Day 1

After being blessed with 3 consecutive months with my newborn daughter my wife encouraged me to head out on a short climbing trip. I reluctantly took her up on her offer and after a late morning meeting in Denver I boarded a plane to Vegas for a quick climbing trip to the Red Rock National Conservation Area. After landing I picked up the rental and headed to the corporate apartment EJ’s wife had arranged for us. I pickup EJ at 10:30PM. We turned in as soon as we got back to the apartment and readied for the next day.

Day 4

CHIPS & SALSA, 5.3 (2 pitches)

We had originally planned on climbing Geronimo, a four pitch 5.6+ route on Sunday morning but we were both beat from two big climbs on two consecutive days. Instead we elected to check out an easy route, Chips & Salsa, with a minimal approach. This was also a good opportunity for me to get some of my climbing confidence back and lead a pitch or two. After some difficulty finding the route we finally stumbled onto the correct area. I lead a steep but juggy pitch and then EJ ran the second pitch to the top. We had a bit of difficulty finding the walk off but eventually found our way down. We consulted the guidebook looking for other routes but by that time several other parties filed into the area taking up all the moderate sported lines we would have be up for. Not wanting to wait in line for a route to open up we headed back to the apartment and packed our belongings. We headed to the airport and boarded our respective flights for Denver. This trip was nearly perfect in every respect (with the exception of the camera incident). The weather and the routes were amazing and as usual EJ was as good a climbing partner than anyone could have. Thanks EJ! We’ll just have to climb Cat in the Hat and Solar Slab again to get photos of you . . .

Day 3

SOLAR SLAB, 5.6 (7 pitches)

SOLAR GULLY, 5.3 (5 pitches)

Day three had a less than auspicious start as EJ & I parked in the wrong lot which added .5 miles to our approach. Once we righted the ship we made good time to the Solar Gully and surprisingly we were the first party there. I lead the first pitch which was over more difficult ground than I had expected. EJ and I swung leads up the Gully and arrived a the base of the Solar Slab in just under one hour. EJ took the first pitch and belayed me up a beautiful crack. The second pitch was my lead but I backed off the pitch as my nerves got the better of me and I handed the rack back to EJ. EJ then lead all of the remaining pitches (7 total) to the summit of the Solar Slab. He climbed smoothly and in control and entire way up on some tricky ground. It took us 2.5 hours to climb the 7 pitches on the Solar Slab. From the top we made 9 rappels back to the base of the Solar Gully. On the second to last rappel I dropped my camera which exploded into pieces as it hurled to the base of the climb. Surprisingly, I was able to find the camera (mostly in tact) and both batteries but was not able to find the SD card so all of my photos of EJ on lead were gone. I couldn’t have felt worse! On the hike back to the car we were fortunate and ran into a couple of hikers that gave us a ride back to the car. Day Three started a little rocky and I dropped my camera (which contained 100’s of photos of EJ on lead) but we were proud of the 1,500’ of technical rock we climbed. 

Day 2

CAT IN THE HAT, 5.6 (6 pitches)

After a quick trip to Walmart in the early morning hours of Day 2 we arrived at the entrance to Red Rock National Conservation Area. We bummed around the visitor’s center for a bit, snapped some photos and headed for the Pine Creek trailhead.  We left the rental behind and began the 40 minute approach to the base of the Cat in the Hat. We had one party (of two) ahead of us which made for slow going but it turned out to be a beautiful day so we didn’t mind. EJ lead the first pitch of the day, I took over for pitches two and three. EJ lead the tricky pitch four which required traversing from one crack system to another. I lead the fifth pitch which was a short traverse and lead the final crux pitch up a beautiful crack to the summit of our route. We were able to rappel off the route without incident. Day 2 was as close to perfect as it could have been.