I arrived in Las Vegas and immediately hooked up with my old friend Jake, whom I'd met the previous year, and Christian, who, with his $200 car had spent the past few days in Yosemite. The weather was very hot, so I decided to climb for a week or so at Mt. Charelston. At 8500', it's a great summer alternative to Red Rocks. It also happens to be, in my humble opinion, the best sport climbing area in the western U.S. Of course, the night I arrived, it snowed six inches...
One of the best things about climbing here is the camping - It's free, and a ten minute hike brings you to the crag. On weekends, the camping area is invaded by drunken Las Vegas idiots, who leave trash and broken glass in thier wake. Rest days were spent cleaning up the mess and gathering firewood for our nightly marshmellow roasting fire.
The thing to do here is push your limits. Perfect limestone with lots of pockets is the fare, so come ready to pull. Although there are many new crags around the area, The 'Hood, with it's huge caves and ample afternoon shade is by far the best and most popular. Of course, the grades really begin at .11c and a crowded day is 25 climbers. At first, the grades seem steep, but once you get used to the style it's not bad. The rock is super hard and slick. I you're not in a pocket, it can be like textured glass. The tendons I'd torn in my left wrist almost doubled the number of 5.12's I'd climbed. By the time it was over, I'd ticked two .12a onsights, five .12a, three .12b and exactly a year before were sore every night, but I took advantage of having three weeks here, and paced myself while I one .12c redpoint. The last, 'Guntower', being my most difficult redpoint to date.
During a bit of cooler weather, I popped into town to get the alternator on my bus replaced and do a bit of climbing at Red Rocks. Jake was happy to hang out and picked a few classic lines to do. Shade was the most important factor in route selection, so we ended up in Black velvet canyon on the much-feared, seven pitch route 'Fiddler on the Roof'.11b R.
This line gets respect from climbers because of a long traverse above a huge roof. If you fall, you are left hanging in space below the roof, unable to touch the rock to climb back up, and too high up to lower to the ground. The only way to succeed is to carry a pair of prussiks to use to ascend your rope in case of a fall, or not to fall at all. We carried no prussiks. I fell far above the roof traverse pitch, at the crux.
Two days later I picked my friend Theresa up at the Las Vegas airport and we escaped the 110 degree heat by driving north, to the cool Sierra.