Red Rocks forms, together with nearby
Joshua Tree, a pair of premier trad climbing destinations
on the West Coast for the cooler part of the year. JT has
supreme cragging on short routes while Red Rocks is home to
one of the largest supply of brilliant multipitch free climbs
to be found anywhere. And most of them have a very doable
rating and lots of stars attached.
This sort of resource is unique in the climbing world. Let's
assume your first and foremost passion is bouldering. You
can probably rest assured that there's millions of blocs out
there under 30' waiting to be discovered. Much less abundant
are significant cliffs that both are tall enough to rope up
for and appealing to climb. But then when it comes to finding
routes over 300' on solid rock outside of the mountains, you're
left with only a handful or two in North America. Of these
Red Rocks is near the top of the list in regards to both quality
and quantity.
Red Rocks also happens to be the place
to seek sunny, steep sport climbs. The easily accessed, conveniently
bolted crags tend to get the better part of the areas attention.
This is not necessarily a bad thing in these times of increased
interest in the vertical: Go to any of the main canyons on
a blustery, windy day in february in search of adventure,
and you'll likely have it more or less to yourself. And, like
it often goes, even on that perfect spring day most parties
are bottlenecked together on only a handful of the most popular
routes.
The rock is a sedimentary deposit called
Aztec Sandstone, a close sibling to the soft Navajo Sandstone
of the Colorado Plateau, but far more enjoyable as a climbing
medium. To give crumbly sandstone climbing appeal and possibly
elevate it into the ranks of world class rock, it needs to
form a protective surface layer called desert varnish to stem
erosion. In Red Rocks this essential veneer is totally bulletproof,
very abundant and strangely eroded into scoops, edges, jugs
and knobs. Cracks abound, but are made easier by this plethora
of face holds. Such featured rock give the moderate climber
access to some quite steep routes following otherwise daunting
crack systems.
It's genuine backcountry climbing here
with a distinct Urban American flavor. The deep canyons with
their difficult approaches and long committing routes are
minutes away from a huge metropolis that literally creeps
closer and closer as the hours go by. Las Vegas is growing
by a rate of ca. 6000 people per month. What was yucca and
creosote bush on your last visit will be stuccoed tract homes
and strip malls next time. No kidding. If you want to see
the cancerous growth of a humanity out of control, then visit
the burbs of Las Vegas.
And we're trying not to think about
the water issues.
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