Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - Trip Reports

Tells Us About Your Latest Trip!

Topic Date User

Red Rocks, Nevada 28-Apr-2005 At 4:40:06 AM Megan

Message

I'd been hanging out for the Red Rocks trip since I'd booked my flight ($98 return, bargain) 5 weeks beforehand, and then talked Ben into coming up from Mexico. But then a couple of weeks before the trip, I managed to either partially tear (or strain?) a tendon in my left ring finger. Whatever I'd done, it hurt, and there was to be no hard climbing for me. So, some long easy tradding was planned...

DISCLAIMER

The Red Rocks Trip Report by Megan is a work of fiction. It tells the story of two of Chockstone's Northern Hemisphere correspondents (megan and bne), and their adventures in Red Rocks, Nevada.

Any references to real people, living or dead; and real events, businesses, organizations, and locales are intended only to give the fiction a sense of reality and authenticity. All names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and their resemblance, if any, to real-life counterparts is entirely coincidental.

(and it's also very long)

THURSDAY – In transit

I had arrived in Vegas and was greeted by bright lights, rows of pokie machines, and some scary scary people. I panicked, and started playing Australian music on my Ipod. After wandering around the terminal aimlessly for a while, I received directives to find Oscar (Mr. "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas"). I commenced a thorough search of the airport, and found him in one of the bars, surrounding by girls, holding a huge wad of cash he’d already won, and drinking two beers at once (how he managed that with only two hands I never managed to work out). With difficulty, I dragged him outside, despite the protestations of the girls. Once outside, we were soon rescued by Vegas (this is where it gets complicated - one of my friends nicknames is also Vegas - I'll leave it up to reader discretion to know when I'm referring to the climber, and when to the city) and Tammy in the magical hire car, and we then set off to find Ben at the International Terminal. After watching people gradually trickle out of customs, Ben finally came out, and we headed back to the hotel. There was a marked lack of hijinks, as we all collapsed into bed, thinking we were exhausted – it was nothing to what was to come.

FRIDAY – “It's this colour, except brown.”

We opened the hotel windows to views over Las Vegas, with the rocks off in the distance. Excited (well, I was anyway), we headed off to the car, on a mission to meet up with the others at Starbucks. We scoped out potential chapels to get married in along the way, and discovered that meeting at Starbucks when in Vegas is a bit like meeting at the casino. Eventually the right Starbucks was found, assisted by Oscar’s special tingling Starbucks spider-senses. Vegas, Tammy, Ming, Todd, Suzy and Mike were located in the carpark, and after hauling everyone away from the coffee, we headed off to the rocks – to the First Pullout. The mission - the Black Canyon, and bolt clipping.

After an uneventful walkin, we got to the canyon, people climbed things. The climbing was pleasant and cool, except for that hour when the sun was overhead, which caused everyone to mysteriously start removing all their clothes. Vegas impressed everyone with his skills when he caught his contact lens during a lead fall, and proceeded to lower, replace the contact, then keep climbing. Ming cursed his new climbing shoes, as they compressed his feet so much that fusion was surely about to start.

As the day wore on, a few of us wandered to the end of the canyon and started trying to stick our head in a hole (yes, it really didn’t make much sense), and throw rocks in another hole, while the hardcore climbers climbed on. James and Julie wandered over towards the end of the day, but decided to keep on climbing, as we all headed off to book into the time share.

As we drove back into town, Ming and Opie became alarmingly over-excited in the car in front, and impressed us in the rear car with their funky dance moves. After booking in, we hit the timeshare, and the showering process of 10 dirty climbers began, as Crazy Gil and the minivan arrived. An enormous esky of beer and soft drinks materialised in the kitchen, courtesy of James (and his work). We start making a dint in it. Meanwhile in the lounge area, trouble was brewing as Ming, Opie and Ben formed the Universal Tasting Society. They concurred initially on the tastes of some chocolates, and then Tim-Tams, and from then there was no stopping them.

We were all getting pretty for a dinner at Sensi, in the Bellagio, where Oscar had lined us up with a private room, courtesy of his pastry chef friend, Kenny. Later that night, we were all to fall in love with Kenny. But first there was wine, and delicious food, and then falling asleep. And then the desserts came. We ended up with one of everything, and restraint was needed as we all shared between the 12 of us. The soufflé , the crepe, …. oh, the goodness of the food. But time for sleep and bed, home we went.

Quote of the day, courtesy of Tammy (pointing at her pale green top) - “It’s this colour except brown.”

SATURDAY - “I concur”

We attempted to rise early. Some people succeeded. Other people rose in a zombie state, ate breakfast, and returned to bed, unable to process the noises coming from other peoples mouths. A crew of enthusiastic happy climbers headed off to Panty Wall. Vegas wandered off to check his email, while the rest of us slumped in bed, attempting to pretend the world didn’t exist.

Eventually we managed to drag ourselves to a state resembling consciousness. Ben and I played the traditional “fit yourself in stupid small spaces into which you couldn’t possibly fit” game, followed by an impromptu wrestling match. We were all awake by then, so we headed off to Panty Wall to join the others.

We didn’t anticipate that on the way to the rock we were going to be waylaid by a gearstore though. Ben needs new climbing shoes. Ming’s climbing shoes hurt his feet… maybe he should buy new shoes too? And Vegas can’t resist trying on some approach shoes… they all walk away with a new pair of shoes. And I get startled by the pet rat that lives in the store, as it was running around on the counter. No, Mr. Shopkeeper man, I’m not afraid of rats, I just wasn’t particularly expecting one to be running around on your counter. They’re not exactly a common fixture in stores.

As we arrive at Panty Wall, I noticed there seemed to be a suspicious number of people huddling under the tree by the cliff (the only shade available) rather than climbing. The enthusiastic new arrivals got harnessed up and started climbing. I top roped a 5.7, then had my arm twisted by Julie (well, sort of) into leading a 5.8, which was fun, and didn’t really require any moves with my injured left fingers. A crew moved to the upper wall and started playing on the silly slab climbs, including Ben’s friend Susan, and her friend Gabe. I watched Ben and Susan