On our last climbing trip to Moab Carl, the owner of the guide company we used, turned us onto Red Rocks just outside Las Vegas so we hired him to guide us. We flew out to Vegas on Thursday morning and Carl picked us up at the airport and took us straight out to Red Rocks so we could start climbing. We went to the "second pullout" and climbed the "magic school bus" area. We did two 5.8 climbs and a 5.9. As the sun was setting the girl climbing next to us took two lead falls and sprained her ankle. Michele wrapped it in an ace bandage and Carl tried to salvage their draws. He went through a lot of work to get one but then forgot to give it back to them. oops. Michele and I didn't prepare for this trip like we usually do and it showed. After the first climb Michele had lost the skin off one finger and by the end of the day she had no skin left on 4 fingers and I had 2 major blisters.We had to keep our fingers taped for the rest of the trip. Carl couldn't believe we were still climbing:-) We went back to the hotel and had dinner and went to bed exhausted. Michele had enough points to get us a room at the Belagio for almost nothing. We were always too tired to do much at night and we have very little interest in gambling anyway so we went to Vegas and stayed at the Belagio and never gambled. I don't know what it is about sister trips but we are always up before 5am and exhausted at night.
The next day we had a fab breakfast and Carl picked us up at 7am and went headed back out to Red Rocks. This was our first experience with big wall climbing. We climbed a 5 pitch, 600 foot route named "Birdland". I didn't enjoy this as much as I should have because I was so tired but it was a great climb. When we got back to the hotel it was not time to go to sleep yet so we walked around the whole hotel and watched the fountains out front as well as had a good Chinese dinner. I also found a gelato parlor. I think the gelato every night was the best part of the trip.
That night I slept for 8 hours and the next morning I was like a different person.
Carl picked us up at 7 again and we went to the "panty wall". Carl set up some anchors and we did a ground school on building anchors. Before we finished a large group showed up from the local college so we decided to go somewhere else to climb. We climbed "man's best friend", a fun 180 foot 2 pitch bolted climb. Carl led it the first time and we all rapped down then Michele and I mock led the first pitch with a top rope. Then I led it without the top rope one time. We got back early and my brother who is stationed out there picked us up and we had dinner with him and his family.
Sunday Carl picked us up and we went back to the panty wall. We did some lead climbing and built and cleaned our own anchors. Finally, real lead climbing:-)!!! Poor Carl was very nervous about having us off top rope while under his care. It got crowded again so we went back to man's best friend and Michele led the first pitch, Carl climbed second and I cleaned the route. Then I led the second pitch and Michele cleaned. In one day we went from lead climbing to lead climbing multi-pitch routes. We went to Bonnie Springs for dinner. It is a replica of an 1880's mining town just outside of Red Rocks. We sat around a big fireplace and ate appetizers and hung out.
Monday ended up being a hiking day. We were going to climb Cat in the Hat but it is a very popular route. We hiked an hour to get out there and found that we were third in line with more people coming in behind us. Carl doesn't do lines and I don't do crowds so we turned around and hiked out. We went to another area and hiked another hour to "the schoolroom" There were several easy trad climbs so Carl led them and left his gear in place so Michele and I could lead them. Then we hiked back out in the dark.
Tuesday we flew home in hurricane Ida. I don't know how we did it but we flew home straight through a tropical storm and didn't have any delays.
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