RED ROCKS - november and december 2009

I spent a few weeks at Red Rocks in November and over new years. In November I climbed with my buddy Josh whom I met at Red Rocks last April. Josh was just a fledgling leader at the time but now is climbing as hard as me. We climbed a lot and got on a few classic routes, some of which lived up to their reputation, others not (mainly Chrimson Chrysallis). The two that did live up to their rep and rocked my world were Levitation 29 and Cloud Tower. Those are two routes I would go back and do again and again, if it weren't for the grueling approach.

Over New Years I got to meet and climb with a lot of new people, which was great. We didn't climb anything too long as the days were short, but I did get on a few short routes that pushed my limits, such as Desert Reality, pictured below.


The thin crack leading up to the roof is 12d and called Desert Crack. The roof, called Desert Reality, after the similar Yosemite route Separate Reality, is about 20 feet long and goes at 5.11c/d. If you link the two together it is called Desert Gold and goes at 5.13. Awesome. We traversed in just under the roof from the left.





Looking down at Desert Crack




The start of Desert Reality.