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Once again I went to the Red Rocks Rendezvous at Red Rocks near Las Vegas to teach slackline with Tom Widdison. We both got there Thursday evening. I got up early for sunrise and flower and bird pics and to let Tom do all the heavy lifting. Then we set up the slack park. This time we had a little less space because there were more tables (the RRR was sold out with 1,100 people). We opted for a squished pentagon formation with interior triangle to set up 7 lines including a rodeo line. Once everything was set and adjusted to our satisfaction and properly tested, we packed our climbing gear and hiked out to the "lotta balls" wall. This was swarming with people, so we opted for some lines at the adjacent "romper room". Nothing too hard, but it was fun to get out on the rock. Unfortunately that meant we missed the athlete meeting and didn't get the info on who signed up for our classes. oops, but it was worth it. We cooked up a heap of food in the parking lot and then hung out playing on the slacklines 'til it was time for bed.
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Once again I got up for sunrise pics, although the spectacular colorful clouds I am usually hoping for never materialized. The Tom and Tom show was in full effect - we even coordinated matching outfits. We taught at 9 and 1 although the 1 class was a bit odd because some people left midway through it (I think they got cooked in the sun) and others showed up late because it took over an hour for the buses to make it through the loop road. As usual I was amazed by how quickly some people picked things up. I also got to fulfill my vision for some amusing pictures with the new Luchador shoes from Evolv. Then we dropped most of the lines and set up for YogaSlacker conditioning just as the sun set behind the mountains. We had a small (compared to Wanderlust) but enthusiastic crew join us in some exercises before dinner. That day I had participated in a number of events the vendors were putting on including speed rope coiling and slacklining in a Selk'bag. My top 3 rope handling skills put me into the final round to win a rope. My time in the final wasn't quite as good as the qualifier round (1:55 to butterfly coil and wear as a backpack a 70M rope then flake it out and tie in w/ a figure 8), but it was 5 seconds faster than the next fastest, and he didn't leave the required 6 inches of tail on his knot, so I won a new 70M Mammut rope. Then they had a drawing for the Selk'bag - everyone who had done various things in the bag during the day got a raffle ticket and you had to be present to win. The first 3 or 4 weren't present, then they called my name - so I won a Captain America sleeping bag suit. I really could have used it when I had no heat in my place. Unfortunately my time for coiling the 90M rope wasn't as fast as the winner, so I didn't win that too - but I still scored big time.
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The rest of the evening we put a few slacklines back up and played and taught on them as well as defended them from drunk people who thought they were too slack (we do put the slack back in slacklining). I also borrowed some poi and played with them.
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I barely made it up in time for this sunrise on the cliffs, then back to the festival for a pancake breakfast and to put the rest of slacklines back up. We taught at 9 and 1 and once again the 1 class was odd. Nobody was there at first so Tom and I did line conditioning 'til a group that was on a delayed bus showed up. Then we started class as a few more trickled in. Since there weren't a lot of people per line we were still able to get through everything. Then we played on the lines and did some acro which greatly impressed some of the event photographers who wanted to shoot some pics with a better background. Eventually we got that set up and I got to be on the other end of the lens for a change. I felt a bit like a pretender, but we managed a bunch of poses without too many mishaps (and no dropping the flyer into a cactus). The photographers were psyched and at least on the backs of the cameras the pics looked good. Then back to finish taking down the slack park, enjoy the final barbecue dinner, and help Tom pack up his car.
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A few clouds didn't help my night photo attempts - or at least obscured my attempt at getting Orion between two peaks. I slept there one more night. The next morning after the usual round of sunrise pics I went for a brief jog that started on a trail but ended up dodging cacti on a burro trail (and past some burros). Then I sponged off and went to Vegas for some errands before heading back to Bishop via Death Valley.
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