Trip Report: Red Rock 2009
I arrived at McCarren Airport in the late afternoon on 3/21 and met up with my friend, Brandon, who had arrived earlier in the day. Fortunately, he was able to work out all the rental car details and had already visited the campsite and pitched our tent. Unfortunately, we still needed to wait three hours for Ian and Adrienne to show up, who had been on a late flight to begin with which ended up being postponed even more. Anyway, by about 12:30, we had all our bags and made our way to the campsite.
Day 1 - 3/22
We arrived on the evening that the Red Rock Rendevous was wrapping up, and the weather was less than stellar, so there was no climbing to be had on our first day. Instead, we ran some errands (fuel and a guide book from Desert Rock Sports, grocery story) then headed over to the Rendevous to catch up with Jason Martin, AAI guide and good friend of my buddy Ian. I had previously met Jason only very briefly, but got to talk to him a little more this time around. He had taught Ian most of what he knows about climbing, and Ian had in turn started teaching me, so I guess that Jason is kind of my climbing grandfather, which I think is really awesome. If you don’t know Jason, or all about him, check out the awesome AAI blog (http://alpineinstitute.blogspot.com/) or his personal web page (http://www.dramaticwriter.com/OutdoorAdventure09.html). After lunch, we decided to head over to the first pullout and just hike around. Despite the rain, and a touch of hail, we had a lot of fun, and were getting excited for some climbing in the better weather forecast for the following day.
Messing around at the first pulloff from the scenic loop.
Day 2 - 3/23
Time to hit the rocks! We started out by getting ourselves warmed up with some intro sport climbing. Our first stop was at Panty Wall, where we started out with in two teams: the two comfortable leaders (Ian and Adrienne) split up with me and Brandon, respectively. Adrienne and I ran up and down Silk Panties and The Last Panty, both 5.7, a few times. Next, we moved onto the Black Corridor. At that time, I had never led a climb before, but I was feeling decent and, as they say, there’s no time like the present. I picked Bonair, a classic 5.9, located in the middle of the lefthand side of the lower canyon that looked like a lot of fun. It was a little anticlimatic: everything went off without a hitch and I was lowering before I knew it :) The walls were busy, so I was having as much fun watching as anything else. Once Ian had led it, I had a go on NIghtmare on Crude Street (5.10d) falling once on the crux, but getting after I had felt the hold once was able to stick it. I really, really liked the route, actually. We decided to end the day in the sun, so we headed over to the Magic Bus. Neon Sunset (5.8) was open, and well bolted, so I ran up that before we had to headed back to the car to get out in time. I definitely like Bonair better than Neon Sunset, but still not a bad climb. Overall, it was a good day to get back into outdoor climbing, and my first lead to boot.
Day 3 - 3/24
We had planned another day of single pitch sport and trad to get into shape before some multi-pitch routes later in the week. We headed over to Moderate Mecca, which we figured wouldn’t be very crowded, and we were right. I was feeling a little lazy (and it was pretty hot), so I ended up taking it pretty easy. I followed Adrienne on The Route to Mecca (5.7), and cleaned her gear, which was fun but nothing special. After a short lesson in placing cams and nuts, I grabbed the rack and headed up Sir Climbalot (5.7) for my first trad lead. This definitely made me think a little bit more than my few sport leads, but still went off mostly without issue. Afterwards, I led up The Route to Mecca again before we took off for a late-day visit to Atman (5.10a) which I was lucky enough to get a move or two up…my crack climbing still needs lots of work. We headed back to the car, and to camp, as the sun set and the stars came out.
My climbing partner, a Chuckwalla lizard
Day 4 3/25
On Day 4, we split up the team…Ian and Adrienne took the rack for an attempt of Black Orpheus, while Brandon and I held on to a few draws and the rope for some more sport climbing. We headed back to the sunny and friendly Panty Wall to begin our day. The nice weather led to a slightly busy wall, but we weren’t in much of a rush. We climbed Brief Encounter, Sacred Undergarment Squeeze Job and Boxer Rebellion (all really fun, sustained 5.8). Brandon had never climbed outside before, so he was still getting the hang of things, which slowed us up a bunch (read: 30 minutes to lower after he climbed), but the day was nice and I wasn’t in a rush, so no big deal.
As things got busier, we decided to hit up the Black Corridor again where I re-climbed Bonair so that Brandon could top rope it, then Bon EZ (5.9+), which was good, but not quite as much fun as Bonair in my opinion. Then we headed to the upper level to climb 757 2×4 (5.7) which Brandon wanted to take the sharp end for. Despite trying to clip the rope in backwards a few times, he got the hang of things eventually and led without a problem. I followed, for a good finish to the day, because we had to go pick up Ian and Adrienne.
When we picked them up, we heard their unfortunate story. First, they had some trouble finding the base of the climb thanks to some overgrown trails, then got stuck behind a super slow party. The howling wind midway up the 4th pitch was enough to send them back down, which was totally the right move.
Brandon lowering from Boxer Rebellion (5.8)
Day 5 3/26
My last day had me excited. I was going to take the rack and the sharp end and head up Cat in the Hat (5.6, II) with Brandon following. I was super psyched for the super classic (probably the most popular climb in all of RR), mulit-pitch lead. The day was beautiful, meaning the route was crowded, but not too crowded thanks to some pretty high winds. As I crested the top of the 4th pitch, I moved a little bit out of the protection offered by an arete and got hammered with what I would guess were 35-40 mph winds. Since we were worried about communicating around the arete in high winds, Brandon and I decided to call it a day and rap down (we weren’t alone in this decision, two other groups were headed the same way). The adventure wasn’t over, though, since as soon as I tossed the rope behind me, the wind streamed it out sideways. After traversing wayyyy to my left in order to loosen the rope from a particularly sticky horn, the descent continued mostly without issue. I nearly missed the final set of bolted anchors since we had taken a slight variation on the way up, but managed to spot them in time. Overall, tons of fun, highly recommended.
Second belay on Cat in the Hat (5.6, II)
That brought an end to my time at RR for the week, so I headed back to McCarren to hop on a plane bound for Maryland and a very rainy and muddy Ultimate tourney (we got called off after 2 games), but that’s another story enitrely.
Check out the galleries section for more pictures, or check out my flickr pages.