Red Rock Canyon Climbing

You know you've had the thought, "Where could I go for quality winter climbing?" Head to the desert! Yes it is cold as hell (the frozen over variety of course) at night with a bone chilling wind, but at Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area the wind died down around 9pm and the days were sunny and warm and made for perfect climbing weather. Plan to bundle up immediately after the sun drops below the red and white striped mountains because it will get cooooooold! And aside from the purple Las Vegas perma-glow punctuated by the phallic beam of light pointing skyward from the Luxor casino to the east, the Red Rock Campground- operated and maintained by the friendly people at BLM- is a peaceful and relaxing place at night. There are excellent facilities at the campground including a sandy tent area, cemented picnic table area with heavy-duty sunshade, and individual fire pit and bbq at each campsite. You will also enjoy the frequently spaced pit toilets of which David and I counted 8 scattered throughout the grounds. Bring your own water, and plenty of it. Between the two of us, for 2 nights and 2 days we had about 4 1/2 gallons and we could have easily used twice that amount as our daily rations for climbing were insufficient for the arid desert climate. While you're at home packing your gear and waiting for your water jugs to fill, round up your supplies of lip balm and sunscreen. You'll need them.

"So we climbed, and we climbed. And had a really really really good time." If you wanted to discover what it must feel like to be spiderman, sticking to walls at insane vertical and overhanging angles, go climb the sandstone at Red Rock (be sure not to call it Red Rocks, because that's not correct). My shoes seemed to be made of glue, or some other sticky substance. The rock is not only beautiful to look at and wonderful to climb on, but surprisingly does not heat up much with the sun. Keep in mind that I climbed here in January with high temperatures just under 60 degrees F. I can't say what the rocks would feel like in the summer, although I'm not sure why anyone would want to climb in the desert during the summer. The area where we climbed is called Calico Basin at the second turnout of the scenic drive and ranges in difficulty from beginner level to super expert amazing level (5.7 - 5.13c). There is sport climbing scattered all over this area. We settled in at the Black Corridor the first day where I sent an easy 5.7 warmup and a very fun 5.9+ with a sweet feature to move around halfway up. David managed to send a sweet 5.11a called "Rebel without a Pause." It is very overhanging and looked pretty awesome if you're a 5.11 climber, which I am most certainly not. We left Black Corridor and hiked up to the 5.7 "The Great Red Book" with a fellow climber to do a 3 way acent up this classic Trad route. I, however, with only 1.5 hours of light left and unsure our ability to send 3 of us up and rappel down, decided to hike back to the parking lot. David highly recommends this climb, but make sure to leave extra time for the rappel and hike out. They didn't make it back to the parking lot until well after dark. Day 2 we headed to the Magic Bus wall after a relaxing morning breaking camp. This was the perfect spot for me. 7 routes lined up side by side across a beautiful rock wall. And all but one rated 5.8. The other is a 5.13a "desperate slap" up an arrete. We did not attempt this route. But we did manage to send 5 of the 5.8's and I even led "Technicolor Sunrise". I had not planned to lead any routes, but was forced to after I pulled the rope halfway up the wall through the quickdraws when I was trying to set the toprope. I have only climbed one route on lead in the last 3 years and my heart was pittering and pattering and required me to take 2 rests although, had I been more relaxed, I could have easily sent with no rests. All the routes on this wall were excellent, I very highly recommend this section for a 5.8 climber like myself. This wall is also directly across from the parking lot making us a show for the tourists. After our climb we enjoyed the scenic drive around the park and gawked at the thousands of potential routes scattered throughout the park. If you are into multi pitch, big wall, and/or overnight climbs there is plenty available for you at Red Rock. Get a guide book, or do like us and just take pictures of some else's, drive down and have a blast!
The photo is sunset over Calico Basin.