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While the first two pitches of the climb provide great positions and classic climbing, this route really starts getting interesting on the the third pitch. You begin by moving up a blank wall high on the tower up a bolt ladder employing aid climbing techniques. There are about 16 bolts that you clip ladders on to slowly move from bolt to bolt without using the rock for progression. The climbing really gets spicy on the final 5 bolts as the rock gets overhanging. The tower is named because of its resemblance to the face of a monkey and as you pull up on the last bolt you move into a feature on the tower that makes up the mouth of the monkey. From this cave the next pitch involves pulling out into an overhanging but juggy pitch above...well nothing...the rock below you is completely overhanging and as you pull out of the cave you dont see any rock below you for over 60 meters. While the climbing is quite easy, the exposure you get as you pull out of the cave is quite impressive! One final pitch brings you to the top and you get a wonderful view of the surrounding area while sitting on top a a giant pillar. The descent requires a 60 meter free hanging rappel. As you descend off the rock you are left moving down your ropes for 60 meters without being close enough to touch any rock...very exciting!
Scott at the base of the monkey face
bradley moving through the crux on the first pitch
scott pulling out the crux corner on pitch 2
below the bolt ladder
me working away at the bolt ladder
scott in the monkeys mouth
relaxing on top of the monkey face
Smith rocks oregon
Me and scott then took an easy day on a fun 3 pitch climb as our semi rest day. On our last day we were both realizing how nice it would be to have 3 or 4 more days in Smith. We planned out our last day to be a bit bigger by combining two routes to make up 8 pitches of climbing. We began with a three pitch trad climb by the name of white satin. Scott took the crux pitch at 5.9 and we then rapped over the back side of rock and climbed up a 5 pitch sport climb called wherever i may roam. We got back in good time a relaxed taking in the views being our last day in smith.
Scott pulling up to the belay on the second pitch
scott leading up the last pitch
Scott moving into the crux of the route
Me and Scott on the summit
scott on Wherever i may roam
We woke up early the next day and started driving to Las Vegas. Driving through the Nevada desert is quite exhausting but we eventually pulled into the city lights shinning and all! We woke up the next day and finally got to see the mountains surrounding our campground. From far away the mountains didnt really look all the impressive (of course this is from a climbers perspective) but as we got closer we all started spotting beautiful lines everywhere. We spent the first day sport climbing at one of the closer crags getting used to the rock in the area as most of us hadnt climbed on sandstone very much. Everyone had a great time climbing in the heat!
climbing at the gallery
lovely red sandstone
relaxing in the heat
Iain showing us how its done
We got rained out on our second day in Red, and leaving the rock to dry for a day we headed to a small limestone crag right in town! The climbing was certainly not world class and it was not very cleaned either...to make the most of the day we did a throwback to the token climbing costume of the 80s and dressed in our best spandex!
After another day of sport climbing we set our focus on all the classic multi-pitch routes in the area. Our big objective in the area was a long route called Epinephrine, at 5.9 with 16 pitches the route is known for its sustained chimney pitches. We began on a smaller route to get used to the rock and get a feel for the climbing. Geronimo was our first objective and we partnered up with our good friends tyson and eddie...i went with eddie and scott went with tyson. The route consisted of four enjoyable pitches with everything from face climbing to hand sized cracks and finished off with an exposed runout pitch with funky gear! After four rappels and only one stuck rope we were back on the ground stoked on the quality of the climbing in red rocks and realizing that we would probably be saying the same thing about red rocks as we did with smith!
eddy coming to join me at the belay
at the summit with chrimson crysalis in the background
scott leading to retrieve a rope
scott setting up the rapel
looking back up our route
Keeping the ball rolling we started preparing for the next days objective. It was a 9 pitch 5.8 mixed trad and lightly bolted classic. Being the longest route some of the party had ever gone up we got up early and started with a running start in order to beat any other parties that would slow us down. I got the first lead which set me up with the crux pitch and the full on last pitch. The climbing was phenomenal and slightly overhanging. Every pitch had a nice roof or overhang to work through as well as perfect hand cracks and offwidths and chimneys. As we got higher on the route our smiles seemed to grow bigger. The exposure was incredible as all but one belay is hanging meaning that you just hang in your harness with all the air to the ground underneath you. The prolonged exposure and sustained nature of the climbing was beginning to effect us as we pulled up to the last four pitches. The last half of the route begins with some incredible face climbing between bolts about every 30 feet, making it very "heady" as you are constantly dealing with a potential fall. Scott got this first pitch then i lead up another simialar run out face into a great crack with a small overhang to pull to the belay. The last to pitches put you on a darker sandstone that is alot less featured and after scott lead the first, i pulled up to the belay totally worn out and not looking forward to the last pitch. Arriving at the belay i was tempted to ask scott to take the last lead but i could tell he was getting pretty tired as well so grabbing the rack i headed on up the crack to a marginally protected roof. After the roof i spotted the bolt a little higher up and upon reaching it i discovered it to be an ancient relic of the early days of red rocks climbing and thus the promise of a safe point to clip into disapeared i lead on feeling very unconfident about any gear that was between me and the anchor. I traveresed out to another sketchy bolt and up the final crack and just when i had nothing left to give i pulled out onto the top and with a sigh of relief and a hoot of triumph built an anchor and got scott to the top so we could finally relax. Scott got to the top commenting on the sketchy nature of the last pitch and we congratulated each other and sat back to wait for our other team that had gotten a little ways below us. After an hour and a half on the top our friends pulled up, we snapped some photos and me and scott got the rappel ready while they snacked and drank water. We rappeled the route in what would have been good time had it not been for the slow parties that we had to pass. We got back to the van dehydrated and exausted and where blown away when Graham Taylor pulled out four cold gatorades from under his jacket and handed them out, a guiding technique i will have to keep in thought for the future! The best day of rock climbing ive ever had!
belaying scott up the first pitch
following a great hand crack before the run out pitches
me and scott high up on the route
relaxing on the summit
looking across the valley
final anchor bolt
mio during the rap
bradley taking pictures as scott raps
crimson crysalis follows the crack system up the biggest pillar in this picture
After taking a rest day spent chilling at the campground playing guitar and taking showers, I lined up a climb with one of our instructors focusing on guiding techniques in multi pitch scenarios. We climb a route called Myster Z. This pitch follow 8 pitches at a fairly relaxed grade of 5.6 with a couple of run out pitches. Graham Taylor was my mentor and eddy and tyson volunteered to be the guests we were guiding. We moved a quick pace up fun easy climbing until graham lead us off route into a 5.9 squeeze chimney. While he appologized for the mistake it ended up being the best pitch of the route! We toped out early and because of the heat we decided not to keep going and climb a second route that was above Myster Z. We headed down the trail back to the vehicle but decided to stop and soak our feet in the river to cool off from the desert heat. Great day thanks for being guests Tyson and Eddy!
guide and guest relaxing while i belay tyson up
graham leading up the crack
eddy on belay
a happy guest having a great day in Red Rocks
The team relaxing at the top of the climb
cooling off on a hot day
one must relax after a long day climbing
sore tired hot feet therapy
With only a few days left of potential climbing, me and scott discussed our options and feeling exaustion of a long trip catching up with us and wanting to climb too many routes for our days left we made the decision to bail on epinephrine as it would take up our final days. Instead i set my sights on tunnel vision with eddy tyson and bradley, Scott did a day of guiding tactics with Iain and for our final day we joined up with eddy and tyson to climb the 11 pitch solar slab! Tunnel vision is one of the classic routes at red rocks and is a must climb if you go there. It follows a number of chimneys until it pulls into a MASSIVE detactched flake of rock that forms a cave that you climb into and eventual climb out from behind the flake into a final crack system. The first few pitches provided lots of fun chimney climbing. I got stuck with the crux pitch which follows an unprotectable chimney for 15 meters into a great 5.7 layback into a small belay cave. The tunnel pitch is really cool as you cant see the exit until about half way up and although the rock looks slick there are just enough holds to keep the climbing easy. The final pitch pulls a fun roof at 5.7 to make it a great finish for a great route. We all got onto the summit cap and tyson pulled out some fancy cigars as it was eddies birthday! We had a cigar and then scrambled down and back to the van. Again a classic route with very unique climbing!
pitch 2 example of the great chimneying!
tyson and bradley bringing up the rear
Eddie after climbing through the crux
climbing up to the belay
eddy working at the anchor
lunch break in the cave out of the wind!
eddy at the entrance into the cave
getting ready to climb the cave pitch
climbing into the dark chimney!
tri cams didnt save me this time
birthday boy on the summit
looking out into the desert
tyson climbing up the final pitch
che guevera the mountaineer
finishing off a great day on tunnel vision
scrambling down
Starting to feel the last 13 days of climbing we decided on one last big objective. A classic route from the early days of climbing development out at red rocks, a route called solar slab. 11 pitches of 5.6 and easier follows a gully onto a large ledge then a series of cracks for 8 pitches up a large slab. We flew up the gully and then began climbing up the slab. Though only 5.6 the climbing felt challenging in our exausted state and at around 1 oclock tyson belayed me up to the top of the climb. The climbing was world class and after a break on the summit we began the long rappel. Being a slab we were constantly getting our ropes stuck and although we only had to climb up once on the slab it was a bit nerve racking every time we pulled the ropes. We started heading down the wall below the slab and on our second last rappel we got our ropes hung up on a big ledge. With eddy and tyson down on the ground me and scott sat in silence...both of us exausted and neither of us wanting to climb the 5.9 pitch we would have to in order to free the rope...after much uncomfortable discussion each of us hoping the other would step up and take the climb (also some discusion about cutting eddies rope), Scott ended up shaking away his exaustion and performing a wonderful lead up to the ledge and freeing the rope. Scott got back down to the ledge and after some slaps on the back we were on the ground running to the vehicle at full speed so that we wouldnt get caught out after dark and get a fine! Another classic route and another incredible day. We woke up the next day other than scott and charles we all decided to take a rest day! We packed up camp that night and went to bed for the last time in our tents.
looking up the first pitch on the slab
tyson moving up the large flake
tyson moving into a great layback crack
scott coming up behind us
me moving into a beautiful crack that goes on forever!
tyson on top!
tribute to the volkart clan!
scott running out the last pitch to the top
eddie keeps scott warm at a cold rap station
We spent the next two days driving home...we slept out at a truck stop after 16 hours of driving and then after a big group breakfast at a small dinner we drove the final stretch home! After a quick stop in kamloops i packed up for the summer and me tyson and taran convoyed back to the homeland! Ive been in canmore since friday doing my Top Rope Instructor Course with the ACMG. I spent the weekend trainning and next weekend is my exam! Im sitting in the hostel right now with a bad case of the flu! I missed out on climbing today but hopefully will be good to go tommorow getting some trainning in for the exam next weekend! I start my job next weekend out in nordeg so anyone in the area let me know if you want to get some climbing plans together this summer!
tyson asleep on the trip home
