Red Rocks, Nevada
4/2000
Author:
Gary Clark
Participants: Gary & Lynn Clark,+ 2 old climbing buds from out-of state.
We scheduled our annual get-together with a couple of old friends for my favorite
climbing area: Red Rocks Canyon, west of Las Vegas. We were there a week. Here
are the facts:
Drove to Vegas in a day, quite easily (about 10 hours on the road). Stayed
at the Silverton Casino, which is on Blue Diamond Drive and thus convenient
to Red Rocks. You don't have to go through town, or put up with the STRIP. Rates
are $33/night Sun-Thu, $79 Fri-Sat. Being cheap, we moved to the 13-mile campground
on the weekend nights ($10/space). You can get showers at the Desert Rock Gym
on Charleston Avenue for $4/person if camping.
The temperatures were right around 90F in town all week, so we stayed on the
shady walls, notably Black Velvet canyon, which is possibly the finest trad
area on the planet. We did the following routes, all of which are superb and
highly recommended (more beta on request). In each case, I list the guidebook
rating, followed by our assessment [if different] in italics:
Warmup at First Pullout on loop road:
Great Red Book (2 pitches, 5.8)
+ several generic sport routes in the Black Corridor, 5.9 to 5.10
Pine Creek Canyon:
Crabby Appleton (5 pitches, 5.9+ / 5.8+)
Black Velvet Canyon:
Prince of Darkness (6 pitches, 5.10c, I led it
at 5.10b A0); Triassic Sands (6 pitches, 5.10);
Wholesome Fullback
(2 pitches, 5.10-); Our Father (3 pitches, 5.10+,R),
Sour Mash
(6 pitches, 5.10- / 5.10)
