Friends Diana and Paul from Northern Idaho invited us to join them at Red Rocks near Vegas for some early season desert rock climbing. Sure, sounds great, we’re in.
Click me to view all the pictures. Best enjoyed as a Slideshow (look for the button in the upper RH corner). There are a lot, but we went crazy on wildflowers…
3/8 – Our biggest epic of the trip occurred on the first night out. Somewhere on I-5, Paul called to tell us the weather in RR was too wet to climb, so they were headed for Death Valley for the next day. Thinking we might sneak in a climbing session in Lone Pine the next day, we headed north, camping for the night at Fossil Falls. About 1 a.m., I woke to howling winds, rocking camper and Carol saying “Are you worried yet?”. Well, no, not yet, but as time progressed, I laid awake listening to the winds grow worse and worse. Finally, I became concerned that the wind might tear the fabric apart on the pop-up, so we broke camp and headed slowly up 395 looking for a more sheltered spot.
A couple miles up the road we came upon a semi that had just been blown on it’s side by the wind – and the driver was still in the rig. We parked and started helping the guy down out of the cab – he crawled out of the driver’s side window and – wow – he was a big man. Carol and I were like “If he falls, he’s getting a belly belay (we’d push his belly into the top of the cab for friction), ’cause we’re not getting underneath him” (thanks, Malia, for the tip!). Once he was on the ground, he bent over and his cigarettes fell on the ground. Great, 100 lbs overweight and a smoker – we installed him in the back seat of the truck, dialed 911 and listened to him wheeze until a deputy sheriff arrived and took him off our hands. Not to be harsh, but man, I’m glad he didn’t have a heart attack and expire in our back seat. My handy stereotype of big rig drivers got reinforced that night.
3/9 – Next day, cold and really windy, Lone Pine climbing off the table, we headed off for Vegas. Grabbed a campsite at the RR Canyon Campground (definitely not a favorite, but convenient), got a call from Nancy G. and wound up spending a nice evening with Nancy, Ellie, Nikki, Tina – and Randy, late in the evening. Best salad of the entire trip :).
3/10 – The following morning we met up with Paul and Diana, climbing still not available (we made our best effort to honor the “don’t climb on the sandstone until it’s had at least a day to dry out” ethic), we all went for a hike into aptly named Icebox Canyon. A nice little canyoneering adventure with pretty falls at the upper end, but it started snowing as we approached the falls, so we didn’t linger. It snowed on us all the way back to the parking lot. Later in the afternoon, Carol and I went on a short wild burro tour and hit the jackpot.
3/11 – Next day, another “down” day, Diana and Paul took Carol and I to White Rock Canyon in Arizona for a hike down to Arizona Hot Springs. Enjoyable hike, nice hot springs, a great day. There is definite potential for a leisurely kayak trip from below the Hoover Damnation with a pullout / overnight at the hot springs. People have clearly enjoyed night time at the hot springs as there are candles on the rocks around the pool.
3/12 – Finally, rock climbing! We headed out early for “Cat in the Hat“, one of the most popular climbs in RRC. We found one rope team ahead of us (their day started out great, one guy had forgotten his climbing harness, and after rigging a swami, figured out he also had no belay device), but got started up the climb around 10 a.m. We split into rope teams, XX and XY, and Paul led off on the first pitch. Fun, easy climbing, great views and practically before I know it, I’m at the top with Paul rigging to rappel down. The last pitch of Cat in the Hat is awesome – intimidating to look up at, but relatively easy mixed climbing – crack, face, a little sketch slab – all the good stuff.
After rapping to the top of the third pitch, the reality of climbing a popular route on a nice day sank in – it got congested. Climbers above us, climbers below us – lots of stuff to think about. In a world of social networking, I had the experience of physically meeting Liz H., one of my Facebook friends, at the anchor at the top of the third pitch. Hey, nice to meet you, yeah, I’m the energy bar guy, glad you like them, have you tried the homemade crackers, and so on, until finally Carol has rapped down and it’s my turn. ‘Bye, Liz, oh, there’s Chris climbing and at the bottom Lila waiting to climb. Hail, hail, the PNW gang is here.
I went first on the next rappel and what a clusterfrick of rope management that turned out to be – our rope toss had tangled with another belayer’s rope down below, blah blah blah, but in the end we’re all on the ground with all our gear; the climb is complete. While we were packing we enjoyed the sight of the desert rodents feasting on some climber’s nut bag – that they had failed to secure – the rodents would dash in, grab a nut, maybe an M&M, and dash off thinking “I don’t have to hunt and gather for a month or two now!!!”.
3/13 – No multi-pitch today, let’s go find a crag and do some “hard climbs”. Headed into the Calico Basin, in a stiff breeze, Paul or Diana noticed some climbers off to our left, we all went to chat them up and discovered The Existential Wall (which only appears in our new third RR guide book “Fun Climbs Red Rocks”), but they claim there are some good climbs on it so we set up two top ropes and while away the afternoon on some great climbs. Nice face climbs and a couple of fun roofs we all had a great time on.
One small epic – I was reclimbing “No Exit” – about the 7th time it had been climbed that day – yarded on a big hold, and to my surprise, a 1 foot square chunk of sandstone about 2 inches thick peeled off and cartwheeled to the ground, smashing to pieces on impact. Diana was belaying and did not drop me; I did not fall, but that could have come out worse. A random fragment of sandstone did manage to find my sunglasses on the ground and scratch them.
Please. Wear a helmet. At all times while climbing on or belaying near rock. You don’t know what’s going to happen – really.
I’m also rethinking using a GriGri while cragging. Sure, it’s heavy and not “the real thing”, but those will be thin excuses if the belayer gets conked on the head and someone dies. I can replay the movie in my head of that chunk of rock spinning to the ground anytime I want…
3/14 – Carol and I took a down day. Slept in, food shopping, showers, gear store, lunch at Diego’s.
3/15 – Welcome to PDT – the time has changed but nonetheless Paul and Diana want to pick us up at 6:30 and head for “Johnny Vegas“, another popular multi-pitch climb. Carol and I 
manage to be ready and off we go. At the parking lot, oh boy, there are cars already. Fortunately, when we got to the base of the climb, there is only one team ahead of us, and they soon disappear out of sight. Once again we split into teams XX and XY. I psyched myself up, took the first lead and – it’s easy going. Climbing is easy, there’s plenty of opportunity for protection, the morning is just gorgeous, all good. Paul and I switch leads and apart from a little route finding problem on my part leading the third pitch, all goes smoothly. If you climb Johnny Vegas, be sure to pay attention to the part where you’re to “step left after a small roof and follow easy climbing”; in retrospect this must mean immediately after a small roof…
We headed for Solar Slab; Paul led the first pitch and when I joined him we had a short discussion and staged a team XY revolt – we’re ready to head down – footsore and tired. This turned out to be a good decision, I think, as getting down was not trivial. Once again we hit problems with congestion, plus all those climber-friendly horns and cracks make for some really fun rope tosses, rope pulls and rope management. At the top of the last rappel, since we were using both ropes to rappel, we had 4 climbers in a small spot; we stacked Paul above the belay station while we rigged the rap.
Everybody down, all the gear down, packed and off, back at the parking lot with daylight to spare. Tremendously enjoyable.
3/16 – Another cragging day; we headed for Moderate Mecca as Carol and I wanted to work out the trick on “The Swinging Love Pen” which had
defeated us many times before. It’s rated 5.9 and I was convinced it was just a matter of working out the footholds to get it down to that rating. We had a great day. Carol coached me on the easiest way to mount Love Pen; I finally found the feet for following the crack. We also worked out on “Valentine’s Day” and “Ace of Hearts”. The latter climbs taught me that not working on crack climbing was not making me a better crack climber. Duh. However, I was happy to be making progress on an outdoor 5.10d (Ace of Hearts); we fully intend to hit it again next month. Diana had great success on Ace of Hearts, making it all the way to the top. Awesome.
In late afternoon, we all (Carol, Diana, Paul and I) met up with Tim R., Brad G., Chris D. and Bob M. of the PNW gang, and Tim (from Western Mass) and headed of for Archi’s Thai Cafe. Awesome food, and inexpensive to boot. Must revisit.
Dessert at Coldstone Creamery, goodbyes and Carol and I are off for Death Valley – can’t spend another night in Crunchy Campground – found Slabby Acres and spent the first peaceful night in a long time…
3/17 – Up on our own schedule, some breakfast, walking around and picking up garbage (if everyone who visited Slabby took away more garbage, pretty soon, it wouldn’t be exactly nice, but it would be clean), headed on into DV. Noticeable absence of wildflowers, but the desert pupfish are out doing their thing in Salt Creek, which always cheers us up. Only – it’s HOT – we decide to depart DV for Lone Pine.
In Panamint Valley we ran into a couple of other pop-top-camper types that I noticed had good-looking wind deflectors mounted on the front. We turned around, started a conversation and learned all about how the deflectors had been optimized and how they were attached to the camper. I’ll have to try this out…
3/18 – Good news, Tuttle Creek CG campers, the road in has been covered with asphalt, no mile of washboard and dust! We spent the morning plugging gear and building anchors, checked out the local wildflowers, took a shower and then concluded – we were tired, sore and ready to head home.
I was all ready to jet home; Carol talked us into heading north of Kernville to check out the climbing areas there from our “California Road Trip” guidebook. This turned out to be a great decision, as we hit the wildflower jackpot. North of Kernville we found acres of wildflowers. After an early dinner at the Kernville Brewing Company (“Just Outstanding IPA”, indeed), we headed north looking for Needles. Oh, oh, road closed. We camped along the upper Kern river.
3/19 – Headed toward home, decided to go down the Kern river gorge, hit the Wildflower Super Lotto. Unbelievable hillsides covered with flowers. We stopped at Lucas Creek and hiked up onto the hill and – the acreage of wildflowers defies description. We did our best to capture the sheer scale of the bloom, but – there’s no way. Hope you enjoy the pictures. Late in the day, home at last, unpacking, laundry, showers – the usual drill. Happy, tired and fulfilled.
Epilogue
- Please. Wear a helmet. We like you the way you are.
- Diana and Paul, many thanks for inviting us to join you. We learned so much and had such a great time. Your cool competence on lead climbs was inspirational; Carol and I will have so much more fun in the future thanks to this experience. And we’re looking forward to our future adventures.
- Nancy, Randy, as ever you’re great hosts, we’ll see you again in the near future.
- Great to catch up a little with the rest of the PNW gang – Bob, Tim, Brad, Kay, Steve, Lila. Nice to finally meet Liz and to meet Chris. Thanks to our new mobility, we may actually make it to western WA sometime this year – we’ll look y’all up.
- We were so busy in Vegas we didn’t have time to find everyone. Catch you next time.
- Last March I could hardly walk to the local coffee shop and back on my gimpy knee. This year is shaping up to be better!
- “Do you guys even have a home?” Yes, we do; we’re home more than we’re out and about…
- In case you missed it: Click me to view all the pictures. Best enjoyed as a Slideshow (look for the button in the upper RH corner).
Namaste.
~Rick
