My first time climbing in the outstanding Red Rocks in Nevada… Solar Slab route was super busy with climbers due to the nearby RR Canyon State Park being affected by the US government temporary shutdown. Slow climbers ahead of us caused finishing in the dark that ended in the 14 hour adventure. Terry Kenny (UK) and I (Canada) had to call to Everett Fee (Canada) to stop rappelling ten feet above us since there was no room for him on the thin ledge. The three climbers descending before us had two of them still waiting for their turn to go down from our dark perch. What was so memorable was the extra effort all took to stay calm while working out multiple tie-ins and rope management as we shared the two bolts. Equally memorable was seeing the shimmering lights of Vegas in the distant darkness. For us, used to climbing in the Canadian Rockies, not hearing frequent shouts of “ROCK!” on Solar Slab was liberating, and a joy to climb on this highly rated 5.6 route.
Here’s a video of our adventure I’ve posted on YouTube…
In retrospect, it was a mistake to rappel Johnny Vegas; at least in the approach gully the stances wouldn’t have been crowded. Minor correction: the closed venue that resulted in crowding on Solar Slab is “Red Rocks Canyon National Conservation Area”, which is a US govt. facility. The state parks, including the Valley of Fire that we visited on our rest day, were open. [Sorry, I’m an editor and can’t hold myself back when I see a glitch.]
I’m pretty sure we bridged up the chimney you guys are back-and-footing? Way faster…
Great route though eh! 😛
Fantastic video. Well done for keeping it cool in the dark when faced with a slow team, “please pull the rope…” could well have come out a little harsher from my mouth. :sarcy: :sarcy: :sarcy:
Amazing how quickly the light went!
Yeah, at 6.30pm the light’s going and at 6.45pm its gone, and the days are shorter from now on 😥
Fortunately, we had the distant lights of Vegas, in particular the Luxor laser, to guide us out 😀
On balance though, better to go in springtime, when the nights are getting longer than in the fall 😎
Not sure the weather is always best in spring Terry, it looks perfect for climbing right now to me…
I’ve climbed in the Red Rocks in December (Lucille and I did Jubilant Song on 4 Dec 1997). Temperature wasn’t a problem but daylength definitely was. We started hiking at first light and just made it back to the car just before headlamps would have been needed.