Team Segway! On your left!

3/9
Josh, Dan, Allison and I fly to Vegas.

3/10
Climb Physical Graffiti with Allison. Look at Big Bad Wolf, a three pitch 5.9 sport climb next to it. Look at The Fox. Excellent! But busy. Climb Bottom's Up (5.7) at Gnat Man crag with Dan. TR Drilling Miss Daisy. Goes poorly. I led this last year. Sigh.

3/11
Climb Triassic sands with Josh. I lead p1&3 since I led p2 four years ago. Fun climb, but I struggle to follow p2. How did I ever lead this? Sigh again.

We check out Prince of Darkness. Early dinner and prep for solar slab.

3/12
5:30am departure for solar slab. One party in the parking lot on route 159. Five minutes ahead. We climb the gully to pass them. Josh leads a long simul pitch up the gully, then we swing leads up solar slab reaching the top in six pitches. Cold and windy all day. Summit before noon. The eight rappels take three hours.

3/13
We scout Moderate Mecca.

Off to Romper Room. Climb with Dan. He leads Girls and Bouys (5.5); I lead Magic Mirror (5.5, awkward); Dan leads Doobie Dance (5.6, soft); and I lead Guise and Gals (5.4). Run into Floris's friend, Aubrey. Small world. Climb Black Magic, an awesome four pitch 5.8. Got down right at headlamp time. 8:30pm back at car. Long day.

3/14
Scout approaches for sport climbing at second pullout. Then drive to Pine Creek and climb Cookie Monster. Heard what sounded like massive rockfall around 4pm. Consensus is that this was blasting at the gypsum mine or firing at a nearby military range.

3/15
On the road at 5:30am for Crimson Chrysalis. Hike like mad to beat the party of three who are in line at the gate ahead of us. Summit 11:30 to 12:30. Learn we can just barely link p5&6 on rappel with 2x60m ropes. Good call Dan.

3/16
Take a quick tour of the visitor's center then scout first pullout. Move to our group site. Rubio's for lunch. $499.36 grocery shopping. Really good Mexican food at Viva Mercados. Pickup Michael, Erica, Elle, and Chris. Setup student tents. Back to airport after midnight for Ariel and Mike.

3/17
Get students set up at Cut Your Teeth crag. Josh and I take Mike^2 up to the climbs. I lead Interproximal Sniper (5.7) and TR Impacted Molar (5.6) in approach shoes. Then depart to get Kristina and Yamin. Get back to pouring rain. Worst rain I've ever seen here. We retreat to our large pavilion for skills and dinner. Then off to the airport to get Zach and Kristina's luggage. And the car from Fox rent a car. Which is as horrid as Fox news. I'll never rent from them again. An 80 minute wait to get an older, dirty car in mediocre condition.

3/18
Can't climb the soft wet rock, so we spend the day at Red Springs doing skills. Tour the area as a huge snowstorm arrive in the evening.

Five minute lecture: expedition behavior.

3/19
Moderate Mecca. I lead Abbey Road, a sweet 5.4, and set it up for mock leads and first leads. Mike^2, Zach, Elle, Kristina all get to work on their trad skills. Follow Yamin's long lead of Penny Lane 5.3 to the right. Climb Fleet Street, a fun 5.8 face climb to the left. Attempt to lead a very hard mud pile below Valentine's Day with Dan. A bit warmer and sunnier, but we still had a big blizzard in the middle of the day.

FML: out of voice communication.

3/20
Johnny Vegas with Kristina and Zach. Also the first pitch of solar slab. Rapped solar slab gully for the first time. Not a bad way down. Much nicer day. Sunny.

FML: models of cams

3/21
Physical Graffiti with Yamin and Zach. Also Big Bad Wolf.

FML: autoblock tuning

3/22
Crimson Chrysalis with Mike and Chris. 13 hours car to car. First car in line at the gate and first climbers on the climb WITHOUT racing. My fourth time up Crimson.

Saw a coyote in the morning!

3/23
Sport climbing with Kristina, Elle and Chris. Magic Bus and Black Corridor. Lead Electric Koolaid (5.9+) on the left, then Neon Sunset (5.8) which Kristina and Elle both lead. Then a TR on Blond Dwarf (5.9) between the two. Finished the day with Chris's lead of Heavy Hitter (5.10d) at Black Corridor.

3/24
Half day of climbing. Whole class at second pullout. Mostly Black Corridor. I lead The CEL and Bonaire, both 5.9. TR Bon EZ 5.9+. Lead Vagabonds, a very soft 10a. TR Need to Rest a burly 5.10b/c after Allison leads it. Attempt to TR Sandstone Enema a ridiculously crimpy 5.11b that Josh leads. Belay Josh on Sweet Pain which he nearly onsights while the whole class watches.

Dinner at Viva Mercados.

3/25
Josh does all the work getting students to the airport. Yamin and I get a site in the main campground. Then we head to Treasure Island where Chris and Mike have a room for the night. I don't care about Vegas, I just want to shower and charge batteries.

We walk the strip for a bit. All I can say is... Vegas... sigh. Then we see the Cirque show Mystere. All I can say is... Vegas!!!

We picked a great day to be in Vegas. Powerful winds whipped through the Red Rock area disrupting climbers and flattening tents.

3/26
Back to climbing! Yamin and I head to Panty Wall. My first time ever climbing at First Pullout. We warm up on Brief Encounter and Sacred Undergarment Squeeze Job, the two 5.8s in the middle of the wall. Then I attempt to lead Totally Clips 5.11a, but am too cowardly to clip the second bolt. Yamin leads the route bolt to bolt, and I climb it on TR. With the toprope, I nearly get it clean but for grabbing the wrong hold above the fourth bolt. After that we head to Panty Mime, a 5.10d slab. We both lead it, and I nearly get the onsight except it takes a few attempts to decipher the crux.

3/27
5am wake for Dream Of Wild Turkeys. I've wanted to do this climb for a long time. We hike in with the parties getting on Epinephrine and are easily first in line for DOWT. Yamin leads the first pitch and I get the rest. The climbing is super sustained. The "5.10a" slab crux is as hard as the 5.10d slab I led yesterday. Having 400' of rope hanging off my harness doesn't help. It is the only part I don't get clean. If I were to climb the route again I'd break this pitch in two by backing up the old bolts mid pitch and belaying there. Make the crux easier and make the long stretches of 5.8 less runout.

One of the guys climbing behind us did this climb 23 years ago. He said that back in the day people would bring a stick clip for the crux.

By the final pitch, my feet ache and the 5.9 moves feel at my limit. We climb to the top of pitch 7 and rappel the route. I've heard conflicting stories about the quality of the pitches above this point.

Overall, a stellar route. Harder than Sour Mash, more varied than Prince of Darkness.

3/28
Icebox Canyon (my first time climbing there). Yamin leads Shady Ladies 5.7; Van Allen Belt 5.7, and Cold September Corner 5.8. All single pitch climbs. Finish early for a big day tomorrow.

3/29
Awake at 5:30am for Ginger Cracks (5.9). We are at the gate when it opens. Cars in Pine Creek for Crimson and Cloud Tower. Score! Three other parties showed up to do Ginger Cracks behind us. Swung leads. Epic hard 5.8 move on p2. Last two pitches and descent suck. Definitely do the last pitch of Unimpeachable Groping instead of Ginger Cracks. Then maybe rappel Unimpeachable Groping. Probably lots better than the loose bowl above Power Play.

3/30
Lazy day on Geronimo (5.6). We are behind two guided groups of three and a group of three and two are behind us. Once we get climbing everything moves pretty fast. Fun climbing on very fragile juggy rock. Horrid rappels. Our rope gets stuck on the four short rappel option. Two other groups have stuck ropes rapping the route.

3/31
High winds forecast. Gusts to 74mph. I break down my tent and we head for the sheltered walls of Sweet Pain (which will not be used by the Rendezvous). Lead A Cute Pain (5.8); clip the first bolt on Pain In The Neck (5.10a) so we can lead it; attempt Glitter Gulch (5.11a) but don't want to clip the second bolt (big surprise) so I get some guys to put it up. Takes two tries to get that move on TR, so good choice to not lead. Great climb. One 11a move with a bunch of easy 5.10 climbing above. I climb it a second time.

We check out the Rendezvous, but there isn't much for us there. Take Yamin to airport.

Huge winds. I sleep in the car.

4/1
Dark Shadows and Y2K with Veronica and Shauna. At least that is the plan. After a night of no sleep in the car, I'm up early and we are at the gate before it opens. We drive to Pine Creek where we park the car and it rocks to and fro in the wind. We get out, shoulder our packs, and rock to and fro in the wind. We put out packs back in the car and drive back to the campground. I am SO over this wind!

Later in the day we head to Black Corridor for some hopefully sheltered sport climbing. The girls climb Bon EZ and I pass my turn to jump on Vagabonds which has just opened up. After that we get on Nightmare On Crude Street (5.10d) which requires a few attempts to work out the crux between the last bolt and the anchor.

Finally we ignominiously retreat off Burros Don't Gamble (5.10c? 5.11a?) and Burros Might Fly (5.10b). My final act of this 24 day climbing trip is to lower off the first bolt of BMF, leaving a biner we picked up earlier in the day on Nightmare.

Somehow, it seems fitting.

Got a bunch of new multipitch climbs this trip:
Physical Graffiti
Black Magic
Cookie Monster
Big Bad Wolf
Dream Of Wild Turkeys
Ginger Cracks
Geronimo

By my calculations, I've spent 52 nights in a sleeping bag already this calendar year. Also by my calculations, I have now driven over 1000 miles on the scenic loop road.