Viva Las Vegas I - The big freeze

Last weekend was the Martin Luther King Jr. bank holiday and to take advantage of the extra day I went climbing at Red Rocks, Nevada near Las Vegas with a few of the CHAOS crew (photo 1, left to right Kat, Meg, William and me). Red Rocks is located a few miles West of Las Vegas in Nevada some 560 miles from Berkeley - yes it was quite a drive (8 hours), done in one non-stop overnight session involving large amounts of sugary and caffeinated drinks!

Fortunately for myself and Kat we arrived the morning after the 80 mph winds at the campsite that put Meg and William's tents to the test (photo 2, tents still standing). It was freezing, almost certainly around 10F (-15 C) at night (note the snow in photos 1 and 2) and so other than sleeping we did not hang around the campsite much. The climbing here is excellent on great rock with some really fun routes. After getting over the shock of climbing in the snow on the first day, the second day we found a sunny crag in Pine Creek Canyon (photo 3) and were there until the darkness descended and the ranger arrived to throw us out of the park.

Las Vegas was just as I remembered it from my two previous visits in 1998 and 2000 - bright, lairy and very cheesey BUT all good fun. An example of the over the top nature of Vegas for those of you that haven't been yet is that each hotel has some king of gimmick with the intention of luring you to their casino to lose all your money, I mean gamble. For example, at Treasure Island two galleons battle it out four times a night with a live cast in front of the hotel and one of them sinks, Paris has its own Effiel Tower and a Volcano erupts outside the Mirage once an hour (see photo 4).

On Sunday, William wanted to climb "Fear and Loathing III" on the Wall of Confusion (photo 5). Being a 5.12a (7a+) route, he was pretty much on his own with that one, but the rest of us enjoyed watching him with awe as he powered his way through the various roofs (photo 6) to the rap station following rests at the majority of the fixed bolts.

Heading back to Red Rocks in two weeks to hopefully warmer weather and some multi-pitch climbs. Oh, and I'm flying - I am so done with the 10 hour drives...at least for this month!

Laters

Dave