It was a typical winter evening in Seattle, damp and cold. The streets were busy and people were rushing from every direction to their different destinations. No one seemed to notice that four weary souls were escaping from this grayish city. Their limbs were still stiff after being confined in front of computers all day. They each carried humongous bags of luggage. They were hungry but their faces were lit up by excitement, since they were fleeing towards...
Day 1
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It was close to
midnight. We arrived at BestWestern Inn, 5 minute away from the Vegas
main strip. Nathan faithfully paid his first due to the slot machine
at the hotel lobby.
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The next morning, we got up at 5:30 (yak, it was painful !). After the complimentary breakfast at the hotel, we drove through the rather empty town and arrived at Pine Creek Canyon trail head at Red Rock. |
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Today's destination:
Cat in the hat. A local favorite according to the book. It was a
6-pitche 5.6 route on the left side of this rock formation: Mescalito
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Scenery on the approach |
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A hour later, we arrived at the base of Cat in the Hat. |
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Nathan took the first crack to climb the route. It was a very cold morning. Even though, the sun shine promised warmth, we had to get out of the shade to be able to enjoy it. |
The first day turned to be the longest and the most eventful day of the trip. Unfortunately, as you can predict, at times like that, no one was able to take pictures to document what has happened. After 2-3 pitches, my rope partner Bruce and I started to suspect we have gone off-route. There was no obvious line to climb. The stuffs we were climbing were awkward, zigzagging, and became increasingly difficult. As a matter of fact, another team right behind us found a few words someone wrote on the rock with chock: "Not Cat". Not Cat! Are we really off-route? We got on radio contact with Nathan and Joan who were in front of us and out of sight. They told us that they have encountered a cam jammed in a crack right below the ledge with a tree. Long behold, we did saw a cam below the the ledge we were on. We were even able to confirm the size of the cam with each other. So we should be on route. But when we looked at the crack in front of us, how could this be 5.6?! It is brutally thin and tough. It looks like at least 5.8. Besides we couldn't see anything promising above that. This was the time when we should have believed what we were seeing but we didn't. We kept pushing on this "Not-Cat" route. The next 6 to 7 hours was full of adrenalin rush. On the thin crack, Bruce took a short leader-fall and was caught by a bummer nut. But remarkably, he remained very calm and was not deterred at all. He made the heroic lead through the think crack, but only found that he was forced to make an airy traverse where the holds were so thin that one had to use fingernails. We tried to reassure ourselves that the routes were getting better but it really didn't. We couldn't see anybody else on the mountain. The team behind us abandoned the route after they witnessed Bruce's fall. This was also the time when Murphy's law applied. When I was belaying Bruce on this uncomfortably narrow ledge, Bruce's radio was not working properly and I couldn't communicate with him. I heard Bruce shouting that he was going to down-climb, but the rope wasn't moving at all for a long time. I tried to shout back to Bruce but there was no answer. The voice was easily carried away by the blowing wind. I was in shade, shivering both from cold and from having to stand in an awkward position for a long time. Where are we and which way should we go? Finally, I saw someone was waving to me from about 100 feet below. It was Nathan and Joan! They already reached the top and made two rappels down. Thank God, I was so glad to see them. I exchanged radio contact with them and was told the nearest rappel station was at the right side of us about 50 feet away. That was encouraging news but where was Bruce? The rope was still not moving and there was no response from the radio! It felt like an eternity before I heard Bruce's voice again. It turned out that he already down-climbed a good distance and found out that the rope was stuck in a crack between me and him. So he was down-climbing essentially without belay. Had he taken another fall, it would have been very nasty...
With the aid of Nathan and Joan, we pinpointed the location of the rappel station. After gingerly making more traverse and some down-climb we finally was able to converge with the true route. At that time, the sun was already set on the horizon. Visibility was decreasing rapidly. Even though a party of some insane people was trying to make a night-ascent on the route, all we were thinking was getting down. I rigged the rappel and started descent. Lights were flickering in the distance. In the city, well-dressed people probably just finished dinner and were swarming the smoky, noisy but warm casinos, betting their cashes on the uncertainty of luck. 45 miles away, I was hanging on a rope descending into the coldness of night. Even though seemingly very different, we were all driven by an unexplainable human nature: the knack for the uncertainty ...
After one rappel down, we happily re-united with Nathan and Joan. What a relief to see our friends again! For the past 10 hours, Bruce and I didn't drink and eat anything. I was not only exhausted, but also emotionally drained. But we still had to make three rappels in the darkness of the night. I went down first on the final rappel, All I could see below was total darkness even with headlamp on. When I finally saw glimpse of our packs left at the base of the route, I felt like I could kiss the ground ...
Day 2
The alarm clock woke us up at 5:30 am again. After last night's good meal and 5 hours of sleep, we were ready for our second day of adventure. Today our destination is the Romper Room Wall at the First Creek Canyon. We decided to do some single-pitch trad routes.
We have received a "Late-Hour" ticket ($50) last night, since we parked at the trailhead after 5pm without notifying the authority and paying extra fee. What a crappy rule! The fact is with the schedule we were on, we really had no chance to notify the "authority". During their regular office hour, we are already in the wild! The returning time for climbers is especially unpredictable. This rule almost seems like designed to "catch" the climbers. Anyway, this is something we have to live with.
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View of First Creek Canyon from Trail Head. We found out that even this is just a pull-out beside a public highway, we still would have gotten a late-hour ticket if we were here after 5pm. This is really unfair! |
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Bruce and Nathan are studying the climbing wall from the approach. It was a very cold morning. Felt like winter in Seattle. |
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I was geared up and ready to lead "Girls and Bouys" . The wall was in shade. I put on all the clothes I could find and still was shivering. |
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After climbing up a thin crack and making an awkward traverse, I landed on a relatively flat area. At least I felt warm now. |
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Nathan was climbing
"Girls and Bouys".
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Bruce was climbing a neighboring route "Guies and Gals" |
On this day, some thing unexpected happened again. However, this time we managed to have fun with it. On "Girls and Bouys", it turned out that I was not able to climb to the anchor so I came down by the rope on the neighboring route. In order to retrieve all the gears left in the cracks, Joan and Nathan each climbed the route via a semi top-roping system we have figured out. Bruce and I then climbed the neighboring route and passed the rope to them so that they can be lowered down to the ground. It was really a complicated procedure and each person made his/her contribution to the whole thing. Although we didn't reach the end of the "Girls and Bouys" route, but we are really proud of our team-work spirit and also enjoyed the brain work. The best thing of all, we got to the trail head right before 5 pm!
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At night, we celebrated the day at a local seafood restaurant and treated ourselves with extravagant dessert. |
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The nightly Gear-Sorting ritual in hotel room. According to Nathan, this ritual has therapeutic effect. |
Day 3
Today, we went back to the Pine Creek Canyon and targeted to the Brass Wall. On our way in, a fellow climber kindly gave us some advice, which unfortunately led us to the wrong direction. We scrambled up and down in the canyon for an hour and finally was able to pinpoint a wall that resembled the picture we have for Brass Wall. It was actually quite fun just doing scrambles in this area if we had plenty of time.
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Bathed under the sun, Nathan was belaying under "Zen and Art of Web Spinning". Only a few feet away, shivering in the SHADE, I was belaying Bruce on a route called "Arachnoworld"! |
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Bruce on the crux of
the "Zen and Art of Web Spinning". It was a very interesting move,
requiring highly coordinated sequence of move. And it exposes the
leader to a potential bad pendulant fall. Joan led this crux
beautifully.
We had so much fun on this move that each of us climbed this section a few times just to get the sequence of move right! |
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Only because we have coiled up our rope, it didn't mean that the climbing was over. There was a nasty section of down-climb on the way down from Brass Wall. |
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We got back on the
trail. Brass Wall was on the background.
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There is a climber (in yellow circle) on this black wall as smooth as mirror. We all wish to be able to climb that black wall like him someday. |
We bid farewell to Red Rock Canyon and headed back to Downtown Las Vegas. Before our flight at 8pm, we managed to spend 20 minutes in a casino, since we were all itchy to loose some money. A few minutes before we boarded the plane, I tossed a few coins into the slot machines in the airport. Guess what, I won $25. That put an appropriate ending to our Las Vegas trip.
My appreciation goes to my wonderful partners: Joan, Nathan and Bruce. Red Rock is great, but your companionship is really the best part of climbing!
Click below to see some scenery photos and pictures of cactus, one of my favorite plants!
Link to Nathan's web page of Red Rock Trip
Link to Bruce's web page of Red Rock Trip