I can’t move on with my life until I download this trip from my brain to the computer, and I’ve got a lot to do, so here goes. Kristin and I set aside two weeks this Spring for a climbing trip. Last year,
we went to Greece, and we managed to get ourselves in decent shape ahead of time to take advantage of the steep sport routes. This year we found ourselves in a rut of excessive eating and drinking and inadequate working out. As the trip neared, I was anxious about how well we would climb and how much we would get done. On top of that, work just wouldn’t let up, and we actually had to delay departure by several days so I could work non-stop through the weekend and into Mon-Tue of the following week. By Tuesday evening we finally had the car packed, but I was still looking at lots and lots of work while on “vacation.” Life just wouldn’t let go.
We rolled into Vegas on Thursday morning, quickly found a campsite and drove straight to the climbs. Enough work, enough cheap casino hotel rooms, enough driving. WTF?! This is supposed to be a climbing vacation, so let’s get to it!
Tunnel Vision, 5.7, 6 pitches
We wanted an easy warm up to get our feet under us and chose Tunnel Vision because it was in the sun and we had heard good reports about the climbing. The route ascends about 600 feet of clean crack, corner and chimney systems up the Angel Food Wall. The tunnel is definitely a unique feature and gives the route some character.
Looking Back Down the Tunnel
Kristin Emerging from the Tunnel
From the Top of the 5th Pitch
On Top
View from the Descent Gully
Buelah’s Book, 5.9, 2 pitches
Day 2 saw us humping it in to Oak Creek Canyon to take a look at Buelah’s Book. We wanted to climb Black Orpheus later in the week, so the plan was to do a couple of pitches then scope out the approach/descent for Black O.
Buelah’s Book is awesome! The chimney is super fun, well-protected and leads up into a sweet 5.9 corner. Don’t puss out and bypass the chimney section with the face/arête variation! Climb the natural line – its worth it and you won’t die.
The Route Takes the Big Corner/Chimney System
Here's a Climber Staring up the Arete Var. to Avoid the Chimney - Don't do this!
Sour Mash, 5.10a, 7 pitches
Aw yeah – Black Velvet Canyon. Oh so sweet.
We wanted a bit more of a test prior to Black O, so we decided to coax the Prius up to Black Velvet Canyon.
After handling the approach to 3 O'Clock Rock, this was nuthin! She's an industrial strength mountain hybrid.
I’d previously been on Dream of Wild Turkeys, Yellow Brick Road, Prince of Darkness and Frogland, so we chose Sour Mash.
This is a line well worth climbing. Sustained 5.9 – 5.10a pitches follow a faint crack system through the right side of the arcing roof and then continue with awesome exposed positions on near vertical rock. There were only a couple of other parties back there that day, and it felt like we had the place mostly to ourselves. We capped the day off with a long free rappel over the Fiddler Roof back down to the ground. Go check this route out – you won’t be disappointed.
Looking Back on Pitch 3
Top of Pitch 5 - A little spice at the end here.
The Big Rap Over the Fiddler Roof
More BV
Black Orpheus, 5.10a, 11 pitches
We took one day off, and then the weather crapped out and the wind destroyed our $99 GI Joe special family-style tent. We had planned on a brief sojourn to the Flamingo down on the strip, so away we went. The dirtbag climbers stuck out like zits, but we didn’t care. It’s a total circus anyway.
We woke up early and were out the door by 4:30 am on the way to Red Rocks. We parked out near the old Oak Creek campground around 5 and started the walk in to Oak Creek Canyon. It took us maybe 45 minutes to walk into the wilderness boundary on an obvious old road bed.
The approach slabs from the creek bed to the base of the climb are very straightforward. The first section is maybe 4th class and very easy. After maybe 175’ you will see a trail heading up towards more slabs. Stay on the highway, weave your way through some bush and up a gully over some more easy blocky terrain, and you’ll find yourself at the base in no time. We roped up for part of this, but it is easily soloable.
The climb itself is really fun, although it wanders around a bit and is not dead vertical like the climbs in Black Velvet Canyon. The first three pitches climb a nice corner system. From there, several more pitches lead up and across lower angle slabs towards the big roof that marks the crux pitches.
Looking Back at the Slab Pitches
From there, the crux pitches ascend a beautiful crack/chimney system into a massive right facing corner system, which forms the final two pitches.
Looking Over at the Crux Pitches
The Beautiful Hand Crack on Pitch 8
Looking Down on the Pitch 9 Crux
Overall, this is a cool natural line up a 1000’ face with fun crux pitches and several lower angle pitches that provide lots of moderate mileage. The .10a section is really short and protected by two bolts that are maybe 3 feet apart. The rest of the climb is 5.8 or less with the exception of a couple of 5.9 moves.
For the descent we used the double rope Painted Bowl option, which was very straightforward. We had heard that you could do it with only one rope, but we teamed up with a party from Seattle that had climbed Solar Slab, and they kindly let us rap their double ropes. Once in the Painted Bowl, the walk off is totally straightforward and quick, following cairns on 2nd class terrain in a beautiful setting.
Looking Down from the Raps into the Painted Bowl
Kristin Scrambling Down with Levitation and Eagle Dance Behind
More Descent Slabs
Geronimo, 5.6, 4 pitches
After some more time off and the purchase of a new tent, we finally got back on the rock and went up to climb Geronimo. We had a really good, leisurely time on this route, waking up a bit late, showing up a bit later, and relaxing on moderate terrain with large ledges and fun, easy climbing. All the climbing on this route is completely straightforward on huge jugs and positive holds. I decided to leave the rock shoes on the ground and was happy I did, as they were totally unnecessary. The descent is kind of a pain in the arse for such a short climb, rapping down a brushy chimney system, but what are you going to do?
Looking Up At the First Pitch
Looking Back at the Second Pitch
Looking Down from the End of the Third Pitch
Kristin Somewhere on Route
Looking up at the Fourth Pitch
Kristin on Top
Frigid Air Buttress, 5.9+, 7 pitches
We were scheduled to leave on Saturday morning but hadn’t gotten enough, so we woke up early and went to climb one last formation before we left. A couple of days earlier we had done a recon up into Icebox Canyon, because neither of us had been in there before. As soon as I stepped out of the car, Frigid Air Buttress caught my eye as the most obvious natural line in the area. I didn’t know what it was, but I did know I wanted to climb it.
A couple of days later, we were back to give it a go. 5 minutes from the car, we had a hydration bag explode in one of our packs – then a team of 2 from Vegas passed us on their way to the route. Not an auspicious beginning, but we pulled it together and stayed positive.
When we got to the base, the team from Vegas was just starting up the first pitch.
With large belay ledges, we figured to be hanging with them for the better part of the day. In the middle of pitch 2, their leader built a station and his partner led up the wrong way off route to the right. By the time I got there, I figured out what was going on and led through to the left towards the easy chimney that marks pitch 3. This looks like a really easy mistake to make, and those guys later said it looked like several parties has done the same thing. So betaman says make sure your 2nd pitch is a full 160-175’ feet and you climb up and right, and then back left under the capping roof to a big ledge with the chimney in the back.
The easy chimney pitch (3rd p) leads to a beautiful 5.9 hand to fist to offwidth crack (4th p) that splits a close to vertical face.
Chimney Pitch - Fun!
Hands to Offwidth
I really enjoyed this pitch as it offered some challenging climbing and good position. The 5th pitch starts off in an awkward chimney with a step left into more steep terrain and goes at fun 5.9. The 6th pitch is an easy corner that sets you up for the final 5.9+ finger crack up the face at the top of the formation. Oh yeah!
The climbing on the final pitch is excellent, sustained, and tops out on big jugs where you can literally hang like a monkey, look back down towards the desert floor and enjoy your work. It is a handsome payoff for the route and provided a memorable final pitch for the vacation.
Checking out the Sunnyside Crags in Icebox Canyon
I highly recommended the route. The climbing is consistently interesting and sustained with a variety of crack sizes forming a natural line up a noticeable formation. The route is cold, but it sees sun above the first pitch for a good part of the day. The descent is kind of a pain, but its all pretty much there. Watch out for the raps, as the first double rope rap is really longer than 60 meters, and we had to build an intermediate station. We might of missed one higher up – not sure.
All in all we had a great trip. I think you always come back from a place like Red Rocks wishing you had climbed more, because there are so many options so close together. But we had a great time, climbed some excellent routes, and enjoyed the desert. Here are some more pics.
