Red Rocks...too quick and too cold

Squeezed in a three day trip to Red Rocks near Las Vegas for some climbing with Susan this week. Temps seemed just warm enough for the normally tricky dead of winter and we were in dire need to get out of town for some climbing so we made it happen.

Ended up being a good trip for just plain being away but due to some poor planning with sun/shade and the weather going a bit south we didn't get as much climbing in as we would have hoped. All in all, I won't complain though...who can when they get to hang out in Red Rocks! Good or bad weather, this place is sick no matter how many times I've been here it never gets old. So much to do!

Here are a few shots from the trip...

(Found along the way to Vegas. If you can guess which gas station bathroom in Kingman, AZ this is from I'll give you 75 cents to use the next time your there!) 

(First day...fun but chossy routes above the famous Calico Boulders. This 5.10d was good fun.)

(Warm and sunny the first day.)

(More 5.10d choss fun.)

(Susan on a CHOSSY 11a, just to the right of the 10d. This route rains choss and is not recommended. I got a decent silhouette shot of Susan on this route though. See it?)

(Victory after breaking holds left and right on my way to the top...why this route was bolted in the first place is beyond me. We had fun on it though...laughing as we launched choss off of it, over and over, with just the wight of our feet. Good fun.)

(Finally, terra firma.)

(Day two:..I always love first light waking up in the back of the car on a road trip! )

(On day two, the idea was to get some warm multi pitching in on the Solar Slab. Here we are getting ready in the parking lot for the hike to the wall.)

(Susan approaching Solar Slab.)

(Psyched and ready for some shirtless, multi pitching, jug hauling fun on Beulah's Book 5.9!)

(On the fun first pitch. Cruising in the sun.)

(Wait a minute...where did the sun go? Well, we had to do the next two pitches in the cold winter shade. Great climbing but not ideal with no shirt on! Fun stuff. Ha. Oh, and for the climbers out there that have done this route...yes, I did climb the face next to the offwidth/chimney pitch like a wimpy sport climber. Who cares though, the face was rad!)

(Once we reached the big ledge at the top of Lower Solar Slab we found sun again and we took full advantage of it. We just hung out and absorbed the warm goodness and views. Great route and good times. Cold and all.)

(Descent down Solar Slab Gully...time to get cold again (no sun in this gully). )

Last day ended up super cold and super, super windy. We didn't see the need to be miserable just to get another day in so we got our butts out of there and headed back to Flagstaff. We always seem to battle tricky cold weather when trying to climb around Christmas. I'd say we could chalk this one up to another one of those trips and are again reminded how the months of December-January can be quite tricky for desert climbing. Great to be out though, cold or not, and the icing on the cake for the trip was watching some serious epics by other climbers on Johnny Vegas 5.7 next to Beulah's Book (a whole other story...). Holy crap... amazing people don't die doing their first multi pitch routes.