Red Rocks Trip Report

[willstrickland]

Some Fear, Mostly Loathing

The short version: we suck.The long version:

Arrived in Vegas Saturday about noon after a daze of 5am alarm clocks, a smelly taxi ride, and machine gun toting military folk in the airport.

My partner, who shall remain nameless, picked me up and we were off, straight to the canyon. Agreeing upon Resolution Arete as the first hit, we pull into 13 Mile campground to eat, strategize, and rack-up. By 2pm we've decided to hike in, bivy at the base, and blast the next day. Around 4pm we're off. We floundered trying to find the base, ended up in the wrong gully system altogether, and after an hour of HEINOUS after-dark bushwhacking threw down the bags and bivied.

Rising at first light we resolve to find this damn thing and then figure out logistics. After knocking out the approach, my partner offers to lap the approach to get more food and water. He sets off and I'm left to chill on the bivy ledge and soak in the desert I've missed so much. The approach was no enjoyable affair and I'm in awe that he's ready to lap it. I flake ropes, set a belay anchor, set up our bivy, arrange the rack. All we have to do is get up, eat, and take off. Homeboy comes back with a stove, water, food, a third backpack, canned food, a newspaper, and other random shit. I still haven't figured out why he didn't cook at the truck and just bring back the food and water we needed, but whatever, he lapped the approach, that's his business.

First light arrives and after a quick breakfast we're off. Or sort of. Or maybe not. Our strategy was to split this 20 pitch route into 4 blocks of 5 pitches, one set of nuts, one set of cams, dozen slings, lead on 8.8 half ropes, a jacket each, water, GU, no bivy gear. Oh, did I mention, no fixed anhors on the route...you bail, you leave gear. He would lead the first and third blocks, I would get 2nd and 4th, giving me 4 of the 5 hardest pitches including the crux roof, as well as the burden of turning up the speed or finishing in the dark if time ran short. The first pitch involves stemming off the bivy ledge between a sub-tower and the main wall for about 15ft, then pulling onto the main wall and traversing another 10ft to a crack system...with no pro, over questionable rock. Partner stems out, pulls onto the face, doesn't move. Backs into the stem, pulls onto the face, backs into the stem, stares at the pendulum, looks back at me. "Oh shit" I think, "Here we go". "Uhhh, hey would it throw your game off if I turn over the lead on this one, I just don't feel good about it". I grit my teeth a little and say "No problem, give me the rack." I grab the rack, swap rope ends, stem out. Look at the pendo...yet that would suck if you blew it, suck it up and make a downward traverse into the crack. 5.7 moves, if that. This is supposed to be the only sustained pitch of the route, rated 5.9. I cruise up the fucking awkward mix of flared squeeze chimney moves, intermixed with some actual jams placing six pieces in the 55m pitch. Topo says 3 to 4 inch crack, topo is full of shit, yes a crack but in the back of this funky flare. Partner follows. Swap ends, get back onto our plan. 15 feet out, he's got in five pieces of gear. Fuck. Slow, we're moving WAY TOO SLOW. I look at my watch. I look up the pitch, I make the call. Next ledge or stance, bring me up, we're bailing. We bail managing to get away leaving only three nuts. We hike out.

We discuss what's next. He's amped to get on the Rainbow Wall, my entire reason for taking this trip. I'm skeptical. He reasons that it's aid, and time isn't a big issue on this route. I reason that he's not a very experienced aid climber, the inevitable cluster of aid will slow him/us down and that I want to free most of the route, not aid it. I nix the wall from our plans. I would rather save it for a better time/team when I can give it a legitimate free shot.

Hmm, what next then. He really wants to do Black Orpheus. We spend the next day screwing around in Vegas. Sometime during the approach a couple of days before, I stuck a barrel cactus spine about 2 1/2 inches into my leg just above the ankle. It was getting more and more sore and red, clearly getting infected. Ankle was getting mighty stiff. Ok, Black Orpheus it is. After reading the descent options, we head up the approach slabs...about 600 vertical feet of 3rd and 4th class, a drag. Ok, my pack is the climbing pack, but for some reason he brought his haul pack to the base...weird I think, he just read aloud that if descending blah blah, leave pack in the streambed. Whatever, lets climb. Black Orpheus, 10 pitches, 5.9+ crux, 2 pitches of 9, a pitch of 8, two of 7, two of 5.5, and the rest fourth class. I take the first, he takes the second. I lead us simulclimbing from 3 through 6. I lead off on the 5.9 pitch, another "don't fall" traverse to start then sweet...a vertical thin hands crack that ate .5 and .75 camalots, some chimney moves, a funky roof bypass on shit rock, and then a face traverse on bongo flakes. He takes off on the next lead, the crux, if that even appplies. The .9+ moves are 4ft off the belay, with two bolts in 3 1/2 ft. I follow with the pack, stretching to my limit to make the move without resorting to a dyno. The next pitch if a 5.7 lieback in a dihedral, smearing with the feet and a finger crack in the back of the corner. Sandbag, solid 5.8 ending with another no pro traverse across bongo flakes..."I'm the king of bongo baby,I'm the king of bongo yo" I yell out while tapping one after another shitty flake and finding nothing I would stand on...smear and tread lightly on the feet. He leads out the final 5.5 pitch, face with bolts then good nuts and cams, another sandbag, probably 5.7 face moves unless you're dumb enough to stand on the crumbling flakes on this pitch. We summmit, we make two raps, traverse way right on 3rd class slabs, getting close to dark. I call for a rap to the streambed. We rap, bushwack a litte and gain the streambed. I've had 3 packs of GU since breakfast. I'm tired, I hate these long ass descents. We reach the approach trunoff and he heads up under headlamp to fetch his pack. "That's sketchy, better him than me" I think. I take off trying to beat the rangers to the truck to avoid the $50 fine. I'm in the streambed bonking, out of water, getting irritated, ankle is now really bothering me. I reach the truck, find the ticket, say fuck it and drink and eat for a while. Two guys from Arizona hit the parking lot who just finished Levitation 29, they're raving. Add one to the "hit list". Next day homeboy wants to do Prince of Darkness. My ankle is so stiff when I wake up, I fall over trying to piss. I don't want to climb some hanging belay sport route anyway. Next day I agree to do the route, out of boredom more than anything. Wake up and the ankle disagrees. I bag. At this point I have zero motivation. I have him drop me in Vegas and he heads to Lander. I hole up in the Luxor, shower and head down for free casino drinks...it's 10am. By noon, I'm shitty. Take nap, change my flight (this was Thurs, my flight was orginally Sat, changed to Fri). Head out and check out a few newer casinos...New York New York, Paris, etc. That night I hit the Luxor Casino...pimpin hard. I end up with a local on my arm, both of us drinking like a fish. I hit the roulette tables and proceed to TEAR SHIT UP. Made my plane ticket in about 90 minutes, got comped for food, got so drunk I dismissed the local honey at 4am to get 3 hours of sleep before getting up to go to the airport. So, 2000 miles, a total of about 30 pitches of 4th class, 10 ptiches of 5th, $500, and 4 days of vacation leave. One route ticked. We suck, or more accurately I suck.

Sidenote: Many thanks to Matt Anderson for entertaining my questions and proving awesome beta. Thanks to Wes Dietsch for getting plowed with me a few days before I left, and thanks to the well wishers who I train with. All for naught I guess, but live and learn.

[chris_w]

Good Report.

I am heading there next week and hope I have better luck. It sounds like my first trip to red rocks. Everyone bailed on me. I had a plane ticket so I headed down by myself and met up with some other climbers. I only got half way up Crimson Chrysalis. Now it's the goal for this trip.

Chris

[bobinc]

Wow, that does sound like a brutal few days. Too bad. There's no way your next trip could have that much pain.

For what it's worth, we found a way to avoid crowds on Prince of Darkness: climb it on December 27th. It helps to have no wind and relatively mild temps (high 40s by mid-afternoon). The rock is a block of ice, though, so we climbed fast and placed hand warmers under the laces in our shoes (plus the obligatory packet in the chalk bag).

[willstrickland]

quote:

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Originally posted by Dru:

too bad about res arete. how were the temps? cold or ok? did you manage to find some mota down there, or should i say 'dank mc nuggets'

find any booty? lots of people getting in over their head and backing off i guess.

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Dru:No go on the mota, partner was on a self-imposed year long herb break (huh?) so I didn't even bother looking. Temps were great, cold at night high 30s, warm days mid 60s, cold in the shade.

Amazingly, no booty (other than all the hotties walking around Vegas). There were a couple of fixed cams on Orpheus, both on one of the pitches I led (the 7th if I remember). One I didn't bother to clip...old ass rigid friend with ratty cordage, the other I used and I guess my partner couldn't clean it or didn't bother trying.

Getting in over their head...that'd be us. Res arete looks awesome though, definitely recommend it. There are two great bivy ledges halfway up the route on 11 and 12, and you could rap to a bivy from the top of 10, but do it in a day if you can. Also, I'd recommend two sets of cams due to the fact that you'll be building your belay anchors. For the approach, just walk left around the Wilson pimple, pick up the dirt road/trail, head toward Mt Wilson and basically follow the fairly good cairn system. We rebuilt quite a few cairns that had been kicked over/washed away (on the 4th class sections). Expect 2 hours or more on the approach, if you don't get lost. Also expect a good bit of 4th class on good rock with no serious exposure. Bivy ledge at the base is cush, you can bivy 4 there on perfectly flat spots, and could bivy 20 there if you had to. The ledge is huge, no need to be roped in. The bivy ledge is about 1/3 of the way up Wilson, and ignore the approach beta about a big pine tree, it's there, but there are so many big pines on the face it won't do you much good. Follow the cairns and your nose, it really is obvious.

This was my 4th Red Rocks trip, and the first where I didn't climb any sport routes. The only bolts I encountered were a few 1/4" with old SMC hangers. It was the first trip where I felt sandbagged on a couple of pitches, usually RR feels a bit soft. I will say that a season on basalt here in the PNW allowed me to get some funky drop-knee stemming-smear rests on a couple of chimney style pitches.

[Dru]

I saw on rockandice.com that they are gonna let climbers bivvy on/at base of routes at RR now, so no more 'run for the carpark at sundown', maybe.

[willstrickland]

Yeah, it works something like this:

For routes on Wilson, Rainbow, and a couple of other formations, you can get overnight bivy permits (no charge) up to a maximum of 2 nights, and late exit (up to 3 hours later than official closing) permits at other times. We had exhausted our 2 nights, and our late exit permit which we had phoned in.

So, there's no more early entry, and limited bivy opportunities, but this system also allows the covert to camp for free whether you intend to be on those formations or not. Just get a good ways from the parking area to bivy and don't be building fires and stuff, stay low key or you'll f-it up for all of us. There are other places to camp for free as well, but I'm not telling you where (at least not in a public forum like this), if you need to know you'll find out through the "channels". 13 Mile CG is like a white-trash trailer park, with zero visibility screening, overpriced sites, and 4 new shiny and exciting pit toilets to compliment the existing ones from the past. I avoid the 13mile like the plague, although if you need a partner it's the best place to look.

[Matt_Anderson]

EPIC!! Sometimes the best laid plans . . .

Hope the local honey eased the pain. Thanks for the great trip report!

Matt

[moron]

yeah, yeah, yeah, great report, now tell us about the scroggin...

[Matt]

"He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man."

Nice trip report Will. Too bad things didn't go as planned. Thanks for the funkness, I'll get you back soon.

[Dru]

good work will. too bad about res arete. how were the temps? cold or ok? did you manage to find some mota down there, or should i say 'dank mc nuggets'

find any booty? everytime i go to RR i seem to score a new rope or cam or something. lots of people getting in over their head and backing off i guess.