[TR] Red Rocks - Sandstone Samurai, Only the good die young various 11/28/2011

[eldiente]

Trip: Red Rocks - Sandstone Samurai, Only the good die young various

 

Date: 11/28/2011

 

Trip Report:

I haven't seen much on CC.com about any of these routes at RR. A few bits of info. Sorry not much in the way of pictures, too cold/lazy to shoot much on the longer routes we did.

 

As a side note, I think RR is the WORST place to shoot pictures. For some reason nothing stands out, the ground always blends into the pitch and it looks like you're 40' off the ground even if you're 400'

 

The short days and cold temps kept us from climbing any of the big rigs and instead had to settle for lots of sport wanking and a few short "long" routes. Still it was nice to tick off a few less traveled routes at RR.

 

*Unimpeachable Groping. 5.10B 700 +/- feet.

 

Really fun multi-pitch sport climb on the Ginger Cracks Buttress (Left of the Cloud Tower) Bolts and face climbing, lots of both. I thought this was way more fun than other Red Rocks clip-ups like Prince of Darkness. The terrain is steeper with short fun cruxes, most of the route felt 5.10- Unlike Prince of Darkness there is some variety, jugs, roofs, and even a touch of slab climbing on nice varnished rock. Super fun! Bolts are close together.

 

Beta. Link p2 and p3, this cuts off on hanging belay and lets you belay from a huge ledge. Need extra draws to do this.

P3 hasroof to pull at the start, probably 5.9ish on huge jugs, I'm a rock climbing God! At least I felt that way on such nice holds.

 

Gear. Draws, 15 or 20 if linking. No gear needed despite what the book says.

Descent. You need 2x ropes to get down from P3 but the rest of the route is doable in 1x rope. We left our 2nd rope at the ledge on p3 and used a single rope to rap pitches 6-3 with 70M. Watch out for rope snags on the raps, those jugs are everywhere!

 

 

Looking down the route. I think this is why I gave up on pictures in RR.

 

 

Ledge on top of p3 belay. Leave 2nd rope here and climb/rap the rest of the route with 1x rope.

 

*Only the Good Die Young. 5.11C. 400 feet.

Far right side of Whiskey Peak past "Wholesome Fullback." Cool movement on amazing rock but kinda short. This would be a good route to do with other routes on the wall, I would think a fast party could tick off 3-4 of these mini routes in Whiskey Peak without too much fuss. Wall sees no sun, maybe a good summer outing.

 

P1 is hard to see, look for a low bolt into a seam. From the ground the seam looks hard and scary to protect but it is actually mellow and takes good gear. (5.10D) All pitches are short, like 50'-70' short. P2 has a crux leaving the belay with bolts every 2'-4' feet (!) Sounds over-bolted but it works as there is these whacky overlaps and roofs that would suck to fall over. Higher up on P2 there is a flared roof crack crux, feels whacky but a hand jam saves the day. #1BD will protect. P4 The real crux at 5.11C but oh my this is the most one move wonder pitch I've ever done. One harsh crimp move traversing right under the roof take you to jugs and a long bit of 5.7 to the summit. (rope drag) I got ripped off as my partner led the best pitch on the route (P3, 5.10) make sure to fight for this lead, super pitch in a corner to face climbing.

 

The rock was great and unique moves, but the pitches are so short that you feel sort of ripped off. Bolts are close together, all cruxes could be A1 with ease.

 

Gear. 12 draws, single set of cams to #2. No nuts needed.

Descent. Walk off right, ugly bushwhacking. Stay skiers right if possible. One rap from bush.

 

 

Sandstone Samurai. 5.11 700 feet. Black Velvet Wall.

 

Change of pace from the usual Red Rocks clip-up. I've often felt that Red Rocks is a great place to "cheat" up routes. The soft grades and abundant pro have let me sneak up many routes that I'm not qualified to get on. With that in mind I thought it would be a good idea to do a route where I'd have to do some real climbing without the training wheels on, no calling for a "take" on this route. Although I think my partner got really tired of me yelling "watch me" 100 times per pitch.

 

Overall the route is like other BV routes, endless crimps and high-steps. Feels much like Prince of Darkness, same style maybe just a tad harder in P1 and P2.(slab moves at times) Mostly RR 5.10 face climbing. I find that style of climbing a tad boring, hard on the toes and tips with no real distinct features. Of course the lack of gear makes you forget that your getting bored doing the high step over and over again. Getting lost seems to be the crux of the route, often there's no indiction of where the next bolt/pro is going to be. The fear of getting 50' above the gear and off-route is very real. I poured massive amount of chalk onto the wall while nervously trying to figure it out. If you get up there soon it might be less confusing as I left a trail of chalk behind. Sorry about that.

 

Beta: Eeeeek! Up and down climb at least 10x time per pitch trying to figure it out. 9 out of 10 times my first intuition ended up being the correct one, if I wasn't such a wuss I would have just gone for it the first time without so much fidgeting. So I guess the beta is go up and don't fall, better holds will come.

 

Gear. On the hard moves I felt the gear was close enough where I could jump off and be OK. Clean wall with no ledges to hit. However on some of the easier terrain (lot of 5.10) a fall would ruin the day. I used screamers on much of the gear and bolts, no idea if screamers help in these situations but seemed like a good idea. Very poor nut placements at times. Single set of cams with 3x of purple- green C3 cams and brass nuts. I nested gear a few times and equalized them. A double rope might help as you could wonder around to find more gear options. Although maybe it would be smarter to forgo the shitty gear and save your energy for the climbing.

 

 

A few sport pictures...

 

 

 

 

The shortest 5.12 ever. Looks like a boulder problem, climbs like a sports climb.

 

 

Black Corridor route unknown.

 

 

 

Edited December 6, 2011 by eldiente

[JosephH]

My old partner from bitd wanted to give Sandstone Samurai a whirl the day after we did Epi. He's solid at the grade, but ended up backing off confused as to just where the hell it went.

[Drederek]

If ya rap past the big ledge on UI to the intermediate station just below it a single 70m will get you down. The last rap is 35.5 m After doing Fiddler (many years ago) we didn't ever even consider Sandstone Samurai. Nice send.

[Sherri]

Nice write up and haul on some interesting-sounding lines. I'm hoping to check out Unimpeachable Groping one of these days.

 

I never thought about how the shots there all look particularly foreshortened, but now that you mention it...yep.

 

Thanks for sharing!

 

[Pete_H]

Good description of the BV wall. Fiddler on the Roof definitly fit the bill.

[ezra]

Thanks!