Phase II begins - Vegas baby!We got into town and instead of going to the hotel and checking in, we headed straight to Red Rocks to get in some fun, crimpy, steep climbing on sandstone. This IS my dream come true!
We opted for the Panty Wall because of it's close access and moderate climbs. We arrived at about 2pm so we didn't have a lot of time. Still, we managed to do two 5.10 trad climbs and four of the bolted climbs next to it. None of this is documented in photos as the camera was in the car. We hurried out as the sun was setting hoping we didn't get a ticket for parking on the loop road after dark. Happily we made it back to the car in time.
We didn't know it then, but this would be pretty much the end of the nice weather while we were in Vegas. We ate some more Thai food at a local restaurant on Flamingo Blvd (Krung Thai - YUMMY!) then checked into the hotel. We got a really nice suite for little dough. Good deals are back in Vegas it appears.
We woke up the next morning to find it was raining - a lot. Gack. We piddled around, then opted to head over to UNLV where we could visit the local criminologists. Then we did errands at Trader Joes and headed back. That evening, we had dinner with some Supertopo climbing folks at the hotel's marginal sushi restaurant. It was a good time meeting these folks. One of the couples had gotten engaged two nights before and another is expecting their first baby so there was much to celebrate.
The weather continued to suck the next day. Dave was pacing the room like a caged and nearly insane tiger. Something had to happen so I loaded him in the car and took him to Red Rocks in the rain where we hiked up Ice Box Canyon. It was wet and there were actual active water falls in the canyon. I've never seen Red Rocks look like this.
After a while, I was able to coax Dave back in the car (I threw some chocolate into the passenger side and got out of the way) to take him back to the hotel. We needed to be at a friend's house for Thanksgiving. It was a great time there - lots of fun people and some amazing food.
The next morning the rain had finally stopped. Dave thought the Brass Wall would be a good idea since the rock there has more patina and wouldn't be soft as a result of the rain. We hiked up and found no one anywhere near us. It was like that all day.
The first climb of the day could have been in Indian Creek - a crack with nary a face hold anywhere. Dave loved it. Me, not so much. Whatever. We then did several other climbs there, on the Straight Shooter wall and two climbs on another wall (names escapes me) to the right of the Straight Shooter wall. On our way back to the hotel, we stopped for yet more Thai food on Flamingo (Thai Spice - marginal - what's with all the Thai food on this trip?) and returned to the hotel. We capped off the day with some excellent bad tv on cable.
Our final day in Vegas found us at the Stone Wall in Red Rocks. My "excitement" from the climbs the day before stayed with me on this day and I opted not to climb at all. Dave climbed a lot. We moved over to the Sweet Pain Wall but had to leave after two climbs because "that guy" was there. Pesky guy. We ended at the Kitty Wall where Dave enjoyed two final climbs.
We then hiked out to the car where we bid Red Rocks and the one zillion people there goodbye. We hopped in the car and headed home. We bivied in the Matrix somewhere in Utah and finished our drive the following day. What was to have been about 5 hours turned into an epic as we got caught in a nasty snow storm between the Vail Pass and the Eisenhower tunnel. Eight miles turned into 3.5 hours of a lot of non-fun. Happily, we did get home to our critters.
Good time all around.
It's been snowing a lot since we got home. And it's been really cold. That's okay though. I prepped for another job talk that occurred on the 2nd and have been working on research articles since then. Dave has been busy with his consulting work. If we are to be trapped indoors for the next few months, we are going to at least be productive.
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