Red Rock Reflections, Part 1
I recently returned from a fantastic 5-day climbing trip to Red Rock with my friend Josh, who I met during the AMGA Rock Guide Course in North Conway in September. Here’s a quick rundown of what we climbed.
Day 1. We climbed Tunnel Vision, a six-pitch route on Angel Food Wall. The chimney on pitch 3 was interesting. The fourth pitch—through the “tunnel”—was awesome. We finished out the day with some single-pitch cragging at the easily approachable Ragged Edges Area.
Day 2. This turned out to be our most difficult day. We hiked over an hour into Spare Rib on Cloud Tower, but it was in the shade and the rock was freezing. So we audibled, hiked another 30 minutes over to Geronimo, waited at least 45 minutes, climbed the first pitch, waited over an hour, and then bailed. At this point we were pretty disappointed; it was after 2 p.m., we’d climbed a single pitch, and we’d realized that our goal of climbing a much bigger route on Cloud Tower (Crimson Chrysalis) was likely shot since we’d found Spare Rib too cold for our liking. Still, we managed to salvage the day with a late-afternoon trip up Physical Graffiti.
Day 3. We cruised Birdland, a classic five-pitch route in Pine Creek Canyon. Although the route was crowded, we managed without much difficulty. We finished the day cragging on some Todd Swain routes at Moderate Mecca. One of the routes (Muckraker) reminded me a lot of Ladder Line at Quincy Quarry.
Day 4. Our biggest day—12+ pitches. Planned to link up Johnny Vegas and Upper Solar Slab, but the line for JV was 3 parties deep when we arrived. Went to plan B (Beulah’s Book), but the wait there proved too long too. So we just climbed Lower Solar Gully to reach Upper Solar Slab. Turns out the gully was a blast (despite the several chimneys), while the upper pitches were fantastic. Teamed up with some new friends for the raps, finishing a little after sunset.
Day 5. We were a little tired after Solar Slab, so we settled on cragging at Happy Acres. This ended up being a great decision, as these short, techy multipitch routes proved to be my favorites of the trip. Fun climbing, with no crowds! I’ll head back here first on my next Red Rock trip.
All in all a great trip. The five days flew by, I learned a lot about climbing in the desert, and I can’t wait to go back. Stay tuned for Red Rock Reflections, Part II, with a few post-trip reflections.
