UKC

Hello I'm off to the states on honeymoon (yay!) in a few weeks i'll be spending some time at Red Rocks and I'm after some very specific recommendations for routes. I've got the best climbs red rocks guide but its a bit hard to work out (makes me appreciate modern UK guidebooks).

I'm looking for single pitch routes in the E2ish range (does that equate to around 5.10?) preferable avoiding offwidths or splitter cracks.

I'm also looking for multi (or single) pitch routes to do with my wife up to around VS max although Dif-Severe would probably be better) any harder and she will cry/get very cross/inflect physical violence on me. Any recommendations along these lines welcome - or other climbs in the area you've done and thought were good.

I'm mainly going for trad, but I see there is a lot of sport - is this any good? is it worth taking a clip stick?

Also is there anything else i should know? do the Yanks have any weird crag etiquette?

Thanks

Tom 

Atman in the Ying and Yang area near the Kraft Boulders is a good single pitch splitter crack at 5.10a (not being good at cracks I attempted to lay back the entire thing which didn’t work so well after my partners smooth ascent beforehand).

Also The Fox is a long single pitch crack at 5.10+

Theres tonnes of single/ multi pitch there at lower grades too, so just pick the crags on the sunshine/ shade. Check out the Red Rock section on mountainproject.com as it lists the best routes by grades. 

Willow springs is full of easier single pitch routes.

And always get a slurpee from 7eleven after climbing; it’s both refreshing and soothes the fingertips

Oops, I just read AVOIDING cracks. Well above are 2 routes to not do

And the sport climbing is awesome!!!

Watch out for critters. They are expert at getting into your sac, (they'll chew their way in if you're unlucky) and nick all your food. I don't have any route recommendations in line with your requirements but it's a brilliant place, you can't go wrong.

There’s a squirrel who hangs out at The Panty Wall and steals sandwiches!

There’s also a ringtail who hangs out in the Black Corridor. He’s adorable.

Ha, cheers, I had seen some pictures if the fox and thought it looked like the stuff of nightmares, I find the likes of regent street hard enough!

Chicken Eruptus is excellent face climbing and trad with one or two bolts/pegs - 5.10b, E1 perhaps.

I also enjoyed Nadia’s Nine, 5.9 ~HVS. Follows a corner crack but is mainly face moves iirc.

Haven’t done it and it’s a multi, but a mega classic at about that grade is Eagle Dance. This’d be top of my list for a return visit.

Epinephrine (5.9)

Red rocks classic. No offwidths but famed for its 3 chimney pitches. They ain't too bad tho. Big Day out and absolute class.

Levitation 29 (5.11c)

Levitation 29 is probably a bit harder than e2 but not much as the crux pitch is ladder bolted so you can aid it if needed. Shame really  as it  would probably be about E4 without the bolts and quite pokey.  It would shrink the queue a bit if they were chopped . None of the route is cracks really and an E2 climber would not get into trouble to be honest. Absolute world classic and not to be missed it you have a chance. 

Dream of Wild Turkeys (5.10a)

What a wall. Try walking past it and not wanting to climb it. This is the classic moderate on there and it is a crack for a fair bit but not a splitter. Some excellent face pitches. Other options on there too.

 Edit - just realised you wanted single pitch stuff or VS level multipitch. Probs avoid levitation then haha. But sod that. The sport climbing is sorta ok but a bit like going to ceuse and bouldering at the bottom. Get on some of the classic big stuff if you can. 

Isn’t the whole thing bolted multipitch sport? I’m heading there in a couple of weeks and hope to get on this, but if it’s trad, maybe not!! 5.11 sport is one thing...

Also, following this post to steal suggestions

It does need gear but not loads. The crux pitch is a joke tho and they should strip most of it. It's bolted so you can haul anyone up it for some reason. Which really does cause issues with slow teams and big queues. You can sometimes clip 3 bolts from one hold. Crazy. 

Although they sound great I'm limited to single pitch above VS as due to multiple past sandbags although my lovely wife will happily belay me on anything if I can ab and clean it she wont second unless "it looks nice"

3 bolts from one hold!? I love bolts but even that is too much!

Definitely an alpine start to avoid the queues then. 

On that note I recommend early starts for any of the classic multipitches or they can become a bit of a zoo.

Ok well the sport is ok like I say. But the bouldering is probably better. I didn't have a pad but plenty of folk about with them. To be honest i'd probably at least do a pitch or 2 of dream of wild turkeys. You can ab off all over the place. 

Cheers I hadn't considered just abbing off after a pitch, the joy's of bolted belay stations!

I am there for a week from the 12 th October with Mrs H.....if you want a partner let me know.

Red rocks is about as convenient as it possibly can be whilst still being considered a trad venue. It's welcome too as some of the routes are huge and adventourous. Take a 80m rope and you can probably string a few pitches together and just ab back down on your own. To be honest there are that many teams about you could probably ab the whole 80m and get someone to untie your rope when you are on the ground. Lots of options for sure. 

I’m going to be there from the 15th october until the 5th November, send me a PM and we can climb.

I plan to climb as many days as possible mixing ‘chill’ days with more challenging days; sport and trad

Yes, the crux pitch is not that long - maybe 20m and defo had a bolt every metre. It looks like a slightly overhanging groove/crack but climbs quite different and is thin and delicate. It'd be tough without those bolts but a way better pitch. 

On the alpine starts, well you can't be there early enough to be honest. Levitation 29 has a huge walk in and even if you left the parking at 4am you'd not be going up first. (you can bivvy up there tho). We got to the bottom of epinephrine before 6am and were 3rd in the queue. You don't wanna be up the top of that in the pitch black. The descent is long and not to be taken lightly. As long as you get off the ridge (in the correct place) with a bit of light the rest is ok in the dark. It's quite fast to climb despite its length but don't underestimate how long you may spend behind slow teams. 

I think the sport is distinctly average there.  Fun for a day, but a heck of a long way to go when there is vastly superior bolted climbing within 2 hours of the UK.

The trad, especially multi pitch, is world class though.

Cheers for the advice on Levitation; may consider a bivvy.

We were super lucky on Epinephrine; at the base around 5/ 5:30, were the first on and didn’t have anybody behind us until gone pitch 3. The walk off is long and sketchy if you gotta do it in the dark. The local SAR have installed an emergency box at the top because so many people kept getting caught out by the dark!

Yep. It's short and super busy. Convenient when those walls have taken their toll on you but even the bouldering is better for those days. Lots of easy and fun bouldering about. Everyone is really friendly too so you can just bimble about with just your shoes and chalk and have a good day out. 

I'm there from the 6th to the 12th, so will alas miss you.

So there any good single pitch trad or am I better off doing some easy classic bigger routes with my wife?

Apparently they have also painted some neon paint on the ridge so show you where to drop off it. I didn't see it but there are 3 gigantic cairns there so does seem a bit strange. Grim walk down tho. 

Bigger routes IMHO. Some aren't massive. There is tons of variation and most of the time you can just bail on demand. 

In Zion that week, enjoy.

Ha, I'm in zion the week after I was going to start a thread asking for tips later.

There is good single pitch trad but the multipitch is so, so good. The anchors are all bolted so on many routes rapelling from anchor to anchor is relatively straight forward. Birdland is a classic 5.7/8 where you can do that.

I actually thought the sport was superb, but obviously the main attraction is to do the undisputably world class long routes in the canyons.

HVS ~ 5.8ish?  Invest in the latest Handren guidebook - it's pretty good.  With so many options, you can really tailor your climbing based on the desires & appetites on a given day:  long or short route, long or short approach, crowded or not, route finding challenges or a highway…  By the way, not all belays are bolted.  Here are some specific recommends for multi-pitch lines:

Solar Slab – 5.6, 10 pitches with about a 3-4 pitch approach (5.4 to 5.9 options).  Short approach.  Very popular.  The easy, long classic of RR.

Jubilant Song on Windy Peak – 5.8, 10ish pitches.  A sedan will get you in there if you take your time.  Longer drive but mid-sized approach.  Not crowded.

Lotta Balls or Black Magic – both 5.8, 5ish pitches. 

Black Dagger – 5.7, 8ish pitches. Longish approach but that will thin down the crowds.

Dark Shadows – 5.8, first 4 pitches are stellar.  Very popular.

Tunnel Vision or Group Therapy or Healy’s Haunted House – all 3 are 5.7s and about 6 pitches.  First one sucks up most of the crowds.

Crimson Chrysalis – 5.8+, 9ish pitches.  Very popular & crowded.  Lots of hanging belays (maybe do that one as honeymoon end-cap).  But there’s a plan B next door (not as popular) called Ginger Cracks (5.9).

Refried Brains (5.9) on left side of Black Velvet Wall.  Much less popular than its more famous neighbors to the right (Dream of Wild Turkeys, Prince..., Sour Mash etc.)

Cat In the Hat and Olive Oil – 5.7s that are very very popular but I can’t remember why that is.

Frigid Air Buttress is a beautiful 5.9 in a proud position but it used to have a pretty adventurous descent – careful here, don’t want to sour the honeymoon.  At this point, Epinephrine (5.9) would be a better option.

Lastly, always call & get the late exit pass even if you think you’ll be done early.  It’ll cost you 3 minutes of your time but it’s the easiest way to save a $150 (?).

Still cannot decide which ropes to take. Most Americans climb on single 60 metre even for trad 

have you decided? 

I've always climbed on double 60s there as pitches are long and sometime can wander and cause drag and raps are often more than 30m (many US climbers carry a second rope).

Might knock up a list later as I think some of the advice above is really about better climbers cruising on easier climbs for them. I lead at my UK lead grade and sometimes a tad harder. Running pitches to 80m is plain dumb unless the climbers have loads in hand at that grade... a slip could easily lead to 10m+ falls. None of the long trad is easier than HS and you can add two grades for slab pitches the slab pitches (eg I'd say at Red Rocks  5.6 PG slab ~VS ~ 5.8 crack). 

Early October is nearly always too warm for Red Rocks (or if its not it will likely be raining... where you should drive the 4 hours to JT). I've climbed most there from late Nov and over xmas....even then Solar Slab can be hot!

As ever Mountain Project search is great. 

https://www.mountainproject.com/route-finder?selectedIds=105731932&type...

Thanks. Well at least I am not on the Thomas Cook flight from Manchester.!

Thanks rpc and Offwidth, very useful. 

I'm taking double 60s as it gives greater flexibility (although I will be cursing them on single pitch stuff) if I could I'd take a single as well but we don't have the luggage.

We were booked on the thomas cook flight from Manchester! There was some hasty re organisation on Monday morning.

Just saw supertopo have a few free resources and interestingly they seem to suggest that a rack should consist of no less then 5 sets of cams! I bloody hope not

http://www.supertopo.com/climbingareas/redrocks.html

Are you booked on the Saturday 5 th flight

From Heathrow? Yep

Manchester, enjoy

We took double 50m ropes. When we got there found that most of the abseils are equipped with 60m ropes in mind, which made for some interesting descents!

That is nonsense on the very wide range of stuff we climbed, mainly below 5.9.  A few rare pitches benefit from 3 sets of hand/ fist width cams if you are leading at your limit. We climbed nearly everything on our 10+ multi-week trips with one full set with a few spares around hand/fist. Its impressive but weird to see climbers leading with what amounts to an aid rack and with the second carrying a rope in their backpack.

That's what I was planning on taking, I'm not sure I'd get off the ground with that much hardwhere! 

Thanks for that!!!