Red Rock 2

May 2025, Reed and I took a weekend trip to Red Rock to get some more climbing done. This was the first dedicated climbing trip that we have taken. We also got to have our first epic! Yay! Hopefully we don't have anymore. 

As with our first trip, we used the 2nd edition Handren Red Rocks guide book and mountain project, both served us mostly well (except for the tunnel vision descent beta... I'll get to that later). I also took climbing footage with my not a gopro, linked here, timestamps for each pitch in the description. Comparing the footage from this trip to our last Red Rock trip, or even our last Moore's trip, it does seem like we are getting slightly faster at placing gear. 

Day 1: Tunnel Vision

For our first day, we tackled Tunnel Vision, a 6 pitch 5.7. The day started off great when we already started to get a little lost on the approach to the climb. It was easy to head in the right direction because Angel Food Wall is very prominent, but we had trouble finding the specific trail that led to Tunnel Vision. 

The first pitch wasn't that bad except the start with the mini traverse. I'm pretty sure I placed a cam where I would have had a hand hold, so I just did a bit of french free-ing and pulled on it to start lol. The traverse just takes some figuring out on the feet but otherwise isn't that bad. Afterwards, it is chill climbing going up a fairly big chimney/dihedral. Here is Reed coming up pitch 1. 

Pitch 2 also wasn't anything particularly memorable, just a continuation of the type of climbing from pitch 1. It leads to some nicely placed bolts, and an intimidating view of pitch 3. Here is Reed starting to go up Pitch 2.

And now we're here to one of the two main pitches of this climb: pitch 3, the infamous chimney pitch. When I first got up there, I had no idea how I was ever going to get up this pitch, as I had the wonderful honor of leading this one. Here's us before fully realizing what we got ourselves into (well, Reed seemed to have some idea). 

The beginning chimney part was not too bad, but I went out to the right face to place my first piece of gear as I couldn't find anywhere on the left face. I definitely had to hang my sling bag as well, the chimney got quite narrow at some points. After I figured out the best direction to face, the chimeny part of the climb was not that bad (essentially zero risk of falling). However, I didn't really find any gear in the chimney, so I would have to pop out to the face to place gear, very run out, which was pretty daunting. I had some trouble initially working between the face and chimney climbs, and there was a little lay back section. I also had a little slip transitioning back into the chimney combined with the rope getting stuck (rope tangled on brake side, Reed couldn't feed slack). That was probably the most I've ever been spooked on a climb. 

After getting to the top of the main chimney, the rest of pitch 3 was pretty smooth. Pitch 3 was definitely a unique experience, not one I would want to redo soon, but I'm very glad I did it. 

There was this raven that was flying around, and I got a cool picture of it right as it was about to take off again. 

I unfortunately forgot to record or take any pictures of pitch 4, but pitch 4 was a very easy nice climbing up to the entrance of the famed tunnel pitch. 

Pitch 5 was really cool. Above is looking into the start of the pitch, with the rope being the party ahead of us (well, actually they started behind us and we let them pass). We brought our headlamps but it was bright enough to see without it. It did help to see gear placements behind/on the roof(?). It also helped later on in the day (when we got lost and caught in the dark). The tunnel part was pretty sparse, but there were a couple good pieces and very little fall risk. The traverse out of the tunnel to the crack leading up to the top of the pitch was amazing though, and totally made up for the thrashing we got in pitch 3. 

The rope drag got a little bad near the top, but nowhere near where it would be later, on our self made pitch 7. But we were still having fun, look at how happy Reed looks coming out of pitch 5. Little does he know what we still have in store for the day. 

Pitch 6 was easy, nothing super stand outish. The guidebook spits you out a little bit lower than where mountain project beta puts you at. Here's Reed starting the pitch and me at the final traverse section. 

We were relying on mountain project for the descent beta, so we made a 7th pitch to climb up towards the mountain project top. It was mostly scrambling up to the top. What we realized later is that we didn't have to do that, and there was a path to the descent gulley from the guidebook top. Oh well, lesson learned. 

The view from the top of Angel Food wall was pretty stunning, being able to view the entire scenic drive. 

The problem we ran into at the top was that we actually had absolutely no idea how to get to the descent gulley. We waffled about for an hour trying to find the right way, eventually finding a way with a little bit of a sketchy downclimb near the tree pictured below. Then you follow the steep ish ravine, following cairns to the actually descent gulley. 

Coming around towards the actually descent gulley.

Once we got into the descent gulley proper, the sun was already starting to set. We got a pretty cool view of the strip lit up at night though!

Unfortunately due to limited battery I stopped taking pictures after it started getting dark. The worst part was that after it got dark, we got a little lost and hit a point of no return where we didn't feel safe going back up the way we went. The descent gulley down from has a lot of semi sketchy scrambling, and even though my gut said maybe it wasn't the right way, we went on anyways. We were luckily able to see the right path from the ledge we were stuck on, and had a tree that we rappelled off of back to the right path. 

We also left our hiking shoes/boots at the base of the climb because we didn't want to lug a bunch of stuff up the chimney pitch, but we definitely should have brought them with us (I definitely didn't think ahead about the descent gully spitting us out not at the base of the climb). Having to make the whole hike back in our climbing shoes really sucked.

It took us a total of 3 hours and 20 minutes from once we started to descend (so not counting the time we spent waffling at the top) to when we got back to the car. There was this cute fuzzy spider there to say hi before we left. Unfortunately I didn't see it when I returned the next morning to pick up our packs (Reed slept in lol). Overall, I'm happy that I had an experience like this. Even though it wasn't ideal, I'm happy with how we tackled it and gave me confidence in my ability to stay alive. However, I hope I don't have a similar experience ever again.

Day 2: Birdland

For the second (and last day), we tackled Birdland, a 5 pitch 5.7+ (well, there are 6 pitches, but it seems most people just do the first 5)

The approach is very easy and you get a great view of the wall as you hike the trail. You also have a good view at the base of the climb as well. It was a nice windy day, and the wind was quite consistent (and a little mentally opppressive) later up on the wall. 

Like with everywhere in Red Rock, the view is stunning. There was this nice bird greeting us at the base of the climb as well. 

Here's Reed going up the first pitch, and Reed following up on the second pitch. Not much to say about these two pitches, they were just nice easy climbing on some beautiful rock. 

Here's Reed going up the third pitch. Pitches 3, 4, and 5 are where I think this route really shines. The run up the little ramp thing and the subsequent traverse lead to some cool feeling moves, but still nothing particularly difficult. Below is me heading up the 4th pitch. While there wasn't one specific cool feature about pitch 4, it is more exposed than the previous ones. It's also a bit longer, and it was when the wind really picked up. With the added length and right wandering line, I ended up having to down climb to back clean a piece of gear to alleviate the worsening rope drag. The wind actually added a pretty big mental load, making an easy climb feel much more adventurous than it would have been otherwise. 

Above is me following on pitch 5, on the famous "crack" section (no crack climbing required). Pitch 5 was essentially a continuation of pitch 4, with exposure and wind, but with more interesting movement. Below is two pictures of us on the rappel down, one selfie and one taken by a party that was coming up behind us. The rope did get stuck when pulling it once, but luckily we were able to just tug on it really hard to free it. Overall, birdland was a fantastic climb. It also ended our weekend of climbing. Like with our last Red Rock trip, we learned a lot and can't wait to go back.