The Seattle winter rain and fog finally wore me down. So I flew down to Vegas to climb at Red Rocks. I met Bryant Miller and Lisa Fox at the airport. I last saw my climbing partner and his wife a few months ago, after they quit their physical therapy jobs, tricked out their van and took off to see America. They are living their dream adventure. They basically drive from one recreational place to another looking for climbs, hikes and interesting things to do and see.

Red Rocks is as amazing a natural phenomena as Vegas is glitzy. Huge multi-colored sandstone rock formations guard the two-thousand-foot deep canyons that separate the Las Vegas basin from the high country desert to the west. The early morning sun accented the crimson red, calico white, cotton candy pinks, mauve to deep maroons, and orange rich brown to lacquer black colored rocks. All of this scenery hung under the expansive cobalt blue sky. It appeared that a flaming interior designer had gone wild with the decor after consuming too many rum umbrella drinks. It truly matched the everything-in-excess living large atmosphere of Nevada.

We drove the horseshoe-shaped scenic drive that wraps its way past the calico hills and willow spring to four of the half dozen large box canyons of climbing heaven. The van rocked its way around the windy roads until we reached Pine Creek Canyon parking area.

Our objective for the first day was to climb the 5.6+ “Cat and the Hat.” We geared up with lots of water in our climbing packs and hiked the hour-long approach to the base of the Mescalito formation. With the cartoon character climb located in an area named after hallucinogenic drug producing cacti, in a crayola colored canyon, I wondered when I would see Alice’s white rabbit.

Fortunately we found the base of the climb with no one there and proceeded to climb up from the canyon floor to the upper ledges of pink and white-banded rocks. Bryant led the climb and I was able to ascend the long meandering pitches without too much trouble. But admittedly the exposure and not having done any outdoor climbing since September made for slow going at first.

Desert climbing in the winter was so much different from any other I have done. The sun and wind pummeled my body with intense hits of cold and hot. In the shade the temperature was in the low fifties. Add wind and it felt below freezing. In the sun I was a roasting marshmallow. So each belay meant clothes adjustments of putting on or peeling off layers of windstoppers, polypro, cotton and fleece. As Bryant said, “You either are uncomfortably cold or exceedingly hot and sometimes both within seconds.” These temperature swings seemed akin to washing one’s hands in a public restroom with two quick shutoff faucets. One hand would be scalded and the other frozen. There seemed to be no midrange comfort zone.
We climbed 6 full rope length pitches and rappelled back down by 4 PM. By the end of the day I felt the 5.6 rating was a bit sandbagged. But that was just a warm-up for the next climbs.

One technique we used all week was to “block lead climb,” described in Climb On! Skills for More Efficient Climbing. The rope team ties in using figure 8’s on two locking biners to their harness. This enables the climbers to not switch leads each pitch but to lead in blocks of pitches. When the second reaches the belay ledge they switch ends of the rope without having to flake the rope. They just clip the rewoven figure 8 knots into their biners and go. It saves time and energy.

The next day we woke early and took off for Black Velvet canyon to climb a 5.8 pinnacle called "Frog Land." It took us a short half-hour to drive the narrow rocky road to the base of the canyon. We assembled our gear and took off hiking to the base of the climb on top of the peppermint pink taffy ledges. I had seen this climb in Rock and Ice and really wanted to climb it. The guidebook described it as follows. “The sustained nature of the route may keep you hopping. Bring a good selection of gear, as all of the pitches are long and wander a bit." (No s**t Sherlock!) Needless to say, it had a bit of everything. There was face, crack, slab, roof and chimney climbing. It all seemed wonderful and difficult at the same time. There was one pitch that required dropping our packs to squeeze through a narrow tunnel created by a huge block chockstone in the chimney. Fortunately before we started, we girth hitched runners to our climbing packs and clipped them to the back of our harnesses with locking carabiners for just that maneuver. After we made it through the tunnel we easily slid our packs back on. Once on top of the pinnacle we enjoyed incredible views of Vegas and the environs. After a reasonable descent down a dirty gully we reached the van just before sunset. Lisa and Orion met us with Jolly Roger beers in hand.

Wednesday, the wind picked up and the temperature dropped, with a forecast of even colder temperatures the next day. We drove to the Pine Creek area again and debated climbing the 14-pitch solar slab route but settled on a 7-pitch 5.7 called Olive Oil. More cartoon characters. Perhaps the climb was named after her frumpy wrinkled panty hose that sagged like a deflating Macys’s Parade Balloon. The wrinkles came in part from the dusty rose and white striped sandstone rocks that eroded at different rates. This provided great horizontal rib edges for excellent finger and foot placements. The climbing surfaces on sandstone are quite forgiving for the fingers but make pro placements rather dicey. The eroded edges provide great hand and foot holds. Some of the cracks eat gear because the soft rock permits cams to crawl.

This time the approach took well over an hour and the last part required sliding up and over boulders and wedging through rock tunnels. All the while the wind howled up the canyon slamming us with cold air from the super cooled rocks. Once we arrived at the base of the climb, the wind subsided and the sun peeked over the Juniper canyon walls enough to encourage us to start the first pitch. The guide said there were no anchors to rap off so that meant we would have to lose gear if we decided to bail. This was one of many guide book inaccuracies we noted during the week. Actually there were three sets of belay station anchors.

Fortunately the sun warmed the rocks and the canyon walls fended off the super cold winds. With excellent climbing surfaces and efficient belay transfers, we made our way up covering 2 pitches an hour. We reached the top of Rose Tower at 2:30 PM and celebrated the scenic views with lunch. The descent required downclimbing some class 3 or 4 friction slabs and picking our way down another dirty gully full of large chockstones. We made it back to the van before dark.

Friday we tried "Lotta Balls" in First Canyon. The area got its name from the strange nubs that protrude from the side of the rock walls. They looked like rock thumbs superglued to the cliff. When they break off they look like sandstone marbles. Friday it could have been called frozen balls or numb nuts. The hour-long approach warmed us up, but then we soon were freezing our you know what off, trying to climb the shaded first pitch of a four pitch climb. I had on 5 thin layers on top and 2 on bottom and still could not feel the ends of my fingers or toes. I did not know if I was grabbing a rock or the end of another finger. We mutually decided to bail on that climb and fortunately there were anchors at the top of the first pitch to enable a retreat. Just before we rappelled, we spotted a small herd of rare desert bighorn sheep with full curl antlers. They amazed us with their graceful quick movement down and up 3rd and 4th class terrain. Maybe they moved fast because they were as cold as we were.

We then stashed our gear and took a hike up First Canyon. Again the brilliant colors of the area continued to impress me. We passed the many banded red and pink color rocks and reached a huge orange slab wall with perfect lines for a friction climb to be done on some other trip. There is always a reason to return. So if you are looking for a way to extend your climbing season, try Red Rocks. You can camp in the area or stay in Las Vegas. There are many superb routes up great multi-pitch climbs. Bring your full rack and an appetite for desert climbing.