Red Rocks - November 21-27, 2019

[lizolas]

Red Rock

November 21-27, 2019

Routes Climbed:
Band Camp
Smooth Operator
Quick Draw (The photos on Mountain Project are a bit conflicting. We thought there might be some routes in that section of the wall that haven’t been added, but what we did was around 5.8 in difficulty.)
Black Coral (Secret guide route - no Mountain Project page)
Chocolate Sunday
Topless Twins
Straight Shooter

I don’t think I’m ever going to be completely satisfied with anything I do, but I sure wasn’t expecting to allocate an entire week for a Red Rocks trip only to end up leading 4 pitches of trad and 2 sport. It was largely due to the weather, but also in part due to lack of motivation.

The original plan was to leave Wednesday after work, climb Hot Fudge Thursday on Thursday, and then spend the rest of the week finishing up my 21 remaining pitches of 5.9. Instead I only did 3 pitches of 5.9 the entire week. It rained Wednesday and Thursday, so I planned to just drive during the day on Thursday rather than drive all night only to arrive and not climb anything. We later found out it also rained on Friday morning. The sandstone was very wet. On Friday we went with a group to Lime Kiln in Arizona, where I toproped a very sandbagged-seeming 5.10a, then led another much easier 5.10a after toproping it once. Although it wasn’t raining there, it was very cold for bare hands on rock. Part of my problem with the more difficult climb was I couldn’t actually feel if my hands were securely holding onto something.

On Saturday we started out trying to climb Smooth Operator, but after I broke a head-sized chunk of rock off following the first pitch, we bailed and went to Gun Club. We decided if even trying to carefully avoid delicate rock wasn’t enough, there was no way I was going to be trying hard on the 5.9 (hard for me, not for Lani) pitches. At Gun Club I led one 5.8 which Lani agreed was bolted terribly. While “only” 5.8 and definitely within my ability, the crux was a bit awkward and the second bolt so high that a fall at the crux would mean unavoidable decking on the slab below.

Lani on the first pitch of Smooth Operator

Next up was an 11a that Lani decided not to do, switching to a 10d one-move wonder (with the crux before the first bolt). After she led it, I toproped it and sent it. Due to the “crux before the first bolt” thing, I didn’t actually want to lead it. Then we redirected the rope to the 11a where we both hung at the crux. Her a couple times, me a lot of times. Then I hung every other move on the rest of route, too. While we were climbing there, Sam showed up and we ended up doing some night climbing. Huge surprise, I didn’t lead anything else.

Lani night climbing at Gun Club

Sunday Lani ended up needing to guide since so many clients had been rescheduled because of the rain. I finished filling out my LYD trip report for the AMGA and then read a book until she texted me around 3 telling me to come to the Albertson’s parking lot. It turned out we had a mission. She’d left her phone 2 pitches up the route she was guiding after storing it in a hole to make it more accessible to take pictures of the clients. The route isn’t in the guidebook or on Mountain Project, presumably because it was bolted by a guide who didn’t want to lose their permits bolting against the rules in Red Rocks and/or to keep it less crowded so it was always open for guiding. My very first trad lead of the trip was a 5.9 in the dark. The route is pretty unsustained. For me the main difficulty was finding holds that I was sure wouldn’t break for some of the bigger moves rather than the moves themselves.

Once that was done we still had time to go find Sam and Josh climbing at Urban Crag, another limestone crag at Lone Mountain. We had a bit of an adventure finding them, as there was a couple with an aggressive dog who told us we couldn’t walk by them, we had to leave. We found a route up the hill circumventing the angry dog, and found our party climbing in an alcove where we hadn’t seen their headlamps before. Again I didn’t lead anything, and the 10a I toproped was something I’m not sure I could have done all the moves on if I were also clipping the bolts. Then I tried a 10b that I was told was easier, but it took me 3 tries to even get off the ground, and I hung every few moves after that.

The more I climb, the more I’m convinced that grades mean nothing. Not in a “the best climber is the one having the most fun,” kind of way but a “this is absolutely useless” kind of way. The style of a climb tells me a lot more about how doable it is for me than the grade. Not that there’s a huge discrepancy between being able to climb 5.9 hands, 5.5 offwidth, and 5.8 face.

Two days before my trip ended, we finally got to spend an actual day climbing in Red Rocks! So what did we do? Well naturally we went to our first objective (Birthday Party, as we’d gone to all the trouble of stuffing a thermos with ice cream to bring with us), noted the high winds even on the desert floor far from the walls, and aborted mission. We exited the Scenic Loop and went back in to get to Willow Springs. I’m not entirely sure what I was thinking when I put that area high on my to-do list. The climbing is sandbagged for Red Rocks (or about right-on for most places), and the 5.10a I was sure I’d wanted to climb on this trip suddenly looked terrifying and run-out in person. We did manage to do Chocolate Sunday, though, which served as our birthday climb with celebratory ice cream. It’s just a pitch of 5.8, and really mostly 5.6 or easier except for one thin face sequence.

The spoon I brought didn’t actually fit in the bottle we used

From there we walked to Ragged Edges, but found that the more popular lines were occupied by a medium-sized party, and we couldn’t convince ourselves to try the less popular stuff. There’s a 5.10b mostly face climb that we decided against due to the lack of protection on steep slab. There’s a 5.9 offwidth chimney thing that I couldn’t figure out how to even start. A 5.5 “finger crack” didn’t seem worth it. We went back to the car because we’re just about the least motivated climbers ever when it’s cold, and that valley had not done much better than our first location in terms of wind.

During our discussion about plans the next day, we flipped a coin and decided we were going to the Straight Shooter area. I’d toproped Straight Shooter on my first trip to Red Rocks over a year prior with no functional knowledge of finger crack climbing. I never really figured out the crux. I was tentatively hopeful that I’d at least be able to get up it even though I anticipated falling hanging somewhere on it. Short of falling too close to the ground, any fall would be clean, and there’s good gear the entire way.

Sandstone is not the most familiar to me. Most of my climbing has been on Sierra granite. I understand it. I understand how to protect it. I understand that loose chunks will fall off, but I can trust the rock. I don’t understand Red Rocks yet. It took me a while to get up Topless Twins because I kept hesitating, second-guessing my protection, but most of the moves were easier than I expected.

I forgot to do Topless Twins topless, but Lani remembered.

After that, we went to Straight Shooter. I was still sure I’d fall, but hoping I could somehow send it. Lani climbed it first. Not so I could toprope it or anything, but so that she could get pictures of it. While she was climbing, Josh told me, “Don’t lose your shit halfway through the crux. I’ve seen so many people do half of the crux and then lose it.” I realized then that I don’t actually have as much trouble keeping it together during difficult climbing as I do keeping it together during easy climbing. When I come to a ledge and can relax and overthink everything, that’s when my mind gets away from me. I might fall at the crux, but it would be for lack of physical ability, not for having forgotten to stay committed.

The last hand jam before the crux

I sent it. It was hard but didn’t feel desperate. The finger jams that had eluded me a year ago were a familiar technique now. When the feet disappeared, I just smeared and pulled until I was back to the easier climbing to the end. It was fun. That was the whole point, isn’t it? I’m supposed to be having fun?

Through the crux

In 2018 my favorite climbing day of the year was without a doubt finishing Bear Creek Spire with Lani in a day, leading the crux pitch. This year I think there are two. Matthes Crest was another climb (like Bear Creek Spire) that I’d had a bad time on previously, then come back and finished comfortably. While I “led” the approach, for the actual climbing I just followed. It was an incredibly fun day out in my favorite area, but didn’t feel like a huge climbing accomplishment. Straight Shooter was the most fun I’ve ever had climbing, and the happiest I’ve ever been about a climb. My previous experience with moves feeling hard was just that they were awkward and painful, like chimneys I couldn’t drag my backpack up or offwidths I had no idea how to climb. This felt hard but graceful.

My Red Rocks birthday trip didn’t go at all how I’d planned, but I think I’ve finally accepted Ben’s theory that the better way for most people to progress in climbing is in fact to take baby steps. It doesn’t sound cool and there’s no way to humblebrag about it in your Instagram caption, but it’s just so much more fun this way, at least for me. When I’m hiking, the feeling that I got in way over my head has never scared me away from future hikes, but in climbing - where you can easily become immediately dead or severely injured - feeling like I’ve bitten off more than I can chew just scares me away. I think falling on the first pitch of After Six in December 2017 was a major factor in my refusal to try anything harder than 5.7 or east 5.8 for almost 2 years. When I finally accepted that I didn’t need to start breaking into 5.9s by climbing the hardest, most sandbagged offwidths in the Valley, I found that I was far more capable than I imagined.