Red Rocks in June

My most recent adventure found me in Red Rocks, right outside Las Vegas, NV. In June. The temperature was above 105 degrees and Erik, Mandy, and I found ourselves weighted down with water and gear, trekking through the desert on the hour long approach into an ominous and beautiful canyon. The walls towered over us and the hot sun baked our skin and minds. Some people said we were crazy. I thought the timing was just right.

Erik, Mandy, and I before the night climb

Okay... maybe we are a little bit crazy. It just happened to work out that my aunt was getting married in Vegas that week and Erik was passing through on his way home to Phoenix. It is not easy to pass up a climbing adventure. Our destination was Black Velvet Canyon, "the crown jewel of Red Rocks". The 2,000 foot walls offered little protection from the sun as we approached, but we pushed on until we found ourselves huddled in shade, preparing below the cliffs.

The approach and view

Multi-pitch Trad climbs are pretty straight forward. Climb and place your own gear (nuts and cams). Build an anchor before you run out of rope. Belay your climbing partner from above. This process continues until you have reached the top. Easy Right. Mentally and physically, these climbs are most difficult and intimidating. It requires planning, determination, tenacity, route-finding, and a tolerance for spending most of the day in your harness hundreds of feet off the ground, in which retreat is often impossible. It takes everything you have. Not only are you pulling yourself up the wall, one hand jam at a time, but you must also carry enough water and gear to reach the top. Then you have to get down somehow, which is a challenge within itself. 

Mandy tackling the crux

Black Widow sighting

For 3 days in a row we awoke in the back of our vehicles at 4:00am in order to beat the heat and sun. After finishing our climbs, we would retreat to the Monte Carlo for poolside refreshments. Our last day of climbing, we tackled an 800' route that would consume all of our energy, most of the day, and almost all of our water. Back on the ground, via an interesting and somewhat scary descent, we packed out our gear and headed for the strip, where we would spend the next 3 days participating in wedding celebrations. The climbing was amazing although it was incredibly hot. I am looking forward to a cooler visit next time and already scoped out some classics to attempt for when I do return.

Back in Joshua Tree!

Today is Day 6 of climbing, adventures, excitement, shenanigans, and relaxation in Joshua Tree. As I write this, I am sitting in the Park Rock Cafe outside the park enjoying a delicious coffee and soon a breakfast with my awesome friends (Jessica, Mandy, Michelle, Christine, and Harison). The anticipation for this trip was building for a while and rightfully so. As the days pass we continue to share our laughter, happiness and radiant energy creating unforgettable memories and unbreakable bonds as we learn and grow from our journey together.

Each day on this trip brings unexpected surprises and a deeper understanding of why I love all aspects of climbing. I read once that it doesn’t matter whether you succeed or fail when attempting something, what’s important is the process. In climbing it's the road trip, the friends, the preparation, getting psyched, good energy, laughter, overcoming obstacles, and anything and everything in-between. Through the process these everlasting memories are created and each passing moment reminds me of how important this lifestyle is to me.

Climbing this trip has been pretty relaxed so far. The first day we climbed a little bit of crack and then did a breathtaking dihedral called “Course and Buggy”. Unfortunately, my wrist is a bit tweaked so that was all I could manage to climb before I needed some rest to recover. Although I couldn’t climb much, I watched my friends climb with determination and energy that filled the air around us as they floated up boulders scattered amongst the joshua trees. 

The third night or so we headed out for some night climbing under the radiant glow of the moon. Headlamps were unnecessary and the glowing rock was begging to be touched. The rock required intimate, delicate movement which was special to watch as everyone slowly and methodically made their way up, closer the moon and streaking stars. 

That evening Mandy took a fall on a boulder problem that she had done a few times earlier that day. It was fairly high (about 15 ft) and the impact from the fall concentrated in her ankles. It was scary to see her fall because we weren’t sure right away how bad the injury was, but fortunately she is extremely strong willed and has a high pain tolerance. After some ice, healing touch, a late night trip to the ER, and a good nights rest, she awoke with a smile on her face and ready to play. Although she had two sprained ankles (one pretty bad), she continued to hobble around the desert and encourage those who were climbing. Her strong-will and determination continued to inspire us as we journeyed through the desert in search of the next boulder.

The Wednesday Crew!

Climbing has allowed me to meet some amazing people and even more amazing friends! I am very grateful to have met all of you and each and every one of you continues to shape my life in a positive way. The fun adventures we share I will never forget and literally can’t wait for more. Lets Go!

The Wednesday Crew is my group of friends and climbing hippies that go climbing every Wednesday, all day long. Since there are so many climbing areas within 45 minutes of Phoenix that offer amazing bouldering, sport climbing, and trad climbing, the only uncertainty about Wednesdays is which crag to go to.

This past wednesday we went to South Mountain which is our home bouldering crag. Just 20 minutes away, South Mt. offers some really fun and interesting climbing. Recently, some friends discovered a new area in the park which has some incredible boulder problems as well as a spectacular view of phoenix and surrounding mountains as the sun sets. 

        The day started out with some loose warmups as we envisioned the moves for our project “serpentine” which loomed just a birdcall away. Everyone was climbing strong right from the start, feeling light and excited for what the day would bring. 

Compose

The area we climbed at has some really beautiful crack climbs/boulder problems (they are over 20 ft high!) Some of the girls got to try crack climbing for their first time which was exciting! We sent our project Serpentine, and moved onward to develop some new boulder problems in the “Rocktagon”. Before the day ended I was able to send the v3 highball crack thanks to the encouragement from my friends and the 7 pads beneath me :) 

It was a fulfilling and eventful day, and I cannot wait for more! The wednesday crew packed up and with thoughts of four peaks beer on our mind walked our sore and tired bodies back to our cars until next time, which is never soon enough!

Spontaneous decisions make for awesome adventures!

After returning from the Heuco trip I was itching to get back out on another road trip. Fortunately, my good friend Jessica was looking for someone to go to Joshua Tree with her that weekend! After a day of deliberation, I was able to catch up on my school responsibilities and didn’t have work so I had no choice but to go.

We were also able to easily convince Tom and Mike, friends I had met in Hueco, who were in Tempe for some Cartel coffee, Four Peaks beer, and South Mountain bouldering, to join us! So thursday after class we drove to Joshua Tree (300 miles) and set up camp. We awoke to a brisk windy morning, cooked up some breakfast burritos on the camp stove, and set out to boulder.

Energy was high and after warming up we tackled some classic Joshua Tree problems such as “Stem Jem”, “Thin Lizzy”, and the “Bachar Crack of the Desert”. We weren’t expecting to do any crack climbing so our hands got a bit torn up from the overhanging hand and knuckle jams, but it received a majority vote as the favorite climb of the day! After a long day of bouldering, we met up with yet another good friend, Al, who we originally met climbing in January at J-Tree. We all got together for a fire and dinner that evening and went to bed happy and full hoping the forecast for snow in the morning would be wrong...

I woke up on the ground in the middle of the night to a cold persistent rain, and headed to the car for a dry but uncomfortable sleep. In the morning, I awoke to Joshua Trees doing dances, covered in snow and a frigid wind which offered us a perfect opportunity to go enjoy some coffee in town and warm our frozen and torn hands.

The weather looked bad for the rest of the day, so we made the decision to drive out to Vegas for the night (Al and his girlfriend had a place for us to stay) and climb at Red Rocks the next day! We made sure to hit the casino that night, with the intentions of winning money for new shoes, ropes, gear and crash pads... but better luck next time.

Red Rocks is incredible! The views are astonishing and the rock, an Aztec Sandstone, begs to be climbed and offers everything from big wall climbing, to sport climbing, and even bouldering! The big wall multi-pitch climbs looming in the distance were calling my name, but due to work and school obligations the next day, I could only gawk at them. We spent the day sport climbing at The Gallery which was amazing! Considering a night of drinking everyone was climbing strong and we got on some great routes such as a sweet bouldery line called “A Day in the Life”, and a beautiful overhanging line called “The Glitch” which was fulfilling and an awesome end to an incredible weekend of climbing! 

We said goodbye to Tom and Mike until next time (hopefully soon) and cruised back effortlessly to Phoenix with thoughts of good friends and climbing on our minds.  

Hueco Tanks Road Trip

Hello everyone! Thanks for checking out my blog and I hope you will check back soon for more updates as I continue my journey to climb!

Recently I was fortunate to have the opportunity to embark on a 10 day climbing road trip through New Mexico and Texas with my good friend and climbing partner Erik . This is the longest trip to date I have made and every aspect of it was amazing! I met some really cool friends along the way and did some incredible climbing, which I will never forget.

Erik and I camping at the trailhead to Ruff & Readys

Our trip found us first in the Rough & Readys climbing area in NM where we camped right at the trailhead, a nice change to the hour long approaches I am used to with adventure climbing (long approaches, difficult route-finding, and multi-pitch climbs which require perseverance and determination).
In the morning we climbed some sport routes on a form of volcanic tuff. It was a great way to start the trip and set the pace for hard climbing to come! That afternoon we headed out to the Organ Mountains outside of Las Cruces, NM where we planned to do some traditional climbing (of course after stopping at a local brewery in the area). Luckily for us, the weather was in our favor as we hiked over an hour through snow only to climb shirtless on the rock above in beautiful weather (a few days before we arrived they had extremely unusual cold weather). Camping was fairly cheap and we were able to collect plenty of wood to provide us excellent coals for cooking on the skillet. One of the nights we made a dish consisting of potatoes, carrots, celery, red pepper, onion, jalepeno, and portabello mushrooms which we stuffed into fresh tortillas. (It was very delicious and I highly recommend trying it!)

After a long day in the Organs

After spending two days in the Organs, we departed for Hueco Tanks outside of El Paso, TX. This is a very sought after destination and has some of the best bouldering in the country, as well as the most inspiring and aesthetic rock formations I have seen. Hueco primarily consists of bouldering, but we also found some sport and traditional routes to do as well. However, bouldering is the bread and butter and rightfully so; there is such a high concentration of classic problems it was overwhelming. We were fortunate enough to be set up with a guide who took us out with a group to boulder in the back country of East Mountain. It was a great day with 8 bouldering pads and strong energy from the group as we worked on numerous classic problems such as "Dragonfly", "Backdoor Man", and "Ventralfin". The climbing was amazing and humbled me as I soon discovered I needed two rest days to recover.

Me on the start of Ventralfin, V5

We stayed our nights at the Hueco Tanks Ranch which is where most of the climbers visiting the park stay due to cheap camping and a barn that contains a foosball table, ping-pong table, wireless internet (allowed me to catch up on the work for the classes I was missing), a shower, and an atmosphere of climbers that must be experienced to understand. The Ranch also provides its guests with pallets of wood for the bonfire pit which was a nice break from collecting wood every night and allowed us the opportunity to meet some cool friends.

Fire at Hueco Tanks Ranch

After spending three days in Hueco, we headed out to Last Chance Canyon on the Guadalupe Rim in New Mexico. We were not planning on going to Last Chance originally, but after hearing some stories we knew we had to check it out. The Guadalupe Rim is also a popular Hang-Gliding destination where Erik was planning on flying. It was amazing to see him fly, as I had only heard him speak of his adventures. With 30 mph winds, he just walked up to the cliff and leaped forward. Before I knew it he was 40 feet high and soaring like a bird which was absolutely surreal to see.

Erik taking flight!

The next day we moved camp over to Last Chance Canyon and hooked up with some friends we met at Hueco who are on a 9 month road trip climbing all over North America in their bus (http://tomandmitchsvantasy.blogspot.com/). The climbing here was amazing; orange and black streaked limestone, mono pockets, small crimpers, and steep overhangs. We climbed at the Mad Cow wall the first day which had some really cool technical routes and then climbed the Solstice Cave the second day which offered us some of the most beautiful, overhanging, limestone sport routes I have seen. The camping was also great (minus the 50 mph winds the second night) as we had a big group of friends and other climbers join us around the fire.

Me in the Solstice Cave. Solstice, 5.12d

It was hard to leave after spending 10 days on the road, sleeping outside, and climbing in new places almost every day. However, we were deeply satisfied with our journey and fortunate to be able to share our experiences with cool friends we met along the way. I realize how special times like these are and look forward to many more in the future as I am compelled to travel and climb as often as I possibly can.