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Red Rocks, Nevada 28-Apr-2005 At 4:42:40 AM Megan

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After the initial starvation pangs had disappeared, somehow, and I’m not really sure how, Ben and I come up with the concept of sushi brownie. We were thinking of using salmon, but when Ming offers to eat our creation, he showed a preference for shrimp… sooo, shrimp brownie it is. Ben and I headed off, and created our food masterpiece – Ben was keen on adding some Wasabi, but I was pretty sure that the delicate flavours of the shrimp brownie are probably quite enough on their own. Ming went through with it and ate our masterpiece. And although I’m not entirely sure what sort of score it would have received from UTS, it was acclaimed as a brilliant fusion, a transitional dish between the main course and dessert. Ben and I retired from our roles as culinary geniuses – there was no way we could have beaten the high point we had reached.

By then, the tiredness was kicking in again, and everyone was beginning to find everything unusually funny. Silly conversations abounded. Following dinner, the piker-crew (aka. the Monday multi-pitch crew, of Megan, Boer and Ben) headed off with Vegas to drop off Oscar at the airport, then go to bed. The others head out onto the strip, to do their crazy thing again.

MONDAY – “Like climbing on a sandcastle”

I awake to Ben hurling himself on top of the bed between me and Tammy. It’s not official multi-pitch time yet though, so I keep napping. Tammy and Opie tell us garbled stories of people going out on the strip and selling all of the beer (and the esky) and then gambling away all the profits in a dramatic fashion. Boer sticks his head in and tells us it’s time to get up. Booo! Mean Boer! We herd all of our stuff together – it’s check out today, so we need to store everything in the car. Another early morning drive out, but today we arrive at the park closer to 7am than 6.

We park at Oak Creek Canyon, and start another long hike in. The rock seems so close, but as we keep hiking it just doesn’t get any closer. Some steep scrambling on loose red dirt and rock ensues, during which I manage to save Ben’s life. We’re at the base of the climb, and I’m incredibly disappointed as we find another party already on Johnny Vegas (the 5.7 multipitch classic choice of the day) – we have to wait, and nap in the sun. Curses. They’re finally clear and out of the way, and we send Boer up to lead the first pitch. Ben and I second up after him, one on each of the double ropes. We’re unimpressed by the rock quality; after losing two footholds at once and taking a fall, Ben says it’s like climbing on a sandcastle. I’ve already lost one foothold myself, and am inclined to agree with him (the quote from one of the Grampians guide books comes to mind, about a climb so hideous that if you woke up next to it in the morning you’d chew off your own arm to get away from it). Now we’re learnt the hard way what to avoid (pretty much everything), we manage to not break off any more holds. And despite the poor rock, the position is excellent, and we’re not getting too hot – if anything, it’s a bit cool.