Spring Break Trip, Part 3

Dates: Mar 24-26, 2024

Crew: Sean, Monica, Yisha, Ben

Locations: Red Rock Canyon NCA, Hoover Dam, Muddy Mountains Wilderness, Las Vegas

🎵 Viva Las Vegas 🎵

The most anticipated part of the trip was here- climbing in Red Rock Canyon (aka Red Rocks), a world-famous destination for sandstone sport and trad climbing. Heading back into town from Death Valley, we decided to swing by Red Rocks on the way to scope out the place. It was already late afternoon when we rolled through the one way canyon drive, and huge storms were raining on the mountains that ringed us in. We stayed ahead of the desert rains and went to wait for Sean to get into town with $10 of quarters at the Pinball hall of fame. It was actually really fun and a great way to kill a few hours for cheap. My favorite machines were all the early '60s space-themed games, of course.

As we climbed, a large dark gray cloudmass moved in from the north. At first we just had our eye on it, and then suddenly it was really barreling at us. Rushing to wrap up our climbs after only a couple hours out, we packed up and headed down right as it hit us. It turned out to be a snow/sleet mix storm! Talk about unexpected desert weather. It nuked any chance of climbing for the rest of the day, so we put our heads together and decided to jaunt over to the Hoover dam instead.

Hoover Dam

An hour of circumventing Vegas later, we were cruising up the canyon towards the Hoover Dam. We got to drive across it and walk across it, seeing the massive spillways that once received overflow when Lake Mead reached its maximum in 1983. The water level from then is still visible in a white band of rock above the present day level. The four massive intake towers (two on Arizona side and two on Nevada side) rise high out of the water. 

We did the basic power plant tour, which took us down an elevator 600 feet into the dam where we could see the internal workings of the water-carrying pipes, cave-like passages that were carved out 95 years ago during construction, and one of the hydroelectric generator rooms, where the hum of water and electricity conveys a real sense of power. I had fun counting the electrical insulator disks on the power lines above the dam to convince myself it really was really 220,000 volts being created (it was).

Muddy Mountains

From the dam we wound our way down the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, where we diverted into the Muddy Mountains Wilderness to do a little rockhounding. Ben and Yisha had gotten very into geology so we went in search of agates, including the layered "bacon" agate. A bumpy dusty ride down an old mining road led us to loose limestone hills where we wandered in search of deposits. 

Occasionally we came across an old mineshaft or pit, sloppily roped off with barbed wire and signs to ward off intruders, and piles of abandoned trash and decades old mining equipment marked where operations used to occur. It was both interesting and pretty sad to see the messes we make.

Day 2:

Waking up to the smell of fresh dumpster fire in the morning, we needed to kill a little time before trying to climb, since the sandstone would need to dry for 24 hours since yesterday morning's rain. We went downtown and walked the touristy part of vegas to get a delicious brunch at Hash House a Go Go, above a casino. I was not impressed with the casinos and their cigarette stench.

Finally we drove back out to the canyon, and of course arrived at the same time as a fresh rain cloud. We decided even if we couldn't climb, we would scramble up to some of the crags to scout for tomorrow.

A lightly strenuous hike and scramble up a chimney and over a sandstone spine took us to the stratocaster area, where some of the most fun and famous climbs sit. It was sprinkling a cold rain so we took shelter in a wide cave, hunkering down on natural sandstone couches to eat lunch.

The cave also yielded an encounter with a desert mouse and an opportunity to scramble up higher to reach the walls we wanted to climb tomorrow. We hung out, crawled into some more holes in the rock, and generally relaxed with the soil still too wet to ethically justify climbing today.

With nothing to climb, we eventually headed back down the canyon and went back to the pinball hall of fame for more! A couple hours there and dinner at Dirt Dogs (delicious, non-dirty hot dog restaurant) and we were in bed early to try and truly get some climbing in tomorrow.

Day 3: Climbing!

In the morning we packed up our airbnb, said farewell to the dumpster fire, and headed off to Red Rocks bright and early. We started up the canyon and first went to Gallery Wall to warm up, where we climbed a lovely set of routes to get things kicked off. All were face climbing with small but positive holds of hardened oxidized sandstone (desert varnish) and slightly overhung. I climbed Buck's muscle world, 5.9, Gelatin Pooch, 5.10a, and Running Amuck, 5.10c and felt good about the day's prospects.

From there we repeated yesterday's familiar scramble to the cave hideout and Stratocaster area. Sean took an interest in Marshall Amp (5.11b, 105ft) and I started working on One Eyed Jacks (5.11b, 40ft) so we both started to lead and figure out the beta. A very light rain and snow was intermittently falling as clouds passed overhead, but the overhanging walls stayed dry and we took shelter in various caves and holes in between attempts.

As the day drew to a close, I was feeling good about my One-Eyed Jack beta and put in a real try, and was able to send it! Then I went over to watch Sean work his way up the much taller Marshall Amp, which was a very picturesque route up a line of hollows in the ramp-shaped wall. 80 feet up, he climbed past a huge raven's nest and the birds turned out to be inside, staring him down as he climbed past. 

As he topped out, I felt so confident I had him leave the draws up to try it myself. There was only time for one try before we really needed to go to the airport, so I hurried up it. The very overhanging bottom was taxing and involved some upside-down heel-hooking and bold climbing. I may have overcommitted myself after the other climb and found my arms running out of grip strength near the top. Suddenly I was about 15 feet above my last bolt when I totally pumped out and couldn't hold on at all. I took a fall that ended up being the biggest lead fall of my life (15 ft above bolt + 15 ft swing below bolt + rope stretch = about 40 foot fall). It was a clean, safe fall but still scary! Luckily the adrenaline gave me some life back and I finished the climb out in time for us to make a mad dash back to the airport.

After running down the slickrocks to get to the car, we drove straight to the airport to get the car returned and on our flights. A partially successful trip, but through no fault of our own. Turns out March might just be rainy season in Vegas. Anyways, Red Rock has much more to offer so there's no doubt in my mind we'll be back!