Red Rock Canyon... Again

Yes, I went climbing in Vegas again. Without me implicitly saying so, you may be noticing that this is one of my favorite places to climb. This trip I flew in and met up with Dane for four days of awesome climbing. I scored a free plane ticket on my way out for getting bumped a mere five minutes, how inconvenient. I would have spent that time waiting at baggage claim anyhow. The first route we did was Sour Mash (600', 5.10a) in Black Velvet canyon. This climb is awesome! A highly recommended must do Red Rock classic.

The next day we had big plans to link up Black Orpheus (1500', 5.9+) with Rainbow Buttress (1200', 5.8), but the weather was less than cooperative. The guy in the entrance booth at 6am informed us that 60mph winds were in the forecast and he was right on. What he failed to mention was the snow. We were about half way up Black Orpheus when the wind picked up and a couple of pitches higher we were in a full blown storm. I got a wee bit of the hypothermia at the hanging belay for pitch seven with freezing gale force winds pelting me in the back with snow. If we could have bailed on fixed raps, we would have. We were pretty close to using our whole rack to get off that one, but the easiest way off was up. We repeatedly had to hit the deck on the flat summit to avoid being blown off. Needless to say we didn't get the link up with Rainbow Buttress.

Day three was leisurely, mostly we were recovering from the excitement of the previous day. We did three single pitch climbs, all great fun. We ate a bunch and we prepared for our big objective of the trip.


The East face of Mt. Wilson with our route shown in red.

The fourth day was the big one! Dane and I linked Inti Watana (2000',IV,5.10c) with the upper nine pitches of Resolution Arete (2800',V,5.10+,A1) up the Aeolian Wall on the NE face of Mt. Wilson. This is one big radical sandstone face! We spent about 2 hrs. on the approach, got to the top of Inti Watana at about 1pm, a few more hours to the summit, a nice nap on top, and three hours walking down First Creek Canyon in time to make it back to the car before dark. I have never done 21 pitches up a Grade V in a day and it was so fun! We even had daylight to spare! One highlight of the day came on the descent when Dane rounded a corner and came face-to-face with a mountain lion. It took off and Dane's reaction was to do the same. I was like, "I want to see the kitty, where did it go?" I got my wish about a minute later when the cat started back down the slot canyon towards us. This was one big cougar! My best guess, and no exaggeration, is 140 lb. We decided that sharing a slot canyon with a 140 lb cat stalking us was a bit intimate for our taste and boogied on out of there.