IIRC, he didn't set his gear properly during his last jump. And the "got what he deserved" opinion is because he left behind a young child, and again iirc, no insurance to take care of that young child. Reprehensible and irresponsible.

Excellent climbing; very crowded. Still cold? Avoid roadside crag, left flank, military wall on weekends. Unless you feel comfortable warming up on 5.10+ on steep walls. Prepare to get pumped.

Also, Miguel's.
Also, buy beer before you hit Slade County, as it is dry.
Bonus also: Kroger's in Winchester just before Daniel Boone Parkway.

this would be fun. i think that someone earlier in this thread stated that there's pretty much just hard trad around vegas though, so i'm not sure.

cardshark,

very nice picture!

i thought tonsai and railay were both awesome when i went. am looking forward to when i go back.

red river gorge i believe is in kentucky? we were thinking about going there but decided on utah and CO instead. definitely hope to go to RRG next time though.

from wiki

CO: A team
UT: B team
RRG: C team

This doesn't really contradict what I pointed out. He changed the location of his takeoff spot, and did so on ropes that had been (potentially) compromised. This is like setting a hook in a big wall and not testing it before weighting.

yeah, it doesn't really contradict what you pointed out. Perhaps this is because I was just posting it for anyone who was interested in exactly what happened and not because I was trying to contradict what you said.

There are some easy and moderate trad routes in Red Rocks Canyon. I think there are also a bunch of sport routes on the short steep walls on the right side of the canyon (as you drive toward the visitor center from the highway) but I didn't go over there.

It's way too hot in the mid-summer. I've climbed there only one day (Solar Slab) after flying into Vegas and then we drove to J-tree.

There are a ton of easy sport routes on the visitor center loop. The second pull-out has the best sport climbing imo. You can get as steep as you want. There is one box canyon in particular that would be great on a summer day as it is almost always in the shade and the routes are mostly 5.10 and easier. Also, imo, the ratings at Red Rocks are easier than many other places. Definitely easier than Joshua tree. Prince of Darkness in Black Velvet canyon is 7 or 8 pitches of bolted face climbing with a max rating of 5.10c.

If you want to try your hand at trad climbing then Red Rocks is also a great place to do it as there are so many great beginner routes. Although I have had some hairball moments when our rope got stuck on descent. It's easy to get the knot stuck on a chicken head on the less steep routes.

red rocks has lots of bouldering and multi-pitch sport as well as trad. mount charleston apparently is

"Mount Charleston is the mecca of overhanging limestone just to the north and west of the Las Vegas Metropolitan area. Although predominantly sport, trad climbing can be found here, and soon a new Ice Climbing section will be created for the Ice that does occasionally form here."

pretty sure its like 45 min from the strip which is pretty reasonable.

lol so if you participate in dangerous activities as a parent, you deserve to die.

Yep that sounds about right! Overhanging jug hauls ftw. Now that its April the climbing weather should be quite nice. Miguels is still fun, except its more crowded than ever and can be a pain in the ass on weekends. Last time I was there they were only serving sandwiches because they ran out of all the ingredients for pizza and pasta. But good news is that Slade now sells beer every day but Sunday!

Alright, here is the trip report (TR) of my week long hiking/climbing trip. I wrote this originally on my blog so apologies for the stupid explanations on stuff that you guys probably already know.

We left on Saturday *with the plan of heading to Moab. Most of our travel plans were pretty unstructured and we were planning on playing it by ear. There were three of us (me, Dave, and Josh). We are all sport climbers with little trad experience. We were borrowing my friend's CRV and had a friend's tent.

So we drove to Denver (8 hours) and ate lunch at sushi. It was pretty good and one of the last lunches we would enjoy for the rest of the trip.

Basic map of Colorado for reference:



We stopped for a short stint and climbed in Golden, a small town outside of Boulder. We climbed there for only a few hours, finding little success. The routes were tough and we were forced to ditch a beaner.





First night was a bit of fail. We tried camping in Nederland, a small town outside of Boulder, only to find it closed for the season. We were forced to sleep in our car like hobos and it was quite uncomfortable.

Next day we climbed in Boulder Canyon for a short bit. I'm familiar with the area, having been there a few times. We had a tough time navigating through though and we climbed a 5.9. I actually was able to finish the route on lead, which was pretty cool.





We drove through to Moab and realized that our tent poles were not there. So another night in the car. We pulled all of our stuff out of the back this time though and were able to lay down a bit better. It was still quite uncomfortable though.

Now that the trip had started, we stuck with a routine: Every morning we'd wake up around 7-8am. We'd usually travel into town (Moab or some small CO town) to eat breakfast/put contacts/brush teeth. We ate pretty heartily (Mcds or BK) because we wouldn't eat any meaningful lunch. Lunch usually consisted of trail mix, jerky, granola and protein bars (and lots of water).

So the first day we decided to check out some climbing in Moab. Unfortunately we didn't do a ton of research before we went. Though we suspected Moab was primarily long and traditional crack climbing, we were hoping to find some sport.

For those confused with this terminology, sport climbing=there are already bolts in the wall. So the only equipment you need are quick draws and some webbing (and a few other clips). Traditional climbing=there are no bolts in the rock and you place all of your own protection such as this:



So anyways, we went to this long crack and wanted to do the first pitch of it. Because we didn't have any trad gear, we were forced to sling rocks for our protection. It was a bit sketchy due to the rock being sandstone but it worked out...sorta. We slung our way up a 5.8 and hoped to use the anchors for a 5.10. Turns out our rope wasn't long enough and we wasted several hours. So a bit of fail there.











So yeah, talk about fail for the first half of the day. Live and learn though, part of the experience. We went to another area (the name escapes me) for the next part. The scenery reminded me alot of Vedauwoo, WY, and it was pretty cool. The climbing there wasn't the best (fairly slabby for the most part, meaning it was about balance and high stepping more so than big moves).

















So yeah...good finish. Unfortunately our tire popped on the way there and we had to change that out the next morning. We were planning on just hiking the next day, at Arches National Park. The scenery was obviously incredible and I'll just post some of the pictures from there:

































The hiking overall was fantastic and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys that type of stuff. We did maybe 12 miles all in all.

The next day we drove all day back to Colorado. We were planning on checking out Rifle, a park that is home to some of the hardest climbs in Colorado. The weather sucked though and we weren't able to go. We stopped in Colorado Springs, with the plan to climb in Shelf Road the next two nights. Shelf is home to many sport routes.

















Shelf was a great time. The rock was sharp and I cut myself, which sucked...but overall, very fun. I'll definitely be going back someday.

So yeah, that's it. I know people don't really like reading long posts (I know I don't). So yeah. Public link to some of the photos that might not have been posted here (on facebook)-

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...p;l=6ccbff1d1c

this summer i plan on doing a west coast climbing/hiking/biking road trip, hopefully hitting up colorado/utah/california/washington. if any of you guys are free and live out west, pm me your location and we can climb this summer. i plan on leaving mid may.

Are the little metal hooks in the rock already there and you just hook yourself into them as you go along or what? I've never understood that. Popular climbing rocks have them already hammered in right?

some routes are bolted into the rock by professionals. this is called sport climbing. all you need to do is put a quick draw :



onto the bolt and clip your rope through (as you go up and climb).