I have a bit of time ahead of me since I left Overair so I decided to plan a road trip. First stop would be in Red Rocks for a couple nights. As my most fortunate luck would have it Case and Nicole happened also to be doing a quick trip through Red Rocks—it pays to make phone calls when there are many hours of driving ahead.
Tuesday, April 16 I met them at what I dub the “Refugee Camp” on the side of Rt. 159. While it isn’t all that scenic it is easy to find and find spots available, at least midweek it was.
After sharing dinner with them (thanks!) they regaled me with their epic a couple days prior when a freak storm blew in as they were a few pitches up—harrowing to say the least! But everything turned out OK which is the important thing.
For climbing on Wednesday we opted to try and get on the classic Frogland (5.7+). But even as we got to the base we found three parties already on it and not moving super fast. We opted for the nearby Bourbon Street (5.8+). After a little confusion on the first pitch I got us to the belay. The line I took wasn’t quite the one in the book but was still traveled and fun, varied wider crack climbing with a few moves of chimney.
Case then got the money pitch of the surprisingly tricky 5.8+ finger crack. Nicole being new to trad and crack climbing specifically put 100% into it and was able to get it clean—nice work!
From there we did more face climbing with a bit of cracks thrown in for a few more pitches to summit Whiskey Peak. Views of Vegas and Red Rock Canyon area can’t be beat when on top of something. From the summit we walked off in a surprisingly chill descent as far as they go in Red Rocks.
Thursday Nicole and Case headed out to catch their planes back to Bozeman and Golden. I headed to a OHV trailhead east of Potosi Mtn to get my first ride on my new (to me) motorcycle, a KLX250S, which is a small dual sport bike. It was a good though rocky ride and was a good segue for the next leg of my road trip—Ocotillo Wells SRVA.
