roots

I'm sorry I haven't been blogging at all lately, but I've been pretty busy climbing and working and trying to get in as much activity before the snow falls (which it is doing as we speak). Shingo and I went to Red Rocks, outside Vegas, two weeks ago. Here is a photo-heavy blog post about our trip there.

There is only one campsite outside of Red Rocks, and it being a Monday night I figured we would easily find a site just like we usually do. But lo and behold, the campground was full. This was my worst fear realized. Our first idea was to sleep in our tiny car in a Wal-mart parking lot. But, I really really didn't want to do that. Next option was obviously a hotel room. We drove around and finally found ourselves in the bad part of Vegas: bail bondsmen, little white chapels, and sex shops everywhere you looked. I went into about 6 hotels and eventually found one for $34 which is only twice as much as we would have spent at the campsite plus it had a pool. So we stayed there for one night and got a campsite the next day. Vegas baby. Delightful.

First day, Black Orpheus. Here is the morning light on the mountain where we were headed. It was cold.

Halfway up, Shingo climbing in the chimney.

Close to the top, Shingo climbing the big corner feature.

On top!

Next up, Levitation 29. It's high up on the Eagle Wall, which is in the sun, but very very windy.

Shingo on the crux pitch

We climbed past the crux pitch and then bailed early because it was cooooooold. Screw that!

The next day we rested for the most part. We tried a route that didn't really seem worth doing, followed by some fun simulclimbing the first half of Cat in the Hat to find friends on it. Here is Shingo hanging out on the big ledge enjoying the warm sun.

Then I did the first part of Puligk's Pillar.

And on our last day, we did 2 routes. First up, Sourmash, and then through the crux pitches of Dream of Wild Turkey (no photos of that, forgot the camera).

Me on the first pitch of Sourmash