10 Days Rock Climbing in Red Rocks - Nevada

Prezwoodz · March 31, 2014

Due to a pile of recent injuries I had hardly climbed at all in the last two months. School, school, and more school piled on top of random bits of work. None of it was at all satisfying so when it looked like I could escape for spring break I jumped on the opportunity. I headed south with my friend Nick, who happened to be in much better shape then I was. His friend Patrick also came down and is relatively new to climbing. Nick had some big plans, but unfortunately they would have to wait as I gained back some strength and Patrick learned his way around the rock. But we still got plenty of climbing in.

I left Anchorage at 9:30pm after spending most of the day working on my midterm exam and then playing a flag football game. I got on the plane exhausted but still wasn't able to sleep. In an attempt at bringing down the cost of the ticket I had to overnight in Seattle, where I laid awake on the floor until my flight left that next morning. I arrived in Vegas at noon, sleep was the first thing on my mind. However, that's not really how Nick works. He picked me up, along with Patrick who had a few measly hours of sleep, and we drove into the park. We groggily packed our bags and headed toward Mescalito by 1pm. We climbed the enjoyable, and easy, Cat in the Hat (5.7). A route that, at this point, I can hardly remember. Nick was happy to be back on the rock.

We scrambled the easy upper sections even though a part of me wondered if I'd fall asleep reaching for a hold.

Others were climbing on steeper objectives.

Aww the summit. Wheres the bed? Oh...we have to go back down? Dang.

Well we headed down and got our ropes stuck in the process. It was getting dark and we were all smart enough to leave our headlamps in the car, so we left them and went back for them in the morning. Cat in the Hat goes up the left side of Mescalito.

There were other amazing views from the parking area. Such as the Rainbow Wall. As we were heading in here one day Alex Honnold was heading along the same path. I'm assuming he split this way though and we went off to do something much easier.

Mt. Wilson. We ended up climbing the first pitch of Pink Tornado, which goes up the pillar in the middle-left of the lower wall. But it got dark on us once again as we got started late and there was already a party on the route. I heard we got the best pitch anyway.

We switched over to some sport climbing, which usually means easy pictures! Yak Crack.

The ever so popular Gallery.

Pat jumps on Yak Crack for his first lead of the trip!

Erik Pallister gaining some air.

Then we went over to Fear and Loathing (5.12a) so that Nick could try and tire himself out a bit. It didn't really work but he looked like a beast climbing it. Did I say climbing? I meant crushing.

Oh and in case you are wondering that is a mullet he's sporting.

After climbing some sport we decided to head over to Birdland so Pat and I could climb it. Nick just ran around and climbed everything else. Some flowers. Anyone know what type?

There was a line on the way in so we hopped on some 5.8 ahead of time.

And, since I never miss an opportunity to catch some wildlife...

Climbing in corners.

Climbers on Cat in the Hat.

We finally got on Birdland and had a great time.

As usual with the classics in Red Rocks there's always someone on your heels. Sometimes they were on ours, sometimes we were on theirs.

Well unfortunately that's the extent of my photos. We did some other great climbs like Olive Oil, and the megaclassic Epinephrine, but I left the camera at home for the chimneys. I'm really jazzed to be back in Alaska and to be back climbing! I've climbed nearly every day since returning, but the cameras still sitting in the bag. It's hard to take pictures when there's climbing to be had!

Thanks for reading.

Kelsey