November has been the busiest month ever. EVER. I was in Chicago for our annual criminology conference. Dave drove out to Vegas to see our friends Dick and Natalie. While I was still in Chicago, they got busy climbing...
Red Rocks is gorgeous. It's amazing how many people are surprised that Vegas has any climbing. I always tell them to look west. Big 3000' walls there!
Day one - Dick and Dave hiked into Oak Creek Canyon to climb The Friar and Red Zinger. The Friar is a really cool four-pitch 5.9+ to a blocky summit.
The Red Zinger is a high quality, 10+ two-pitch corner climb.
Though a little cold, I think they had a great time.
Some fun knobs en route.
That is the blocky top on the Friar
Dave enjoying Vegas the fun way!
Looking up at Red Zinger...
The next day, they got up really early and hiked into Oak Creek Canyon to the uber-classic Levitation 29. They hiked and hiked. The weather looked grim. Yet they kept hiking.
It looked bad at the base. It was cold. It was cloudy. They went for it anyway!
Dave heads up. This is the third time Dave has been on the climb. The last time was about 12 years ago!
The weather actually got prettier as the day went on. It didn't get warmer, but the sky got better.
Dave is numb and freezing at the belay stance. During this time, I am in a large metal tube full of people hurling through the sky. I left Chicago and got home late on the 18th. Got up and headed back to DIA to fly to Vegas to meet everyone.
The crux pitch, the 5th pitch, is an 11c crux. Nice photo.
Dick heading up the crux. As usual, they had a good time climbing together.
At the anchor!
On the IBM boulder hiking back to the car. They did the climb in 11 hours car-to-car. Not bad at all!
Beautiful evening sky. Can you see the hurling metal tube I'm riding in?
The next morning, we all got up and headed to the Gallery Wall. The weather turned at it was awesome! As you can see, it was about mid-70s and sunny. I was in heaven.
Weird rock formations nearby
Nice photo of Dave at the wall.
Back at the house with their pet rat Biner. She's a sweetie!
And finally, Biner enjoying a juicy grape. Next stop is Joshua Tree. We got up the next morning and drove out. The weather was still awesome. Next blog offers photos there...
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