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Red Rocks, Nevada 28-Apr-2005 At 4:41:56 AM Megan

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SUNDAY – Where we discover the goodness of the shrimp brownie

The new arrivals had pushed the number in the 2 bedroom timeshare up to 14. This made creeping out at 5am a bit interesting, as for some reason FIVE people were on the floor in the master bedroom. Nonetheless Boer and I manage to sneak out with our gear, and get to the park in time to queue for a 6am entrance (how hardcore are we!). The race was on once we got into the park, and as we pulled up at the Pine Creek Canyon pull-off, there was only one car ahead of us. Trying to be subtle, I enquired as to what climb they were planning to head up. It wasn’t Cat In The Hat. Phew. We headed off to Mescalito South, where the 5.6 trad multipitch classic Cat In The Hat was located. After a few wrong turns, which I prefer to think of as ‘alternate directioning’, we were at the base of the climb. Boer racked up to run the first couple of pitches together, while I found a cute mouse with large ears, that ate half of one of my cashews (ok, fine, I fed the mouse a cashew, I’m one of those evil people that feed wildlife. At least it wasn’t an m&m).

The climbing on the first pitch was nice, then the climb turned into a set of ledges, that we scrambled up to get to the next point where it was worth belaying. As a result I ended up with a short third pitch lead, that seemed like it was over before it began. Boer headed up pitch four, while I continued to find rodent wildlife – this one was small and furry, with some stripes on its head and a furry tail. Boer was greeted by the call of “Oh Boer, I can see a thingy!” (I’m sure he was excited as I was). Half way up the fourth pitch is a new and shiny DMM booty cam. I spend nearly half an hour standing there trying to wiggle the damn thing out. Change stance, wiggle cam, poke with nut tool, pull at lobes. Change stance. Wiggle cam. Repeat. I had to leave it there in the end :(

Pitch Five was mine, and a short traverse. Damnit, why am I getting all the boring pitches? I take this back as I hit the runout slabby section on the sixth and final pitch, with a fair chunk of rope drag to make life even more fun. There are some swallows around that seemed to be taking pleasure in whooshing past me noisily at full speed, as I try and stay attached to the rock. Then we’re both at the top – and we haven’t come across anyone else on the climb! Apparently this is highly unusual. We rappel down carefully, far too aware of all the horror stories we’ve heard of stuck ropes on this climb. The rope graveyard of all those old and faded tags of rope sticking out of cracks on the way down makes us even more careful. As we get down to the top of the fourth pitch, we run into some other climbers – Canadians. We wish them luck trying to get the booty cam out, and head on down.

After most of the day spent in the sun, we head for the creek. There is talk about doing another climb, or at least the first pitch or two of another climb. But time flies as we lie on warm rocks in a creek full of cold snow melt, and in the end we walk out and head straight back to the timeshare. Showers are had, some of the guys hit the hot tub, then we head out for all-you-can-eat sushi. Things are relatively quiet as plates are stacked with food, and starving climbers are satiated.