Okay, this one is going to be kind of quick. In short, Red Rocks was mediocre. I hate Vegas, as mentioned before. The climbing in Red Rocks is okay, and pretty good at best. The rock quality sucks, and gear is usually pretty bad. Hikes are generally long and annoying (steep, loose, sandy, scrambling, bushwhacking). Days 17, 19, and 20 were “rest days” mainly cause I didn’t have to psyche to go and climb. It was also very hot.

Another reason why Vegas is trashy.

The tow trucks slogan was “You blow, we come.” Yeah.

Anyways, on Day 16, Maeve and I went and did a climb called Dream of Wild Turkeys. It was 5.10a, 7 pitches, and we did it base to base in 6 hours. There was some 4th class to get to the base of the climb which was tricky with packs on.

Here’s the start of the climb.

Here’s Maeve following my lead on one of the hard traverse pitches. Supposedly 10a, felt a lot harder.

Overall, the climb was pretty good, but it didn’t blow us away. It also felt quite stiff for 10a, which is strange for Red Rocks, since Red Rocks tends to be soft in their grades.

Day 18, Ben and I went to go climb a 5.7 called Olive Oil. It’s 4 or 5 pitches, depending on if you link, and pretty straight forward. I was excited to get back to this climb, because back on my first trip to Red Rocks in 2010, I almost got benighted on the climb due to some rope tangle issues at an impromptu hanging belay, and having difficulties finding the walk off in the dark. We started the day at 9am and didn’t get back until 1:30am.  This time, Ben and I cruised it with no problem. We linked the 2nd and 3rd pitch to avoid the hanging belay, and all went great. Here are some shots.

Ben leading the last pitch.

The anchor and ledge at the top of the 4th pitch proper. My anchor was pretty interesting: two nuts and a slung chicken head/flake feature. I also had a cool redirect going when I belayed Ben up since the anchor was so far from the edge the climber approaches from.

View from the summit. The parking lot is basically indistinguishable.

Zoomed all the way in, the car still looks tiny.

Ben and I on the summit.

A lizard helping guide the way on one of the descent cairns.

Day 21 was a little adventure in which Pat and I went to go find a C1 roof crack called The Great Red Roof to aid. We found it, but the approach involved some exposed sketchy down climbing, and it was crazy windy, so we decided to bail on that and join everyone else in sport climbing. The rest of the day was pretty average. The sport climbing was pretty okay, and after that, we headed back to Maeve’s cousin’s house for some dinner and relaxation. That night, Pat and I started to iron out all the logistics of heading to Yosemite early to do our first big wall climb, the Leaning Tower. We were planning on leaving the next morning, after spending the night with everyone at Maeve’s cousin’s, and I definitely a bit of anxious excitement…