Didn't get many pictures considering I was climbing for three weeks.  I tend to not carry my camera while teaching (so there goes one week of photographs) and on long, difficult climbs (Black Orpheus, Epinephrine).  Hopefully you will enjoy the pictures I did manage to capture.

3/7  Flying from Ithaca to Vegas...  Ha!  Just kidding.  US Airways (motto: "We Hate To Fly!") cancels every single flight out of Ithaca.

3/8  Flying from Ithaca to Vegas... Almost just kidding.  US Airways (motto: "Next Time, Drive!") cancels most flights out of Ithaca, but I manage to get out and fly to Vegas.  There I pick up my luggage and Shawn drives me to his house.  Ha!  Just kidding again.  My luggage is nowhere to be found, and Shawn is in the ER with an injured finger.  Shawn's housemate picks me up sans luggage and drives me to his house.

3/9  Still no luggage.  I call every supervisor at US Airways (motto: "We Hate You, Specifically") and ask about my luggage.  I learn this fascinating and totally true fact which I am not making up:  US Airways (motto: "Are You Sure You Had That Luggage When You Checked In?") has no idea where your bags are.  You know those really big barcode labels that every airline sticks on your bag?  US Airways never scans them.  Never.  So the best they can tell you is that your luggage should show up eventually, because... gosh... ummm... where else could it go?

Giving up on luggage, I borrow a harness and shoes from Shawn (who is wearing a giant aluminum splint on his finger) and we head to Red Rock to sport climb with his friends Marah and Howard.  We go first to Black Corridor where I lead a 5.9+ and clean a 5.10a (didn't get any climb names).  Then we stroll to Magic Bus where I lead Neon Sunset (5.8) and Electric Koolaid (5.9) a fun route.  The four of us wash and eat dinner at the NY Pizza place in the new Albertson's shopping center.  The medium spinach calzone is huge!  Even after a day of climbing, I can only eat half.

3/10  US Airways (motto: "See, We Told You It Would Show Up") finally finds my luggage.  Huzzah!  Now you can read a story about rock climbing instead of airport hopping.  At least until the end, then there is more airport stuff.

Back to Black Corridor.  I lead Vagabonds (5.9+) the classic moderate in the area.  Then I clean some random 5.9.  Next I lead The Heavy Hitter (5.10c) which is a really, really fun climb.  Possibly the best single pitch sport climb I've ever led.  Varied and sustained, but with good rests between hard moves.  Me gusta!  I finish Black Corridor cleaning some 5.10a.

Then we head to The Gallery.  I lead Gelatin Pooch (5.10a) and clean Buck's Muscle World (5.9) and Sport Climbing Is Neither (5.8).  All three are climbs I've done before, but still fun.  Mark arrives, and I transfer my newly found luggage to his rental car.  We see a large group of Bighorn Sheep near Icebox canyon.  Leaving the BLM, we buy groceries, setup camp, and drive to the airport to retrieve Keith and Aramy.

3/11  The instructor team checks out Valentine's Day area where we plan to bring students for day zero activities.  Then we head to Pine Creek and climb Olive Oil (6 pitches, 5.7) an area classic which doesn't do much to impress me.  BTW, as of 3/2008 all the bolts on Olive Oil are chopped so bring enough gear for belay anchors and plan to walk off, not rappel.

3/12  We drive to Black Velvet Canyon, but the normal entrance is closed for road destruction (which we honestly knew about in advance, prepared team that we are) and the alternate road is not particularly suitable for the rental Saturn Ion we are driving.  This lack of ability to scout Black Velvet will come back to haunt me in the future, so pay attention when you read that part of the story and see if you catch the significance.

Back inside the scenic loop where we walk to Mescalito and check out Dark Shadows (4 pitches, 5.7).  It is very crowded, but we can see the entire route from the ground and would be comfortable taking students on the climb onsight.  We take a good look at Brass Wall, then walk around Mescalito to Cat In The Hat (6 pitches, 5.6).  We bust up that climb as two parties of two and join up for the double rope rappels.

3/13  We hike to Crimson Chrysalis (9 pitches, 5.8) and find a huge crowd waiting to get on the climb.  Moral: wake at 5am or noon for the popular climbs.  There appears to be some serious incompetence going on and we guess that some of the parties might bail, so we wait.  Good guess... one slow party of three bails.  Now there are some parties high up on the route and one party of three ahead of us.  Unprompted, one of them promises us that they will be fast.  This turns out to be the biggest lie since, "I'll bet your luggage is on the next plane."  (You knew I'd get another dig at the airlines before long).

So this party of three starts up and they are moving slow.  And doing weird things like bringing a second rack up the climb.  And carrying shoes for a climb that virtually everyone rappels.  As the leader starts climbing the second pitch, we give up and walk over to Spare Rib (4 pitches, 5.8).  We climb all four pitches as two parties of two, and again join up on top for double rope rappels.  Then we walk back to Crimson Chrysalis.  Think how much we did... 16 person pitches and rappels.  Surely the party of three -- which promised to be fast -- will be high and out of sight.  Right?  Nope.  They have just reached the second belay.  They climbed one pitch.  We leave.  By the way, if anyone from that party of three ever happens to read this, I'm sorry if it seems like I'm mocking you.  You had every right to be on that climb and do it at whatever speed you want.  That's the right you earn when you get to the base of the climb before someone else.  So we don't begrudge you the climb.  Hope you had fun.  Seriously.

Circling the scenic loop for the second time that day, we stopped at first pullout and checked out Panty Wall.  Keith and Aramy did some short sport climb.  Then we stopped at second pullout and I pointed out all the landmarks for finding Magic Bus, Black Corridor, Sweet Pain Wall, Meister's Edge, and The Gallery.  We finished the day with some bouldering at Sandstone Quarry and Willow Springs.

3/14  Awake at 5:20am.  Not going to be stuck behind a slow party today!  In line at the loop road before the gate opens at 6am.  We drive to the Oak Creek trailhead and find one other party planning to do the same route, Solar Slab (7 pitches, 5.6).  You have to climb about 400' to reach the start of Solar Slab.  They plan to do this on Johnny Vegas (4 pitches, 5.6R), so we decide to do Solar Slab Gully (3 pitches, 5.3) and maybe get ahead of them.  We start climbing at 7:15am.  Aramy and I simul the climb with Mark and Keith right behind us.  We reach Solar Slab and decide to start pitching it out.  Around pitch 4, I end up on the 5.9 finger crack variation.  I realize my mistake but decide to give it a try.  This is the first 5.9 trad I've led in months and I'm happy that it feels like easy 5.7 climbing.  We simul the last 350' of the climb and reach the top around 10:30am.  Not bad for 1500' of climbing!

We join our ropes for the rappels and pass the party that started on Johnny Vegas, now on the first pitch of Solar Slab.  They can't believe we have reached the top and are most of the way down already.  Traffic on the Johnny Vegas rappels slows us quite a bit.  It actually takes us longer to rap the route than it took us to climb up.  We reach the ground around 1:45pm and hike back to the car.  After a quick scouting of Kraft Boulders we get a shower at the climbing gym, buy tons of groceries, and head to the airport to retrieve our first student, Anna (and a minivan to supplement the Saturn).

3/15  Keith and Aramy take Anna to Valentine's Day for some 2:1 instructor to student ratio climbing.  A note to anyone planning to take this class in the future:  Flying out early greatly increases your personal instruction time.  Mark and I head to the airport to retrieve students.  Jess and Nick arrive first, followed by Guy, Katie and Stitty.  Mike is close behind.  Kristin also arrives and we give her a ride to the campground where she will spend two days hanging out; then five days of climbing, hiking and seeing shows with her mom.  After shuttling everyone to Valentine's Day, I'm back to the airport to get Andy.  He and I join the group around 4pm (unfortunately, we miss the desert tortoise that everyone else sees).  Still enough time for Andy to get a bit of a burn on some of the climbs we have set.  After breaking down the climbs, we take everyone back to Group Site E where they set tents, eat dinner, and Keith leads the first of our 5-minute lecture series ("which rope should I buy?").

Another tip for anyone going to the Red Rock campground:  The group sites are not worth it.  They have no water, which is a huge huge huge pain.  And you have to open and close the stupid gate every single time you arrive and depart.  A better choice would have been for us to grab two sites in the main campground.  A disadvantage of that plan is that you can't make reservations, but with four of us out there for a week before the students arrive, I'm sure we could have managed.  Would have also saved $5 per day.

3/16  First full day of climbing!  Very exciting!  Everyone is chomping at the bit and ready to go!  Except it rained and snowed all night.  Our Wal-Mart stove was balky (we wanted to buy a stove as similar to the COE stoves as possible, and we succeeded) and everyone was cold and tired.  Most students got little sleep as their tents were blown in their faces all night long.  After a lazy morning and a trip to the visitor's center, we all went to Magic Bus to spend a few hours anchor building.  Then we drove to the climbing gym where everyone enjoyed some indoor sport climbing.

3/17  Weather is better and the sandstone is dry!  Guy, Andy and I head to Cat In The Hat.  Guy leads the first two pitches quite handily and Andy follows everything with ease.  I take the last two pitches (we link 1&2 and 5&6 to do the climb in 4 pitches, which is pretty typical) and we enjoy a sunny summit.  While Guy leads p2, Andy and I are entertained by the talkative gentleman sharing our belay.  At a two bolt belay station, he anchors himself with a sport draw on a single bolt to which he attaches his rope with a clove hitch (which he keeps calling a prussik).  I suppose this isn't inherently unsafe, but there are so many other options which are just as simple and much safer.  I know I wouldn't have been casually leaning over a 140' drop when connected to a series of 7 potential single points of failure.  Other entertainment that day was watching a party pull a rope without removing the knot (luckily there was a party at the anchor above who could fix their mistake) and that same group joining two ropes by passing all 200' of one rope through the rappel anchor, then tying the end to the other rope.  My usual policy is to keep quiet unless I see someone doing something suicidal, but in this case I politely mentioned that they could have just put a rope end through the anchor and tied their knot.  We actually waited on a ledge for over an hour while this group did a single rappel.

3/18  Jess, Nick and I set out for an easy day.  We planned to sport climb and talk about climbing photography (thus I brought my camera and actually have pictures from this day).  We head to The Gallery and they both climb Sport Climbing Is Neither.  Nothing else in The Gallery is open and we decide to flee the crowds by heading to Black Corridor (ok, we don't expect solitude, but at least there are many more climbs).  We manage to get on The Heavy Hitter and they spend the rest of the day taking turns leading the climb.  One or two bolts to exhaustion, then lower, switch and continue.  Nick declares it is the best climb he has ever done.  I'm glad!

We finish the day with a bit of bouldering at Willow Springs.  Then retrieve the rest of the class and retire for dinner and discussions.  I didn't keep track of which lectures we had which nights, but I know we discussed: What to do when voice communication fails; Simulclimbing; Fall Factors; Expedition Behavior; and probably another topic or two which has slipped my mind.

3/19  Katie, Andy and I go to Brass Wall with most of the rest of the class.  We start on Varnishing Point (2 pitches, 5.8).  I lead the first pitch, then Andy gets a chance to mock lead it.  Or actually mock free solo the pitch.  To Andy's credit, he knew that he didn't place enough gear in the last 50' of the pitch and the gear he did place was solid.  We finished the climb, then Andy and Katie took a shot at the long 5.11 which is easy to toprope below the rappel for Varnishing Point.  Then we went over to the far left side of the wall where Katie led some unknown 5.4.  Actually, it was another free solo since there was no gear until after the crux of the climb.  Katie did her best to sew it up nicely.  Stitty spots a large herd of Bighorn Sheep in the distance.  In all my previous trips to Red Rock, I had only seen two Bighorn Sheep.  This trip I've seen two herds.  I guess that removing the Burros has reduced competition and allowed the sheep to thrive.

3/20  Wake at 5am for Prince Of Darkness (6 pitches, 5.10c).  We traded the Saturn for an SUV and were all prepared for the drive to Black Velvet.  Katie, Mike and I set off early to tick this massive climb.  It has never been successfully climbed by a COE group during the Red Rocks class.  The rough drive is fun in the SUV, and the Joshua Trees are in bloom which is really beautiful.  We hit the trailhead as the sun comes up and start hiking to the climb.  This is where things turn sour.

Remember when I said that our lack of scouting Black Velvet would come back to haunt me?  Well here it is... basically, I turn left too early and we spend an hour scrambling in a fourth class death gully.  Stupid stupid stupid mistake.  Especially since I had been to Prince Of Darkness less than two years earlier.  The rope ladder at the waterfall is gone, so a fourth class scramble is mandatory, but not where I did it.  Biggest mistake of my COE career.  Sorry Katie and Mike.

Eventually we did reach the base of the climb.  By now there are several parties ahead of us and things are particularly slow because the first pitch is shared with Dream Of Wild Turkeys.  We finally get climbing.  I lead the first pitch and bring up Mike and Katie.  Funny story... when I reach the first belay I see that the belayer for the party ahead of us is connected to the anchor with two spectra slings, each attached to a single aluminum rap ring.  Now it turns out that SMC aluminum rap rings are rated at 14kN, but these didn't appear to be SMC rings.  Maybe they are stronger than I suspect, but my guess is that if the leader had taken a factor 2 fall, the entire team would have gone.  The really weird thing is that she had to push aside two other rap rings to clip the way she did.  So it would have been easier to be through four rap rings than two.  Anyhow, I clipped to the bolt hangers and suggested that, in the future, she avoid using aluminum rap rings for belay anchors (belaying off aluminum rap rings meets my criteria for suicidal behavior, so I felt compelled to make a polite suggestion).  That same party also trailed a rope for the double rope rappels.  Since the route is a straight shot, the trailed rope was always in our faces.  It actually would have been easier for them to backpack the rope -- same weight, less friction -- but my self-serving suggestion to that end was ignored.  Someone in our party suggested that we tie the rope to a bolt, but I'm not going to say that it was Katie... umm... I'm not going to name names.

Mike did a stellar job leading p2, the hardest sustained pitch (p6 has one hard move but the rest is easier).  I got to lead p3 which takes some trad gear.  By the end of p3 it was late and everyone was getting cold and tired.  Prince Of Darkness had repelled another COE team, so we rappelled (repelled, so we rappelled... get it?)

After my approach fiasco in Black Velvet, I owed Mike and Katie some ice cream.  So I figured I'd get enough for everyone.  Most of the class spent the day enjoying the hot springs near Hoover Dam, but everyone deserves ice cream all the time (as far as I'm concerned).

3/21  Wake at 5am again.  This time COE plans to get three parties of three up Crimson Chrysalis.  Another achievement totally unprecedented in COE Red Rocks class history.  Everyone was packed and ready to go.  We sat in our two vehicles waiting for the gate to open.  We all jumped out at the Pine Creek trailhead and started hiking.  We were a well oiled machine.  Or just desperate to succeed at the climb.  Aramy, Guy and Andy were off first.  Followed by Stitty, Katie and me.  Keith, Mike and Anna brought up the rear.  We were the first three parties on the climb and we were all moving fast.

One party showed up well after we started.  I attempted to clear the rappel route by shouting down to Keith from the first belay, "So do they belay me on the second pitch just like on the first?  How does that work?  Just like in the gym?"  Maybe the other party didn't hear me, because they followed us up the climb.

All three parties summitted!  Totally unprecedented!  Katie even led p7, and I'm pretty sure it was the first time a student had ever led a pitch of Crimson Chrysalis during the class.  Go team.  We reached the ground and started hiking out before dark, though it was soon headlamp time.  By 8pm we were back at the trailhead, tired and triumphant.  The entire class ate out at NY Pizza.  I finished my entire medium spinach calzone this time.

3/22  If this class were a high school English paper, then 3/15 and 3/16 would have been the introduction, 3/17 - 3/19 the exposition, 3/20 the complication, and yesterday's events the obvious climax.  So today is the denouement.

The entire group heads to second pullout for a half day of sport climbing.  Anna and I head to Hunter S. Thompson Dome where we climb the two 5.8s on the left side (Crazy Eights is one of the climbs -- don't know the other).  Anna leads both of the climbs, her first ever outdoor leads.  Then we head to Sweet Pain where Mike, Guy, Katie and Keith have been climbing hard.  Anna cleans Pain In The Neck (5.10a) which Katie had led.

We all meet at the cars (was I late Jess?  maybe you were early!) and drive to the climbing gym to get showers.  Then into Vegas.  Walking the strip is very very similar to rock climbing in the canyons.  Except it is totally different.  We gorged ourselves at the Rio buffet, puked in the bathroom, and gorged ourselves more.  Then we walked the strip until we were too tired to put one foot in front of the other.  Andy and Mike departed for the airport and the rest of us went back to gated, waterless group site E for our last night together.  Interestingly, the flight schedule was a perfect last-in-first-out stack.  Who knew computer science skills would be so useful in a rock climbing trip?

3/23  We all wake at 4:30am to take everyone to the airport.  I'm not a morning person.  For climbing I can wake early, but for airports it really doesn't thrill me.

After dropping off the students Kristin, Keith, Aramy and I head to Atman.  Keith leads Atman and I follow it.  Then Aramy leads and Kristin follows.  It is a pretty solid climb for 5.10a.  The thin hands at the bottom is quite a challenge for me.  Next we wait for Yin-Yang (5.11b).  Keith does an awesome job leading it and Kristin follows.  Then Aramy leads the climb.  He claims that by taking a ground fall before placing his first piece, he preserved his flash since he never weighted the rope.  I'm just glad his ankles still have the same number of bones.  I follow the climb with one hang, which I could have avoided if I had seen the right foot ridges at the crux.  Anyhow, it goes smoother than Atman, which is kinda funny given the vast difference in their grades.

Keith, Aramy and Mark leave for the airport.  Kristin and I are asleep as soon as the sun sets.

3/24  We wake at 5:20am to climb Black Orpheus (11 pitches, 5.10a).  I had done this climb two years ago, so we found the start easily and stayed on route the entire time.  Kristin took the first pitch and we swung leads through pitch 4.  Then Kristin led a long simul pitch to get us to the start of pitch 8.  I got the excitement of leading pitch 8 which is long, sustained and difficult.  There is a gear anchor at the start and a gear anchor at the end.  I used pretty much all our gear on this pitch.  We had my cams: green, yellow and red aliens, and .5-3 C4s; supplemented by Kristin's .75, 1 and 2; also one set of nuts and 12 draws.  If you aren't comfortable with moderate runouts, bring more midsize and big cams for this pitch.  From there, Kristin led the crux pitch -- her first 5.10 trad lead.  Then I got the "5.6?  My Ass!" pitch which has a long, sustained finger crack.  Kristin took us to the summit with the last slab pitch, finishing around 2:15pm.

Because I had done the walk-off through lower painted bowl last time, I knew there had to be a better way off Black Orpheus.  We decided to try for Solar Slab since I had just done the rappels.  Turns out you only have to walk about 500' right to reach the top of Solar Slab.  There is a solid 4th class downclimb.  We placed gear and belayed it because of the exposure.  I strongly recommend that approach.  Then it was just a matter of getting all the way down Solar Slab.  Wasn't bad until our ropes got stuck below the big roof on Johnny Vegas.  I led up and found that the ropes were essentially z-dragging on chicken heads.  After fixing that problem we continued to rappel.  Unfortunately the party above us "helpfully" fed our ropes out of the anchors on the last rappel.  That caused them to pile above us and become completely irretrievable.  I should have led the pitch and got the ropes back, but I was pissed that they were stuck because of someone else's error.  So we waited for them to come down and fetch our ropes, which took a long time because they were dealing with a rope cluster of their own.  When we finally got back to the campground it was time to eat dinner, play a bit of rummey and go to sleep.

3/25  Packed up camp and left for Black Velvet canyon.  COE's three 5 gallon water jugs would come in handy, because our plan is to spend the rest of the trip in Black Velvet camped (illegally?  of course not!) at the trailhead.  As a semi-rest day, we decided to climb Frogland (6 pitches, 5.8).  We were behind a bunch of slower parties, but we were in no rush.  I had my camera for the first time this trip on a long trad climb and we spent plenty of time taking pictures.

The descent from Frogland meets up with the last bit of the descent from Epinephrine (about 15 pitches, 5.9).  This little fact turns out to be incredibly fortuitous.  While walking out we met Francesca and Yousef, who had just finished Epinephrine.  We had met Francesca the previous day when hiking in to Oak Creek, and so it was easy to start talking with them about our plans for Epinephrine.  We had doubles of .5-3 and one #4 cam (a COE cam we borrowed).  Exactly the recommendation made by Supertopo and at least one other guidebook.  Francesca and Yousef laughed, "how comfortable are you in horribly runout slick chimneys?"  Not very.  At least I assume not very, since I've never actually climbed a slick chimney, or even a hard chimney, good gear or not.  They suggested we borrow a bunch of their cams.  I don't like the idea of borrowing someone else's cams, but Francesca had dropped her jacket around the third pitch and wanted us to retrieve it.  So that was enough of a trade.  We supplemented our borrowed #4 with a 3.5, 4.5 and 5.  Yikes!  That is $250 in borrowed gear!  Let me tell you, it was worth every penny we didn't pay.  After dinner and a quick game of rummy, we went to bed just as the trailhead cleared out.

3/26  Wake at the trailhead at 5am.  Just as another car pulls in.  Rat Farts!  There is only one reason why people would arrive here at 5am.  Yup, they plan to do Epinephrine too.  They are ready to jump out of their car and start hiking.  We have to throw sleeping gear in the car and eat a bit of breakfast.  So they will be first, but politely offer to let us pass if we are faster.  I thank them and ask them to leave us Francesca's jacket if they find it.  By 7am we are at the start of the climb.  We are climbing very heavy with 18 cams, 15 draws, a set of nuts, and assorted anchor and belay gear.  The backpack has 7 liters of water, shoes, extra clothes and a bunch of Clif bars.

Kristin leads the first long pitch and has lots of rope drag.  I get the second pitch (the first easy chimney pitch) and also get lots of rope drag because I place an alien way in the back before traversing right on to the face.  Kristin gets the third pitch -- the first 5.9 chimney.  She makes steady progress and reaches the belay with no problem.  I'm trailing the backpack from my belay loop and cursing life as I struggle to get the heavy pack and myself up the awkward chimney.  We decide to put the backpack on the red rope and belay the second on the blue rope for the rest of the chimney pitches.  It means retying at each belay, and it slows the second (who basically has to hoist the backpack so the belayer can take up the rope), but it is easier than trailing the stupid thing.

Then I get the business of Epinephrine -- pitch 4: slick, sustained, scary 5.9 chimney.  I'm moving very slowly on this pitch.  It turns out that I'm not a very good chimney climber.  Who knew?  The climbing is very tenuous.  And with only one or two cams big enough to protect the main chimney, I'm runout.  At each of the bulges there is decent midsize gear to protect the crux moves (which feel much easier than the rest of the chimney since I can just campus on hand jams rather than make awkward chimney moves).  Finally I reach a belay and bring up Kristin... who cruises the pitch.  Turns out she is a natural at chimneys.  Again, who knew?  Kristin gets the next pitch which has a squeeze above a flare.  Kristin is fairly runout in the squeeze when she slips... FALLING!!!  and catches herself about two feet lower in the chimney.  I nearly soiled myself and I was just belaying.  I would have lowered and abandoned the climb, but Kristin keeps right on going to the next belay.  I follow the pitch slowly, but without much difficulty since I do the flare right side in, which is clearly much easier.  Somehow we used an intermediate anchor and broke up the pitches differently than we had planned.  I get the final chimney pitch.  It is 5.8, right side in, lots of holds, no gear (except two bolts).  Again I'm slow, but at least I feel comfortable.  Basically I abandon chimney technique and just climb the featured face at hard 5.10, and rest with my back to the slick face whenever necessary.

We finally emerge from the chimneys at 12:30pm.  Five and a half hours of struggling has left us thrashed.  But now the rest of the climb is a piece of cake.  Sure, it is still long and hard (or at least that's what Beth said) but we can do it!  The leader is still climbing very heavy with all the cams.  The second is now carrying the overweight backpack.  We are tired and still have at least three 5.9 pitches ahead of us, but we are moving well and having an absolute blast!  Kristin takes us to the top of Elephant's Trunk.  Then I get to combine the two 5.9 face pitches (which feel soooo much easier than the 5.9 chimneys).  Kristin gets a fun, long 5.6 to 5.8 pitch.  Then I get the 5.7R which finishes on a juggy 5.9 roof.  The roof would probably be 5.7 at the Gunks.  Kristin follows it easily with the heavy pack.  Chimneys kill us, but we can do roofs!  Finally, Kristin leads the last difficult pitch to the start of the ramp.  It is 5pm.  It has taken us 12 pitches and 10 hours of climbing to reach this point.  I take the lead as we simul the last four pitches to the tree at the top of the route.  We get here at 6pm.  By the time we have coiled the ropes and had a bit to eat and drink, it is 6:30pm.  We blissfully take off our climbing shoes and walk to the summit.  That is when the misery begins.

With the sun already set and twilight closing in, there is no way we will make it off the ridge before dark.  The descent from Epinephrine is difficult enough in daylight.  In the dark it would be impossible.  So we find a lovely bivy site right on the summit of Black Velvet.  We have a beautiful view of the sparkling lights of Vegas, brilliant stars overhead, the waning moon rising to the South, and even the occasional shooting star.  Perfect!  Except for the cold temperatures and 60mph gusts of wind.  We build a rock shelter as best we can and Kristin carefully lays out the ropes in a blue and red facsimile of a sleeping pad.  We blow air into our nearly empty water bladders and stuff them in the backpack to use as a pillow.  We are wearing every piece of clothing we have, including Francesca's jacket, hat and single glove.

By 8:00pm we are shivering out of control.  We tell stories to pass the time.  Play 20 questions.  Look at the stars.  Look at Vegas.  Tell more stories.  We are still shivering out of control.  We eat some food and drink some water.  Tell more stories.  Continue to shiver.  It is 8:20pm.  We are going to die here.

There is no way we can survive a night on this mountain.  We decide to pack our gear and hunt for the trail down.  Even if it takes us all night, it is better than lying in the wind on a lump of rock.  We turn our 1 watt headlamps on full brightness and start searching for the trail.  We stumble in the dark on cold feet, we avoid drops so big that our headlamps can't see the bottom.  We hunker low when a particularly strong gust of wind threatens to take us all the way to Vegas.  We can't find any trail.  We return to our rock shelter.

Exhausted, we are too numb to neatly lay out the rope or make air pillows.  We throw our gear to the ground, sit on top of it and start to shiver again.  We pull out our space blanket (we knew it was possible we would have to bivy, we were prepared) and try to wrap it around us.  Turns out a space blanket isn't really big enough for two people.  It also turns out they can't handle 60mph winds.  Within 30 minutes, our space blanket is in tatters.  It isn't even 10pm yet.

That's how the night goes.  Constant shivering.  Frequent pee breaks.  Occasional bites of food and sips of water.  Around 2am the wind dies down, but the cold never fades.  We count the minutes until dawn.  We mange to doze for a few minutes at a time until our own shivering brings us back to zombie wakefulness.

Does all this sound overly dramatic?  Let me tell you, it was quite simply the most miserable night of my life.

3/27  Finally the sun.  I always thought it took about five minutes from when you could see the edge of the sun until you could see the entire disc.  But this morning it rose nearly instantly.  It wasn't warm, not at first, but at least we knew we wouldn't die.  We sat for a half hour taking in the weak rays.  Then we packed our gear and started to walk.  The trail was still tricky to find, and we stumbled on numb feet, but we made progress.  Eventually, we even removed some of our layers.  Not long after that, we started to overheat and sweat.  There is probably some irony here.

At 10:30am we reached the car.  Kristin opened the door, fell on top of all her belongings, and was sleeping within seconds.  I puttered around thinking I was doing productive work, but mostly just moved piles of gear from place to place.

Analyzing our experience, we were the classic example of the maxim, "if you bring bivy gear, you will need it."  Bringing a pack with enough food and water to last the night slowed us enough that we had to spend the night.  Still, given the number of parties that have to spend the night in the past, it would be foolish to go unprepared.  Some parties spend an entire day hiking up and down the descent route so they know it well enough to do it in the dark.  Some parties are confident enough to move fast and finish the climb with plenty of daylight to spare.  If I were to climb Epinephrine again, I would definitely be able to move fast enough and finish early.  If I ever again think I'll bivy, a bivy sack seems like an absolute essential.  Kristin had a bivy-like sleeping bag cover we could have brought instead of the space blanket.  It would have only weighed a few extra ounces.  I'm sure we would have still been uncomfortable, but it would have kept us 100 times warmer.  Leaving that behind was the biggest mistake we made.

Now that all is done, Epinephrine is one of the most stellar climbs I've done in my life.  The chimneys are like nothing I've ever climbed before.  The upper pitches are fantastic.  The route is long and committing, without ever requiring superhuman abilities.  Our bivy experience (now that it is over) just improves the story.  If Epinephrine had been the only climb I accomplished during three weeks in Red Rock, it would have been three weeks well spent.

After our minds settled, we ate a big hot meal.  Then packed the car and drove out of Black Velvet canyon.  We returned Francesca's cams and jacket.  Then drove to the climbing gym for a well deserved shower.  Then we bought a half gallon of ice cream and ate the entire thing.

Turning around, we drove back to Black Velvet canyon.  We have 30 hours before our flight leaves Vegas.  This trip isn't over.

We spot our first burro of the trip.  The BLM removed all but 100 of the wild burros since they were far more numerous than the environment could support.  Spotting one is a good omen!  We find a nice spot to spend the night, play some cards and sleep... in sleeping bags... on sleeping pads... ahhhhh the luxury!

3/28  We walk past Frogland to Triassic Sands (3 pitches, 5.10c) which I've heard is a great climb.  Kristin leads the first short pitch.  Then I get the fun of leading the tough overhanging finger crack.  There is fixed gear and plenty of good placements for my gear.  Still, I freak out when there is any chance of falling.  I have to hang twice through the crux.  Silly, because I know I could get the climb clean.  After the crux is 120' of perfect 5.9 hand crack with plenty of face holds.  Unfortunately, one of our #2 cams is in the anchor and one #3 is protecting the crux.  So that leaves me with two cams capable of protecting the last 120' of climbing.  Luckily, a hand jam is like a belay.  I finish the climb going the last 80' on two slung chickenheads.  The funny thing is that I get overly terrified when I think I'm going to fall, even if there is perfectly good gear at my waist.  But I'm fine on 5.9X because I know, just KNOW, that I'm not going to fall.  A hand jam really is like a belay.  Kristin follows the pitch, laughing at my chickenheads.  Then she leads the final pitch and we rap off.  A stuck rope on the first rappel is Kristin's to fix (I got the last one on Johnny Vegas) so she leads up about 30', fixes the problem, and downclimbs.

At this point we are completely blown.  We haven't recovered from Epinephrine.  Our fingers are bleeding and our feet are swollen.  We decide to do one more climb.  Sand Felipe (2 pitches, 5.10a) is a fun little sport climb which finishes us for the trip.  A quick game of rummy and we are sound asleep.  By the way, Kristin won every game of rummy we played this trip.  I like to think that bad card karma improves my climbing karma.  It is better than thinking that I suck at cards.

3/29  Wake at 2:45am (did I mention that I'm not a morning person) for a day of airport hell.  See, I told you there would be more airport stories.  We packed our gear and drove to the airport.  While discarding our trash, I sliced a huge chunk out of my finger on the metal edge of the trash can.  Kristin developed a nose bleed that was more like a geyser -- if she stopped pinching her nose blood would stream out, not drip, stream.  We weren't exactly pristine to begin with, given all our climbing abrasions, and the added blood made us look like refugees from a war zone.  We stagger into the airport and stand in the very very long line at the Delta (motto: "Worse Than US Airways") ticket counter.  We finally reach the front and try not to bleed on the nice ticket agent.  In retrospect, I should have bled all over the stupid jerk.  Kristin is having trouble because she can't find her id, and they don't believe she is Kristin.  In fact, they don't even believe she is over 18, which apparently you have to be to fly without an id.  Really?  Airlines are so weird.  So she is hustled off for the intense security screening which is reserved for people covered in blood who do not have id.  But things should be much smoother for me since I have id and only one hand covered in blood (plus the blood which has dripped on my pants and my luggage).  Should be smoother, but it isn't.  I'd like to explain what happened, but to this day I really don't understand.  The Delta ticket agent, and eventually the Delta supervisor insisted that US Airways had control over my ticket.  This is a ticket that I've paid for, and confirmed, and even have seat reservations.  US Airways should have never even seen it.  WTF?  So I spend 90 minutes walking back and forth between the two counters with Delta insisting that US Airways controls my ticket, and US Airways not even able to find my ticket (since it was three weeks old it apparently was not in their computer).  Delta twice gave US Airways a useless reference number.  US Airways spent 20 minutes on hold waiting for their own help desk.  I kept calling Stone Travel (motto: "Nothing Like Listening To Our Answering Machine Say We Open At 8:30am When You Are Desperately Trying To Reach Us At 9:00am") since they booked the tickets and might be able to explain why Delta won't put me on the plane.

Of course, I missed my flight.  The Delta supervisor -- the guy who looks like a rude jerk -- it turns out he IS a rude jerk.  He finally tells me that he won't put me on the plane and to take my luggage and leave.  I would have gone all ninja on his ass, but if you do that in an airport, you spend the rest of your life in Guantanamo.  Finally, US Airways finds my old ticket and just puts me on a flight to Rochester.  Even though I never paid them anything.  I'm going to try to get my money back from Delta (motto: "At Least One Supervisor Is A Rude Jerk").  So Kristin and I arrive in Rochester at about the same time, though we are on separate flights.  I expected to play cards the entire flight (and win this time) so my book was packed in my checked luggage and my MP3 player had a dead battery.  It was an opportunity to catch up on sleep.  And plot revenge against the airlines.  And bleed.  I did all three simultaneously.  I'm efficient that way.

Epilog  If I never have to fly anywhere else in the world, that won't disappoint me a bit.  I'd rather drive or take the train.  Maybe learn to sail so I can get across the oceans.  Other than the flying, it was a productive trip.  I got on a few multipitch trad climbs which I had never done before: Olive Oil, Spare Rib, Solar Slab, Varnishing Point, Frogland, Triassic Sands, Sand Felipe, and Epinephrine.  And I felt like the class went really well.  The students had a great time, climbed to exhaustion, and hopefully learned a ton.  Once home, I spent a few days eating and sleeping just to let my body recover.  After 36 hours, my finger even stopped bleeding.  Now there is only one question remaining to be answered:  Why can't I win at cards when I'm on a climbing trip?