WOW! I have been to some cool places on the SoCal climbing circuit, but no where like Red Rocks Nevada State Park. This place is amazing, off the chain, totally epic, and really very nice. Red Rocks is a destination climbing place for the nation, and it totally lives up to it. It is so beautiful!
Let me back up and start at the beginning though. We decided to go camping and climbing over Halloween Weekend, and stayed at the Red Rocks Canyon Campground. The campground was alright, it had a lot of construction going on. The weather was cold and extremely windy! It knocked over other some people’s tents, and almost blew down mine. Desert wind definitely made it hard to sleep, plus staying out for Halloween night fun in Vegas made us sluggish in the morning.
This was probably why we went the wrong way out of the parking lot for Kraft Mountain, by Calico Basin. We went west out of the parking lot instead of north, along a much broader path, which is why we thought it was the path to the crag. But it was sort of better this way because it had rained the night before, so the sandstone had to dry up. Technically you aren’t supposed to climb on sandstone for 48 hours after a rain, but this had been a very light rain, and other climbers were up on routes. We decided that it would be fine once the sun was out for a while. Also, we found a cool bouldering project that looked like it would have been a lot of fun if we had had a crash pad.
Eventually we looked at a compass, righted ourselves, walked back to the beginning of the trail, and got onto Kraft Mountain. The trail for this is significantly smaller, edged by little rocks, and goes through a cool field of boulders. After hiking for maybe ten or fifteen minutes, you round the edge of the mountain, and you go by the Monkey Bars boulder, you are in Gateway Canyon. This is where we spent our day!
First we went to the Conundrum Crag and blew through three climbs there: Family Affair, Wayward son, and Family Circus. All three of these are very easy, doable climbs. They all have really good, very positive hands and feet. My brother, Alex, lead all of the climbs for the day, while I cleaned every route. This meant that we were a faster team, and could get through more climbs.
Family Affair (5.8) had a little bit of a pumpy, over-hung start. The hands are all there, but you are leaning back for the first two moves. If you trust your feet, and it isn’t hard on this climb, then anyone can push through the first couple of moves to the easier top part. It is the right-most climb of this wall. The rock here is very friendly on your hands, but also very sticky for your feet. It is the perfect combination!
Because we were sharing the crag with a couple of other climbers, we skipped the middle route and went to the far left route of Wayward Son (5.9).
This was another simple climb, a little more spare for awesome juggy hand holds. Honestly though, that makes a climb a little more interesting because you have to think a little more about where you are going. Part of climbing is the problem solving aspect to it, so when there are so many hold that it becomes like climbing a rock ladder, it is a little less interesting. Wayward Son was good though, a couple of interesting, harder moves throughout. The interesting thing is, on the surface of the rock, there are all these dark spots, like the sun glazed the surface of the rock.
These spots can be a boon and blah for when you are climbing, because sometimes something will look like more than it is, looks like it has more depth than it really does. But sometimes they are actually a little ridge out that you can stand or balance on. Mostly though, there are really obvious really sure fingers and toes.
Family Circus (5.9) was the last climb we did for this wall, and again, just classic rock. No pain on your fingers, and plenty of friction. I found this to be a lot like Family Affair in that it is a little tougher in the start then much easier. The lesson I am learning is that climbing is a lot about trusting your hands and feet. My only problem was, the thing I remember most about this climb was how much my feet hurt from my new shoes! I had just bought new Sharma super aggressive shoes for this trip, thinking they could give me an edge. Unfortunately, I was not ready for just how intense these shoes were going to be, and after climbing for a while they really really pinched! I couldn’t wear them the whole day, but they did make a difference in how sure of the rocks I was.
After these three climbs, we decided we wanted to try and find Sport Chimney and see what else was around there on the Sunny and Steep Crag. That meant that we had to hike through the canyon, and it was beautiful! Full of interesting rock formations and colors.
This hike by itself would have been worth the trip, it is so pretty. Mark, my husband, loved it, and so did I.
Eventually we got to the Sunny and Steep wall, and it was all it was cracked up to be! (haha, cracked, for a crack climb? Ahhh, funny.) There were a bunch of different groups already there, but no one was on the Sport Chimney (5.8) climb, so we jumped in!
I have never done a sustained chimney before this, it was super cool, but a little scary. Alex lead it, and I have no idea how. There were some run out bolts, and some very weird moves. But he did!
And I was up after him, in my old Boreal Jokers. Chimney climbs are cool because you are also using your back to push you into the the rock.
It’s like every escape movie where people press up against both sides of an air duct. It really works, and makes it possible for some strong moves.
Just don’t wear any clothes you don’t want torn but, because with all the pressing and wiggling, it gets rough.
The last climb of the day was Working for Peanuts, the climb just to the right of Mr Choads Wild Ride (5.11b). I watched a lead climber ascend this and it looked like so much fun. I would totally come back for that climb. While I was belaying for Alex on Working for Peanuts, I joked around with the other belayer (on MCWR) about how crass some of the names of climbs are. Some people are working to class things up, but I personally think its fine, I just want more girls to bolt so women get some crazy names too. The one we came up with, for a really hard climb would be “Seven Days of Blood”. Maybe it is better to have more mild names though, they just aren’t as weird. Chimney Sport is a very accurate name, but it doesn’t give any feeling to what you’re doing.
Working for Peanuts (5.9+) was interesting, a spicy start along a little crack, smearing your feet to get up to the first couple of good hand holds.
There are a couple of really fun bits in the middle too, where you have to scrape your way up, shuffle your feet around, and push forward.
The rock quality again, was just classic, super clean, nice on your hands and grippy on your feet. I loved it.
After cleaning Working for Peanuts, we packed up and started the trek back the way we came- from the mouth of Gateway Canyon, back through the boulder field. It was just as beautiful leaving as it was hiking in. By the time we got back to the car the sun was setting, and the climbers I had been chatting with at Working for Peanuts came up to the parking lot at the same time, even though they had left considerably later. They had gone the shorter route to the west and then south. The path wasn’t as good, more scrub brush and weeds, but the way was considerably shorter.
I really enjoyed Calico Basin and Kraft mountain of Red Rocks. I really want to come back and try Red Rocks proper, which is on a different mountain. But these climbs held up to the expectation of world class climbing.
Top and Sport 