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MJ Sneaks, Zoo Zoo, and I made our trip to Red Rocks, celebrating the new year by sitting on a frozen metal bench and drinking Tokaji wine.  Vegas, 15 miles away, illuminated the desert sky a soft fluorescent blue; the desert’s reds and browns seeped in and the color transformed into something unnameable. For three days we climbed and for three more we were stormed out, but we accepted these storms; they pushed us to the peripheral of climbing – beyond the obsessions with appearance and talk and towards that naked edge where climbing has importance, meaning.  We hiked through canyons and saw the world beyond the bolts and cragpacks.  We watched gushing falls sweep down and through the gullies, the tumbling rocks mixing with the desert gravel, grating away at the earth.  We listened to the wind howl and hollow out our huge huecos and form our smooth sandstone.  It’s ours because we can separate ourselves from it and look at it from afar, from up close, and see it for what it is.  Rock.  Sand.  Dust.  Nothing and everything.

Zoo Zoo shivered as she ran through the growing puddles; her red jacket became stained vermilion from the desert, it dripped off of her.  MJ’s hood caught the wind and it parachuted outward and pulled her back, slowing her down.  Her hair was a mess.  I stumbled.  I was delirious with a low blood sugar and with the thought of time.  May be it was just time.  Petroglyphs rose 15, 30 feet up the canyon walls.  4,000 years ago some one climbed up and left their mark.  Tomorrow I will reach into my chalk bag and leave my own.  The weather made us slow down and take in the continual change of our world – nothing permanent, nothing stagnant.  A rainbow arced across the sky and its colors dripped into a puddle below.

Some Trip Stats:

2,600 miles driven

100 cookies eaten

1 buffet attended, 1 jar of Nutella eaten, 1 bottle of wine drank

21 different pitches climbed

 

MJ fell on only two routes the entire trip, Yak Crack 11d, which she sent next go, and Fear and Loathing 12a, which she will get next time down.  She flashed numerous 11b’s and onsighted several 10+’s.

I climbed Beyond Reason 13b, SOS 13a, and Nothing Shocking 13a all second try.  I also did the Gift 12d, Where the Boys go Down 12d, and several other 12′s, including No Dogs Allowed 12b, which was a seriously difficult onsight; I couldn’t feel my fingers or toes for the second half of the route.

 

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