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Prod
Trad climber
A place w/o Avitars apparently
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Bull sh#t Inner City,
Post up.
Prod.
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Reilly, I liked this part especially:
We picked a nice looking line that didn't appear to pose too much likelihood of serious
embarassment. I think it was to the right of that 'Negro Blanco' thing a few posts
back.
How it was climbing in Red Rock in the 70s, before our overbeta-ed age.
Inner City, Prod is right -- you got stories, post 'em up. Just for fun, not for
greatness. Here I am, going on and on about Centerfold, fer chrissakes.
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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(meanwhile, four pitches up Centerfold)
Joe was feeling poor, so Scott took his lead, going out right to belay on a narrow
ledge in the varnished face.
"P4 -- Climb up a few feet and make an obvious, long traverse to a narrow ledge on
the face to the right (5.7)."
Joe followed this pitch, but he was getting worse by the minute. By the time he
reached Scott, his distress was acute: he needed to be off the wall now. Feeling
the pressure of imminent disaster, Scott rigged a single-rope rappel and Joe immediately
headed down. I can't recall the details -- it might have involved Joe rapping to a
ledge, Scott dropping the single rope, then Joe rigging a second rappel. As soon as he
reached the ground, poor Joe vanished into the bushes.
In the photo of Scott below, you can see the blue rope rigged as a single-strand rap
line, tied off to one corner of the ledge and (because we evidently didn't trust
that) a few inconveniently-located nuts.
If Scott and I had been better people, we might have gone down with Joe to be sure he
was OK, and left the route for another day or party. But I don't recall anyone, and
certainly not Joe, seriously proposing such a thoughtful sacrifice at the time.
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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What happened next was, for me, the heart of the climb, and the part I remember
most clearly.
Following Joe's sudden departure, Scott and I took stock of our situation. We were less
than half way up the wall, with half the day gone, one rope, and unknown difficulties
above. Naturally we decided to go for it.
I led on up the varnished face, which wasn't difficult but felt "out there" enough
to be fun. My holds ended at a stance on the left, atop the last bit of varnish.
There was unfriendly rock above, offering no protection or anchors. The main crack
line was still 10 feet out of reach to my left.
I began hand-drilling for the first bolt of our climb. It seemed that my one drill bit
might have been sharpened at a wrong angle (by me), because it kept binding in the
hole. After a longer-than-usual effort, I started to hammer in a 1/4" Star expansion
bolt. Its head snapped off when the nail was halfway in, uselessly plugging
the drilled hole. I began a second hole, and after more effort managed to
place one good bolt. It turned out to be the only bolt on our route.
A few minutes later, I would be wishing that I'd had the patience and good
sense to drill one more, building at least a two-bolt anchor. Instead, weighing the
hour and the uncertainties ahead, I had rashly decided that one 1/4" bolt would have
to be good enough. At least, I'd placed this one well.
"P5 -- Go up through the varnished section above, then angle up left to a narrow,
exposed ledge with a bolt anchor (5.8)."
I belayed Scott up to my stance. This belay is correctly marked on Handren's
topo, left of my green number "5."
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Todd Gordon
Trad climber
Joshua Tree, Cal
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I guess I've had my fun at Red Rocks;......some memorable moments.....
I climbed Solar slab with a German girl who had only been climbing twice.
We went to climb Cat in the Hat,...but my car broke down and was in the shop until well afternoon;...we finally got the car out of the shop, and ran in and did the climb in 1 1/2 hours.
I did Black Dagger with a young ladie who got a 2 foot rip in her sweat pants.....(no problem with that...)
When we climbed Frogland, we were the only party that did the climb that day ...
My brother in law led Neon Sunset.....he is a non-climber who has climbed in the gym a few times.
When we did Chrimson Chrys, it was only getting done a few times a month....if that...
We did Epinephrine when it was very hot;...in 5 hours .
I think the Nightcrawler is one of the best climbs in Red Rocks.
I think Out of Control is one of the best crack climbs in Red Rocks.
We climbed Rock Warrior all the way to the summit, and got back to our packs after midnight.
We got stuck over night on Dark Shadows on my girlfriends 30th birthday. We went all the way to the summit of Mescalito.
Running Man in one of the best face climbs in Red Rocks.
Leavitation is one of my top 10 climbs.
I climbed Eagle Dance with a Communist.
I didn't want to climb the FA of Delicate Sound of Thunder with Wonderly and Evans because it was too cold.
The first time I saw Black Velvet Canyon, I thought it was so cool I almost cried.
When we did Rock Warrior, we went over to Richard Harrison's house to get beta (He was on the FA ) He told us to bring slider nuts.
On the drive home from Vegas after climbing Epinephrine, I hit a cow in my truck near Cima.....the cow's head hit the windshield, and broke the window, and my passenger door never opened after that too.
Radim Bedan; communist.
Dave Evans on the Rock Warrior.
Eagle Dance
Black Velvet Wall;....one of the most beautiful sites a climber can set eyes upon...
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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After reaching my exposed stance, Scott downclimbed slightly and accomplished
a thin traverse left -- the route's crux. At the start of this traverse, he had
almost a toprope belay, but this illusion of security didn't last. He regained
the main crack at a position below and well left of the belay, but still could not
place any protection until he had climbed up ten more feet, as seen in the
photo below. All this time, there was nothing between us and the ground except
Scott's climbing ability and my lonely bolt.
Eventually Scott placed a nut, but it was a large hex that looked doubtful for the
kind of outward-diagonal stress that might happen. Fortunately, he did not fall, and the
difficulty began to ease off.
I see that we rated this scary pitch 5.9+:
"P6 -- Climb down from the left side of the belay until it is possible to traverse a
few moves and regain the main crack system. Follow this over a difficult bulge
and belay (5.9+)."
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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We had little idea what would come next, but it turned out that Centerfold got a
lot easier after that crux. This was fortunate for us, because we were feeling a bit
frazzled and the daylight clock was ticking.
"P7 -- An easy, obvious ropelength to a dirty belay.
P8 -- A strenuous, though moderate, chimney and crack pitch (5.7).
P9 -- Take the smooth, left-hand chimney, simple but not protected."
About this last part, Manuel Rangel wrote on MountainProject:
We perservered and ended up doing a scary last pitch on a grainy groove/chimney
that I stemmed with hardly any pro, none good. After that, we ended up with a cold bivy.
Or as Pete Bresciani described it:
After that the climb continued up uninteresting rock, many bushes, and more low
quality rock.
I don't recall these last pitches at all, unlike the vivid memories about pitch 5
and the start of pitch 6.
In my notes written for Joe's notebook on the evening of the climb, I summed up
our consensus about its quality:
"The climbing on the first six leads is consistently interesting and dramatic.
Although the route eases considerably towards the top, the line is maintained.
Another bolt should be added to the anchor on pitch 5."
That's how we thought, "the line is maintained." It's the right-most crack/chimney
system on this wall:
But for a refreshingly different perspective, here's how Bresciani summed it up:
This ranks up there with the most highly overated routes in Red Rocks such as
Community Pillar, Magic Triangle and Geronimo. Not so good, no stars.
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philo
Trad climber
boulder, co.
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Chiloe I am really loving what you are puttin' down. I hope you will compile it cohesively once you get it all out there.
Long live Spartacus! Long write Chiloe!
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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So how did our original line become "lost"? I suspect that my loose page of notes
describing the route (quoted in pieces above) did not make it into Joanne Urioste's
hands when she wrote the first guidebook, aided by Joe's notebook. Consequently,
her description had to be vague:
The route ascends the crack system mentioned above to the top of Perception Tower;
it then continues to the summit of Mescalito.
Swain's guidebook sez:
The route goes up obvious white cracks and flakes to the top of a prominent tower.
From the top of the tower, continue to the summit of Mescalito, utilizing obvious cracks.
Roxanna Brock asked me about the route for her guidebook, and printed my pitch-by-pitch
description -- which mentions the right-face detour, and the crux on pitch 5. Perhaps
struggling to reconcile my description with accounts by more recent parties, however,
her text also mentions an overhanging crux on pitch 3.
My initial contribution to the MountainProject.com discussion did not help anything
either. I knew about the right-face detour, but wasn't sure exactly where it went,
and drew a topo as wrong as the others.
Jerry Handren printed the pitch-by-pitch description in his 2008 guidebook too. For the
first time, this was accompanied by a good topo photo. I'm guessing Jerry went and
studied the wall, with description in hand.
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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And that's the untold story.
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philo
Trad climber
boulder, co.
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All kudos to the earlier chroniclers of RR legacy.
But my hat's off to the tremendous job Jerry Handren did with his monumental project.
A truly meticulously researched and smartly produced guide book classic.
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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That evening, reunited with Joe and Betsy, Scott and I recounted our adventure.
Joe, half-recovered, listened sadly. Perhaps remembering the 5.10 FA he had led the
day before, Joe turned to Betsy and sighed, "I used to be a strong man."
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philo
Trad climber
boulder, co.
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Ow! I feel his pain!
Once I climbed a mountain, had some fun, stood up tall on a dime.
Once I climbed a mountain, now I'm done, belayer can you spare some time.
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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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Philo
I thought you were going to go with the song,
'brother, can you spare a dime?'. . .
You still stand tall. Veddy, veddy, tall.
(as does Chiloe)!
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Texplorer
Trad climber
Reno
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Liked Mr. Gordon's list so thought I would list my own RR bests
Climbed Epi with a Jesus look-alike that saw down-soloing it after his "foot slipped" in the chimneys.
Hit 200,000 miles on my mercury cougar in black velvet canyon
Climbed a fine FA with the venerable Joan Urioste
Found the best climbing partners of my life
Burned out the seat in more pants than I can remember
Learned to to hate the ire of those damned live oak leaves
Asked the girl I would eventually divorce to marry me atop Mescalito
Learned what it feels like prussik, dehydrated, in the dark, on a stuck rope, after 22 hours of climbing
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Todd Gordon
Trad climber
Joshua Tree, Cal
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This is NOT the Black Velet Wall..
Todd Swain;..he wrote the book....
Leavitation 29.....on my top 10 list.........
What happens in Vegas......stays in Vegas.....
The dreaded Chimney pitches on Epi
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Texplorer
Trad climber
Reno
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So here is a more modern contribution to the "Red Rock Stories" While not the best FA I have been a part of at RR this is the most memorable day I have had in those hallowed canyons.
In the fall of 2006 Larry DeAngelo and myself had discovered the potential of First Creek. This was probably the most untouched of all Red Rock canyons at the time. Larry had scoped out a few lines on the long slabs that rose just up the trail from the Lotta Balls and Romber Room areas.
Larry and I "rediscovered" what is now known as sunset slab. We had thought we were on an FA but later discovered that a young Joe Herbst climbed a route near the line we took and he was even benighted on the route. Unsure of the exact line Joe took we gave him the FA cudos. After over 1000ft of climbing we hit a large ledge system. I will never forget seeing the huge and intimidating wall above, steep and forboding. I asked the sage of RR FAs what routes lay on this upper behemouth of a wall. . . Larry knew of no routes there. At that moment I knew that I would be returning to this wall.
Fast forward a few weeks. I had climbed only a few days with this fellow Andrew and done a few of the RR classics but already felt at home. It was uncanny that totally separately we had aquired almost identical racks, shoes, jackets, harnesses, techniques, and experiences. When I conveyed to him that I knew where there was a 1000ft+ unclimbed wall in Red Rocks he didn't hesitate.
I have placed only one or two bolts in my entire career and saw no reason to start now. Andrew had even less experience so whether by stupidity or naivety we decided to leave the bolt kit behind. Armed with a double rack from brass wires to #6 friend we headed out at 5:30 one crisp autumn morning. An hour later we were at the base of sunset slab. This was the first time Andrew had even been in the canyon.
We tied in and I led the way as we simul-climbed the entire lower slabs section in about 1 1/2 hours. Now at the ledge system we scoped out several starts to the massive headwall and even attempted a few false starts before finally embarking on the route. We began climbing below the tallest section of the wall.
Approach Pitches
The first few pitches went well. We stretched our 60m rope to the limit on almost every pitch. The route seemed to have natural ledges about every 200ft or so and the climbing was generally on decent rock and clean. The first 4 pitches went by at a moderate 5.9ish feel. After weaving about the wall for about 1000ft we reached the final headwall.
This pitch proved to be the physical crux. What had looked like a nice crack from below was actually a 5 inch wide crack with about 3 inches of moss the inside. Starting out I aided a tenuous move on sandy rock and moved up into the dry mossy crack. It is an unnerving feeling to feel a "good" handjam start to slowly slip as the moss gradually breaks loose from the rock. Occasionally I would try to stop to get a piece of gear in only to find that the crack seemed to swallow the cam but it would pull right out. Luckily I didn't fall and fortuitously at almost exactly 200ft there was a small bush growing out of the crack. I stopped and belayed off the sappling.
Mossy Crack
As Andrew groveled his way up this crack I peered above and notice the crack system we were in seemed to get smaller and become overhanging. At this point we had maybe 2 1/2 hours of light left in the day and the spector of a forced bivy was looming.
Andrew arrived at the belay and I was very glad that I was not leading the next pitch. After a brief discussion of the situation he decided to traverse to the right to see what was around the corner. I had imagined a 20-30 foot traverse. Slowly he began to work his way across sloping face holds. The climbing did not look difficult but there was no protection. Andrew climbed around a bulge and I lost sight of him yet the rope kept going . .. .and going . . .and going. Finally, about 60ft out I heard a distant yell that he was moving up a crack.
Now I am no fool and know what a fall on a traverse like that would do to you so I yelled back for him to climb up as far as possible before placing pro.
About 30-40ft more rope out and he finally place his first piece of gear. When there was no rope left Andrew set up a belay.
As I followed out I was pleased the traverse was relatively easy climbing. Amazingly Andrew had climbed 20ft or so of 5.10 crack before placing gear while having probably 70-80ft of rope out. Yikes! Arriving at the belay I was unnerved to notice that it was a less than desirable anchor. A few more pitches later and we topped out.
Summit Photo
Relief washed over me. We had made it. . . or so I thought. A brief celebration and of course the mandatory summit photos ensued. Now the true adventure began.
We had scoped what we imagined would be a long but walk off descent. Walking back from the edge we began to descend a large but bushy gulley. It narrowed and became steeper and steeper. As the light faded we came upon a mountain goat carcass and we picked up the horns as souveniers. Perhaps this angered the mountain gods but soon thereafter things got more sticky.
We had finished the last of our water on the summit and I already felt parched at that point. Now the dehydration started to set in. I just kept telling myself the car was just a few hours away.
Darkness.. . . Darkness had enveloped us and we were still descending couloirs, chutes, and wading through dead and pointy live oak leaves. We came to what we thought was the ledge system atop sunset slab but nothing looked familiar to me. We traversed back and forth for about an hour to no avail. Finally we had to make the decision to rappel.
Less than ideal raps resulted in at least 3-4 lessons in night prussiking. The worst of our fears now was the we were rappelling into a dead end with no way down and no way back up. As the night wore on the dehydration changed from an annoyance to obsession. All I could think of was those powerades back at my fau-wood paneled station wagon. My lips were beyond dry and cracking, a throbbing headache tormented me and we were still moving downward. We were still downclimbing up to 5.7 offwidth and other things we should have been rappelling. A few rappels later and I spotted a bolted anchor! . . .but where were we? Then my dehydrated stupor cleared and I realized we were one easy rappel to the valley floor and it would be a 1 hour hike out.
Little did I know that those sandy walls had one last surprise. Our rope didn't pull again. It was my turn to prussik. Stand up, slide up. . . . rest. . . stand up, slide up . . . rest. It probably took me 45 min to ascend 60ft in the darkness. Exhausted I felt the ropes would pull from here. I had never deliberately left gear before but at this point I just didn't care. In went a #1 camalot and I made a makeshift anchor. Soon we were on the ground. The 1 hour walk out was more like 1 1/2 hours as we stumbled through the desert in the early morning hours.
About hour 20
Finally back at the car we gorged on powerade that burned my mouth. I didn't care. I had been 24 hours of non-stop movement on less than a gallon of water since we had left the old station wagon.
The drive back to henderson was a blur. Slowly the pain faded as the story was retold over and over. It is funny how one of the most grueling days of your life can become one of the best.
Since then we have done 3 more routes on the wall and found out that the venerable Jay Smith had scooped us climbing the first line on the wall probably back in the 80's. Still the most memorable for me will always be Tiers of the Setting Sun
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Todd Gordon
Trad climber
Joshua Tree, Cal
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Red Rocks is one of the greatest climbing areas on planet earth.....
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cowpoke
climber
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The Chiloe and Texplorer stories are wonderful reads. Both gave me the classic approach-avoidance conflict (i.e., simultaneously wanting and not wanting to experience the routes, first hand). Juxtaposed, they provide a cool perspective on past and present Red Rock adventure. thanks to all making this such a great thread!
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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I liked Texplorer's story too. They did the climb in classically good style, and his
write-up conveys the experience on these walls before other parties have cleaned
out the cracks, set the anchors, rated the crux and told you the best descent.
Here's to Red Rock adventure climbs, large and small!
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