Nothing says welcome back to Minnesota like 6-12 inches of snow in a 24hr blizzard. (Insert emoji face smack here). I can’t look outside. The moment I stepped off the plane I had instant seasonal depression. Please, take me back to the desert.
Eight days, in 80 degree temps, hitting the cliffs hard, rock climbing Red Rocks Nevada, finger prints polished off, and a wicked farmer tan (the back of my neck is red-iculous). I need a vacation from my vacation. Everything hurt as I was chewing ibuprofen like tic tacs. We took one day off to rest and decided to visit the Hoover Dam. And Damn, it's big.
All our training and preparation during the trip led us to the highlighted goal: "Crimson Chrysalis," a 9 pitch, 1,000 foot climb. From below, this route looks terrifying. Take her pitch by pitch, she has a little attitude, but also is a sweetheart of holds and cracks. A 'Super Classic' I heard the climbers below us call it.
(note the tiny person rappelling down)
That night, trying to sleep before 9pm, we were to get up at 4am, my brain whirled in thoughts of dangling off flat wall hanging belay stations and multi-pitch rappels. There wasn't going to be any place to stand during the whole climb. We geared up the night before and loaded the rental jeep. We needed to be at the climb as early as possible. There are horror stories of people descending this tall climb in the dark with headlamps. I saw it, each night as we drove the loop at dust exiting the Red Rocks Park. There, along the spire of Cloud Tower, tiny headlamps blinked like stars in the darkness desperate to come down. And after reaching the bottom there would be the hour and a half hike back to the car through the desert. Everything in the desert wants to eat you.
Crimson Chrysalis is a mix bolted trad route. That means there are bolts placed in the rock for protections, but for a lot of the climb placing gear for protection is required. Each belay station is bolted as well. It looks a little something like this:
And that is all there is to hang off, literally hundreds of feet exposed in the air.
On less than 5hrs of sleep at 5:30am we hit the parking lot and began the long cacti ridden trek to the base of the climb as the sun rose to our backs. I haven't been up this early since errrr', I don't.
This was to be all the sun we were going to get. I want to give Crimson Chrysalis a 4 out of 4 star climb, but the entire route was shaded with up to 20mph winds. Our ropes swung sideways rather than down on the rappels. With teeth chattering, we proceeded to the glimpse of warmth only permitted at the summit.
Looking up trying to figure out which way to go.
Following the crack to the top.
Final pitch.
And the view after six and a half hours.
Suffering one tire blow out. These dogs hurt.
Would I do it again? Hell yeah! Next time in warmer clothes.
Thanks for visiting.