On March 29 I left Indian Creek and drove to Las Vegas. Of course I stopped for a few pics, but it was taking longer than I expected and gas was expensive so I was trying to drive at a reasonable speed. I got there eventually and set up at the Spring Mountain Ranch State Park. I got up before sunrise the next morning to wander into the desert to get some pics. The red rock escarpment does get lit up nicely in the morning. I also picked up quite a bit of old trash that had blown out into the desert.
Mount Wilson and a Joshua Tree
By the time I had finished with taking pictures I saw Tom Widdison (another Yogaslacker) and we started the process of setting up 4 slacklines. This was somewhat complicated by the fact that we couldn't use any trees or deep anchors. Luckily we knew how to deal with this with an ingenous system of boards, cords, and 12" nails that the Yogaslackers have been perfecting over the years. By the time Sam got there we were pretty much set up and ready to go.
Red Rocks Rendezvous - taken w/ Sam's fisheye lens that I should have cleaned first
That evening we got to see Steph Davis and Mario do a wingsuit dive from an airplane... I'm pretty much just going to put the story I posted in my blog in here.
or you could just go to it to read this bit... grundyman blog post on Red Rock Rendezvous wingsuit skydive
Beaver, the big man at Prana and all around great guy is also a pilot and the plan was for him to fly Steph and Mario overhead and they would jump out of the
plane with wingsuits and fly down and land at the festival. There were a lot of things that could have prevented this from happening from bureaucratic to natural - like excessive wind - so they were keeping the plan on the down low.
The call came in that they were on the way so I grabbed my camera and headed out to the field to wait. Beaver did a flyby for a final check before circling up around to altitude.
They did a flyby before circling up
spotting the plane off in the distance
At the last minute they got clearance for another 1000 feet for the jump. It was hard to see the plane as it circled but some sharp young eyes could see it. Through the telephoto I could see Steph and Mario out under the wing before they jumped. Then they swooped down through the air before opening their chutes and coming in for a landing. Shortly after they landed the wind picked up, but it was just about perfect for the landing. The sunset made for a pretty sky, but more light would have made the action photography a little easier.
Steph and Mario out under the wing
swooping through the air
deploying the parachute
spiffy new Prana wingsuit and parachute
Mario came in fast
Steph approaches the landing
her chute was slower making for a slower landing into the wind
Steph is all smiles back on the ground
and we even got a nice sunset
In any case, it was a pretty cool thing to get to see. It would also be cool to do, but I don't think you can just do it without a lot of preparation. They got some cool footage with their helmet cams and Sam took some footage with his camera and they put a video together.
here is a link to it:
You can see our slackline setups in the beginning.
We Yogaslackers (Sam, Dan, Tom W, and I) were at the Rendezvous to teach slackline classes. In between we got to play on the lines ourselves as well as catching up with others we knew there. Not surprisingly there are plenty of climbers I have seen in my travels. On nice surprise was when Pat (who hosted us in Pueblo during the YES Tour) was in town for work. He came out and took a class and took us out to a buffet dinner one night. I ate a lot, but not so much that I broke the slacklines.
Every year it seems there is some weather event at the RRR. This year it was warm and sunny, but we did get a lot of wind one night. All of the vendors were prepared after last year and either took down their shelters or really secured them. It wasn't a problem sleeping in the truck, but one lens bag did blow away and it took me some time to find it. Some of the larger and cheaper tents did not fare as well. By the end of the RRR I was able to restock my Cliff Bar supply from their leftovers as well as a tupperware of delicious pulled pork from the last supper - another perk from attending these sorts of events.
Sam's Peace Love Car (PLC) usually turns heads
After the RRR I headed over to Yuki's place. She had to work the next 2 days, but that was fine as it allowed me to catch up with the photos I had taken and post some of them. I also did some bouldering at the Kraft boulders one afternoon. The next day we went climbing.
Ryan flashing "Steep Thrills"
Yuki had hurt her ankle bouldering at the gym so she didn't want to commit to anything multipitch or scrambling approaches at first so we went sport climbing at Sunny and Steep with Ryan. This is a small but fun little crag. It was nice in the sun at first but then got a bit too hot. We mixed it up with some steep and pumpy sport climbing and a cool shady bolted chimney and then went over to a nearby monster boulder and did 2 climbs there. Unfortunately the one had somewhat sketchy old bolts but the anchor was solid. Yuki took it fairly easy and her ankle was feeling better for the next day. We finished the day at an all-you-can-eat sushi place. I did my best and ate a number of new things as well as lots of eel. yum.
Yuki heads up "Edward Silverhands" (note wrapped ankle)
Yuki near the top of "Edward Silverhands"
The mission for this day was "Sour Mash" a 5.10 multi-pitch climb in Black Velvet Canyon. Yuki had done a few pitches earlier but wanted to go up through the crux 5th or 6th pitch (depending on how you linked things). A cold front had passed and it was a relatively cool and cloudy day and as we got closer we could see others on the climb ahead of us.
The Black Velvet Wall - Sour Mash is on the right
cropped from the previous pic - the climbers are on Pitch 3
In fact there was a party of 2 quite a bit ahead of us and a party of 3 just starting. We waited a while before starting to let them get ahead, especially as we linked the first 2 pitches. Even with a long wait to start we had to wait a few times higher up. This gave me the time to work out a .3 Camalot that was really stuck, but we also got cold when not moving. I could definitely have used another layer. At least the wind wasn't blowing too hard and at some of the belays I was able to hide back behind an edge. I saw a small herd of bighorn sheep way down in the valley below. Since this was a climb that you rappel back down it could have gotten messy as the other groups descended but with a few other anchors everyone was able to avoid a complete cluster. On our descent we followed closer to the line of the climb which wasn't the best rap line but avoided the other 3 on some anchors above "fiddler on the roof". It was a fun climb, but it would have been nice to not have to wait for people or be quite as cold.
Black Velvet Canyon - our goal is the pillar in the lower leftish with the top just in the sun.
The next day we returned to Black Velvet Canyon to climb "Our Father" on a large pillar. We started with "Wholesome Fullback" which goes up a crack and then up the left side of the same pillar.
"Wholesome Fullback" from the ground
Yuki preparing to start "Our Father"
From the top of the pillar we rappelled down "Our Father" - the top pitch looked awesome. The first pitch of "Our Father" was fun. The second pitch wasn't very hard but it was quite runout. Then Yuki led the final pitch - a nice hand and smaller crack up the corner. She ran out of energy partway up and fell. She cleaned it on the descent and I led it without falling before Yuki went back and led it cleanly. Then we rapped back to the ground. I decided to head up "The Delicate Sound of Thunder". This was a bit heady, rated 5.11R. It did have some spooky bits with some faith based moves and thin mantles. Luckily the most runout parts weren't all that hard although I wasn't entirely sure that the holds were all solid (although none broke on me). Unfortunately I overshot where I should have stopped and had to use some of the bolts from the second pitch for a hanging belay. Yuki led the rest of the second pitch up the pillar arete with some hanging and gnashing of teeth but a very good effort overall. It was nice to have the toprope as I headed up, especially as it was getting late and darker by then and I was able to just pull on the holds without worrying about taking a huge fall if a hold broke. It took quite a bit longer than we planned on, but it was well worth it. The weather this day was sunny but cool (and we were in the shade 90% of the time) but we had both brought more insulation so we were fine. Also there wasn't much wind.
Yuki had to work another day (and we needed to rest from all the climbing), so I had another day on the computer - plus I wandered out into the desert across the street. I also tried to get some night pictures of the strip. It wasn't the best vantage point and there were power lines in the way, but it was good practice.
Las Vegas at night
The goal for the next day was "Eliminator Crack" a 5.11d finger crack with a lot of stars. It wasn't that easy to get to though. First we (Jon, Ryan, Yuki, and I along with Samson - the dog) bushwhacked up to the Triad where we did a 5.10 crack. Yuki took a variation to the right that was fun but some of the rock quality was pretty poor (flaky surface mostly). The anchor wasn't the most inspiring either. After that Ryan had to head to work and the rest of us did some more worse bushwhacking up to the base of "Eliminator Crack". It looked hard but pretty good. Yuki started off first and got part of the way up but decided she was almost aiding it, so I said I wanted to try to lead it. I just left the rope up where she was (a yo-yo ascent) and headed up. I was able to back-clean some of the lower gear to place up higher though. There were plenty of thin insecure moves with two pretty distinct thin finger cruxes that I did get through and up to easier climbing where the rock quality was pretty poor. I carefully climbed up to another somewhat sketchy anchor (actually it was pretty solid, but I had to clean off a bunch of dirt to see it and it wasn't the best stance). Yuki followed on up. Then we headed down as it was running a bit late. Since there was a lot of scrambling to get up to the base of this climb we decided to rap. First I lowered Jon with his dog Samson in his arms. This actually worked quite well because Samson didn't struggle. There was still a lot of bushwhacking to get back to a trail, but it wasn't very bad after the rap. That evening we went for wings and then soaked in a hot tub - not a bad way to end a day.
Yuki near the start of "Eliminator Crack" (thanks Jon for taking the pic)
Lowering Jon and Samson (thanks Yuki for taking the pic)
Unfortunately Yuki had one more day of work before she was taking off for a trip back to Japan, so that was our last climbing day. I packed up, checked out some Asian grocery stores, and drove to Flagstaff to visit Will and Bonny and do my taxes.
