Days 70 to 76: Big Walls, Bright Lights, and Solitude in the Sky

Oak Creek Canyon (mountains in the
photo are further than they appear)

On Monday night I rolled into the Red Rock Canyon campground.  I drove the loop for a few minutes before finding campsite number 23, where Jon, another solo climber on a trip looking for a partner, was set up.  We cut through the small talk rather quickly and got right to the point, what big walls would we be going for in the next few days.  Thankfully, Jon had already been there for a few days and had some climbs in mind that he wanted to tick.  He also had a guidebook, which I've been without for every spot I've climbed except the Gunks, so a plan was made for the next day to climb a 1500 foot multi pitch route called Black Orpheus. 

It was wise to have posted a thread on the website Mountain Project to find a partner before I arrived at Red Rocks for a few reasons.  First, I could share the cost of a campsite with someone from the first night I got there (camping was $15 per night; a bit steep for what was included imho).  Even more importantly though was that I could specify what kind of climbing I was looking to do and hook up with someone who had similar aspirations.  Many climbers don't like to do long multi pitch walls with strangers, but since I'd mentioned in the thread that was what I really wanted to do at Red Rocks and had been replied by Jon enthusiastically, I never doubted his skill and capacity to climb safely. 


Jon racking up before a multi pitch climb



Jon was a morning person and for the sake of climbing big walls, so was I for my week at Red Rocks.  We were packed up, racked up, and prepared with some sandwiches for the climb by about 7, an hour after first light.  From the campsite it was about a 10 minute drive to a dirt parking lot beside the main road.  We'd chosen this climb with one main factor in mind; it was in the sun.  60s in the sun is very different from 60s in the shade, and apparently the past few days had been quite cold.  From the parking lot,the red banded steep mountains that marked the beginning of Oak Creek Canyon looked like a nice 20 minute hike across the desert.  That estimation turned out to be quite far off.  The deceiving desert landscape had again proved to be much greater than it seemed and it actually took us nearly an hour to reach the mouth of the canyon.  From there, we boulder hopped up a creek gully for another mile or so.  After that, we scrambled up some low angle sandstone slabs for a few hundred feet to the base of the climb, bringing the total approach time to about 1.5 hours. 



Hanging out at a belay station on Black
Orpheus (5.10a)



Finally, we started climbing.  We swapped pitches the whole way up, meaning he would lead one, then I would follow the rope up and clean the gear out and lead the next pitch with him following.  It's an efficient way to climb multi pitch routes since the new leader has most of the gear he just cleaned and the rope is stacked in a way that makes it easy to feed to the new leader.  The most of the pitches on the route were in the easy 5.5 to 5.8 range with just one pitch being a soft 5.10a.  It was a great climb to get to know Jon and we operated as a team.  Overall, we did pretty well and climbed the entire route cleanly. 

When we topped out it was already dusk, we were far from being finished.  We still had an adventurous descent that required a couple of rappels, lots of scrambling, some boulder hopping down the gully, a search for where we stashed our packs and that 3 mile walk across the deceiving desert.  To make things even more interesting, I was without my headlamp, which was sitting on my drivers' seat with fresh batteries I'd changed in that morning.  It wasn't until 8 pm that we returned to the car, tired, worked, and hungry.  Needless to say, we had  pretty early night that began as soon as dinner was finished.  

Birdland started in that
crack I'm pointing to

The next morning, we didn't wake up so early as we were planning to do an easier 600 foot climb that went by the name of Birdland (5.7+).  Aside from just having fun, we were hoping to use this climb to refine some of our procedures and improve our efficiency. 

Seconding the final pitch of Birdland;
way up in the sky

The approach to Birdland, in Pine Creek Canyon, was far easier than the previous day's and only took about an hour.  The six pitches were relaxing, scenic and fun.  We met another party on the climb who were ahead of us and found some time to chat with them when our paths crossed.  Aside from the views and varied moves, the best part about the climb was the fact that we could rappel the whole way down.  It saved a bunch of time and this time when we returned to the car we felt much better.  

A the top of Birdland, what a view!

That night, over dinner we talked about the business; Levitation 29.  Said to be the favorite climb of legendary climber, Lynn Hill, this 9 pitch 5.11c route claimed to be sustained, aesthetic, and five star quality.  Aside from that, it had the very clear benefit of being in the sun as well as one clear drawback, being even further up Oak Creek Canyon than Black Orpheus.  Since most of the hard pitches were all sport bolted, we could take a light rack that consisted mostly of quickdraws with a few cams and a set of nuts.  We got the rack ready that night since we were going to be waking up at 5:30 the next morning. 

Levetation 29 followed
the crackline on the left
side of the wall

It was a serious climb and Jon's attitude reflected that in the morning.  He seemed somewhat stressed by the time constraints put on us with the short days, but only showed it a few times as he waited for me on the approach.  We hiked for about an hour and a half across the desert and even further up the gully but that marked about the 3/4s mark.  We then had an exciting scramble up into a low angle slabby bowl that climbed about 500 feet.  There were some places where we really had to pay attention because as Jon put it, there was a low chance of blowing it that carried a big consequence (death). 

We planned that Jon would lead the first pitch, which, with swapping leads, would set him up to lead the difficult 5.11c pitch.  I still had a few hard pitches for myself including a 5.11a, 5.10d, and another 5.10.  It would turn out to be the longest, most enduring and challenging climb I've ever done, and it started with a spicy 5.10b that both Jon and I sent freely. 

Jon and I on a hanging
belay on pitch 7

The next pitch was my 5.11a and I'd heard it was really fun.  It was bolted and I was glad that I only had to concentrate on the climbing, which involved pulling a small roof and traversing delicately to the anchor, rather than having to place my own protection.  The next pitch was the easiest on the route at 5.8 and then it was back to business with another 5.10.  When I finished pitch 4 I was really feeling pumped and glad to get back into the uncomfortable position of the hanging belay.  At first when you get into a hanging belay it feels pretty cool.  You're hanging from a totally vertical wall just by the ropes and webbing you set up to anchor yourself in, but shortly thereafter, your harness begins grinding into your kidneys and hamstrings.  Don't forget, at that point you have to belay twice; once for your partner to come up and again when he leads the next pitch.

Pitch 5 on Levitation 29
(5.11c)

Pitch 5 was "the business" and Jon lead it cleanly much to quickly for my muscles to recover fully.  In fact, he made it look much easier than it actually was and when it was my time to second, I admittedly had to resort to the technique known as "frenching" (pulling on the quickdraws instead of just the rock).  Feeling totally worked when I reached Jon at the anchors, I was relieved to realized we had just passed the half way point.  The rest of the climb was a slugfest and I used nearly every bit of energy I had to finish.  When we reached the top, we could look down on Las Vegas, smog smothered and beginning to shine, but we couldn't take any time to bask in celebratory relaxation; dusk was nearly upon us. 

We rappelled down quickly, simul-rapping (using one strand of rope for each person and rappelling at the same time) the first few pitches.  Once at the bottom, it was tracing that risky approach through the slabby bowls, this time feeling less secure and exhausted.  Down the gully, across the desert and back to the car at about 8pm is how we wrapped up an excellent 13 hours of climbing.  I slept well that night, and the next day was a well deserved rest day. 

Paris on electrical steroids,
viagra, and drunk, LV

I spent a lot of time in the library on Friday, writing, reading, resting, and writing again.  I had just finished my Flagstaff post when, for some reason, my internet timed out at the library and I lost everything.  This blog usually auto saves, but not this time and I was as frustrated as I've been on this trip knowing I'd have to rewrite everything.  I rushed to finish the second, less fluid draft before the library closed and did it just in time.  As I was walking out the door Jon called and said that he and some friends of his were hitting the Vegas strip that night.  I'd seen the bright lights, heard the stories and even used the residual glow of the city at night when I didn't have a headlamp (yes the lights really are that bright), but I'd yet to do the strip. 

The Bellagio fountain show

John, Meg, Murra, Jon and I packed into a 4x4 1982 Toyota Tercel and headed into the light.  Parking is a breeze in Las Vegas as nearly every casino has ample free parking.  We choose the Bellagio, a casino known for its magnificent fountain show that goes off a few time each hour.  One thing I really like about Vegas is its freedom.  It reminded me of Taiwan in some ways.  You could drink on the street, people smoked just about everywhere, and sex was for sale on each street corner (not like Taiwan).  We embraced the first mentioned freedom and headed down to the reservoir to see the fountain show.  Synchronized to some cheesy disco Christmas song, blasts of water twirled, swayed and rose hundreds of feet in the air in front of the hotel for all to see. 



Elevator photo, from left to right Jon,
Morra, Meg, John and I

 There was an excitement in the air; one that I had a hard time relating to.  It smelled of money, sex,  booze, and dreams, all over-indulged in.  I couldn't fathom how so many high end retail stores could exist in such a small area until I realized that's exactly how people put their winnings back into the casino; a new Ferrari, Gucci bag, or Rolex watch, depending on your prize money.  Since I only had a credit card and a hundred dollar bill for emergencies, I didn't gamble.  I would have liked to try some games and I spent some time watching roulette, blackjack and war (must war be the best odds?).  I did win in another way though.  We stopped in a foodcourt and I got a burrito and beer at Chipolte, a Mexican fast food chain.  I paid with credit, sat down to eat and was soon interrupted by one of the staff notifying me that my card didn't go through.  He was polite and asked me to come back up when I was finished.  I did, and he tried my card again to no avail.  Alas, cashless and full, I had won a free burrito and beer. 

All in all, we strolled through about 4 or 5 casinos and had a few beers before getting back to the car and making the 20 minute drive back to the campground (it's unbelievably close).  Since it was a long night, Jon and I decided that we'd sleep in and have a cruisy climb the next day.

A nut finding its place in a
constricting crack

The weather had been warming up since I arrived at the beginning of the week and Saturday was set to be in the high 60s.  We found a 700 foot, 6 pitch, trad climb with a relatively easy approach, fun varied climbing, and relaxing grades.  It was called Frogland (5.8) and was located near a bunch of classic routes in the shaded Black Velvet Canyon.  The discontinuous and constricting cracks of the Red Rock sandstone was great for taking passive gear (climbing protection that has no moving parts) so we decided it would be a fun challenge to leave the cams at home and only take nuts, tri cams and hexes for the climb.  Placing passive protection forces you to slow down an bit and place the gear more carefully.  It doesn't have to sacrifice safety and in some cases I'd prefer a good nut over a small cam. 

A typical anchor using bolts
and the rope attached to
locking carabiners with
clove hitches

The last bit of the approach was a steep climb that really got me warmed up for the cool shaded climb.  Jon led the odd pitches and I the even.  All of the pitches were over 100 feet and some up to 150 feet which allowed for lots of gear placements and creative climbing rather than spending time setting up anchors and changing leads. 

Placing gear and getting ready to
traverse left to the exposed arete on P4

Pitch 4 and 5 were the 5.8s and they were both really exciting in different ways.  Pitch 4 had me traversing a slabby section out to an exposed arete and then up to a small ledge where I had to build a gear anchor.  The next pitch was tough for me because I had to squeeze through a small opening under a chockstone while stemming awkwardly.  It was a great view when we topped out and it felt good to get to some sort of a summit since many of the climbs end somewhere on a wall below the top.  It was a walk off and we were able to locate some cairns to help find the best way back down.  It was definitely one of the best 5.8 climbs I've ever done and we got back to camp early enough to make some good dinner, shoot the shit, and plan the next day's climb.

On top of Frogland

Inspired by the tolerable temps we'd found in the shade the day before, we had a choice to make on Sunday morning, Prince of Darkness (5.10c) or Dream of Wild Turkeys (5.10a).  Both routes were on the Black Velvet Wall nearby Frogland but the descriptions given for them were quite different.  Prince of Darkness was 6 pitches of face climbing and rang in with 3 stars while Dream of Wild Turkeys was varied 4 star climbing.  Since Jon had done most of the research, had the guide book, and put in more work racking up for our past climbs, I deferred my choice to him.  Before we knew it we were at the base of Prince of Darkness staring up at the imposing black varnished wall overhead. 

Black Velvet Wall from
afar

The first pitch was an easy 5.7 that I led, but it was the only of its kind.  All of the other pitches were 5.10 or 5.9 and very sustained.  The small holds and delicate face climbing seemed to go on forever and by the time I reached each belay my arms were pumped and my finger tips had a few less layers of skin.  In addition, the person seconding had the annoying task of trailing another 60 meter rope so that we could rappel down the climb when we were finished.  After the first, each pitch just seemed the same; crimpers and small feet.  When we reached the top of the fourth pitch we'd both had enough and decided to bail on the climb.  It was a decision I don't regret (too much) and it allowed me to get back to camp earlier and hit the road around dusk. 

After I packed up the car we headed to a supermarket where I made change with my hundred dollar bill and gave Jon some money for camping.  We said our good byes and like that, I was off to somewhere I didn't yet know for a good nights rest.  Thanks again Jon for the great climbing!