted first pitch, I think the second trad pitch is easier, wasn't really paying attention because it started raining) (lots of other stuff at Duty Dome) (and of course there's Outer Space and Orbit, but I still haven't had a chance to get on those so I can't give a personal recommendation!)

Hero ice, is that when the ice stays on the route?

Sketchy and I went back to Hubba Hubba last Sunday. We did climb it after it stopped doing this: [img:center]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4020/4294631976_8fcae28963.jpg[/img] It rained all Sunday night (and a dog stole all of our bacon and eggs) so we went home Monday.

Some (more or less foggy) pictures: [img:center]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4037/4266523202_8e0c8c7e98.jpg[/img] More... The left rope is on HH left, the right rope is on something between HH left and center.