Vegas Climbing

Post by **canadaclimbergirl** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 12:31 am

Hey all,

I'm going to be in Vegas for a trade show from the 30th of January to the 2nd of February. I hope to head down on Friday the 21st of January and climb until the 29th in Red Rocks. I'm open to going to Bishop, J-tree etc during that time also.

If anyone is around, or can hook me up with some climbing partners that would be sweet. sport, trad, bouldering, whatever.

Beta anyone? must climb routes? camping?

Thanks!

Post by **Yasmeen** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 12:33 am

If you're looking for cool multipitch, Black Orpheus was really fun. Leave a good amount of time for the descent, though-- it took us ~3 hours. The Fox is an amazing single pitch crack on the wall to the left of the Kraft Boulders. I don't remember many of the other routes we did-- Atman and Yin Yang were cool, though.

Post by **canadaclimbergirl** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 12:38 am

what guidebook do you reccomend?

Post by **Yasmeen** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 12:42 am

I'd say go with Supertopo for any multipitch you're going to do... the print guidebook will probably get you killed, from what I've heard. I can't remember any names, but I'm sure someone'll throw one out here soon.

Post by **canadaclimbergirl** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 12:45 am

nice. thanks.

ya, a friend here said that any given route might be a 5.10, but the decent is more like 5.12. said the same for j tree. shotty bolts and all I've heard.

sounds like epics in the waiting.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 2:26 am

there are no good guidebooks for Red Rocks. Get the Urioste and the Swain guides. With both, you will be golden.

You could certainly have epics in Red Rocks, but you'd have to be the editor of a US climbing rag, drunk, setting rock faces on fire, arrested, and have your entire embarrassing episode played out on the internet in order to epic in Joshua Tree.

Post by **tomdarch** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 4:20 am

If you do a search through this forum, there's a posting from Merrick about just how dangerous the guide book descriptions can be. The worst I've had to deal with was 'overclimbing' the top of Tunnel Vision and having to leave some nuts, slings and biners behind to rap down to the descent (yeah, the "15 minute" descent - try 60-70 minutes). I'm still unclear on what the 'right' way is to get off of that safely. But the main problem is just that a) all the approaches and descents take way longer than described and b) the descriptions are crap - you'll spend a while wandering around lost.

As for routes, Tunnel Vision was more about adventure than good climbing - I was not happy about some of the runouts, no matter how easy the climbing was, but that's appealing to some folks. Dark Shadows Falling was great, but it might be too easy to be fun for a lot of people (the 5.7 corner was harder than the last 5.8 face pitch). Prince of Darkness was amazing. It's almost fully bolted (after the first 5.6 pitch) It's full rope lengths of 10b/10a/9/9/10c 'sea of crimps' slab climbing. It's not for everyone, but it was a blast for us.

Mt Charleston will probably be freezing (there's a small ski area up there) so don't plan on working any of the 'sculpted' 14s unless you like climbing in serious cold.

As for J-Tree, the getting lost thing is par for the course. And the star system in the guide book is pretty random. Ask around about what the real classics are.

Post by **canadaclimbergirl** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 12:06 pm

for my own leading, it will be up to 5.7 or 5.8 trad....depending how I feel, though I tend not to lead at my limit when at a new area, and 5.10+ish sport. I am not a big fan of slabs. but will follow them or lead easy ones.

hopefully I'll find a partner who knows their way around and can put me on some classics that aren't too run out.

I'm pipe dreaming here aren't I?

Post by **Artsay** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 12:17 pm

Ray and I climbed at Red Rocks a few weeks ago and got lucky by meeting someone that showed us how to get to the base of the cliff. We went to the Gallery and could see the wall but it looked like getting there would be impossible with all the rock obstacles in front of us. Fortunately this guy walked by and hooked us up because it was way tricky hiking to get there. He said he's seen people trying to get to the wall for hours in what took us 5-10 minutes. The routes at the Gallery were amazing but most all the easier ones ended the same way....slabby and runout. I thought they were cool as hell (and honestly it was easy climbing up top) but you may not like it so pre-warning. If you do go to the Gallery, Dr. Topo is waaaaay off. Just look at the center of the wall and you'll see tons of lines. They pretty much go left to right, easiest to hardest. There was a 5.9 and a bunch of 10's right of it, enough for you to have a blast on for sure. They're short, though. We also went to the Sweet Pain Wall and climbed some bad ass routes there and that's right around the corner but tricky to find. Good luck and have fun!

Post by **Meadows** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 12:39 pm

Avoid Running Man wall.