December Red Rocks with Derek

On top of Black Orpheus (Solar Slab Buttress)

Derek and I spent three days climbing in Red Rocks (Dec 6-8, 2024). We were extremely lucky to have wonderful weather all three days. We were also lucky that Derek's hand, although hurting from a surgery just a few weeks before, did not completely shut down our adventure.

December 6

We hit the park right when it was opening, parked in the Pine Creek Canyon lot, and hiked over to Cloud Tower to climb Crimson Chrysalis. This route has been on my tick list for over 20 years, so it was a great way to warm up and start out the trip.

Crimson Chrysalis (5.8+) - This route is easy to cruise, largely because it has a lot of bolts. Derek led pitches 1, 4, 5, 8, 9; I led 2, 3, 6, and 7 (we were linking pitches). Pitches 4, 5, 8, and 9 were the real money pitches. After rapping the route we made our way south around the buttress to 

Power Failure (5.10) - We climbed the first two pitches of this route, Derek the first pitch and I the second. The second pitch has an exciting traverse from the face climbing section over to the right into a corner. We opted not to do the third pitch, because Derek's hand was starting to hurt a lot from his surgery and because daylight was running out. Unfortunately this turned into a bit of a problem for rappeling the route, as the single-rope rappel line lies 20-30 feet to the left of the climb along a water groove. We were able to get down reasonably easily through Derek's clear-headed thinking: he set up a single-line rappel for me (which was long enough to get me all the way to the ground), and he himself did a series of three rappels (one off a single bolt which he carefully bounce-tested before trusting). As he mentioned that evening, it would have been the perfect day for the Beal Escaper.

Derek on top of Crimson Chrysalis (Cloud Tower)

December 7

We got to the park a bit later, taking the morning more casually. A longer hike took us to the base of Brownstone Wall (Armatron). There was already a line of people waiting to climb Armatron when we got there. We opted to climb the first two pitches of Mayday Malefactor and to transition from there into Sweet Thin.

Mayday Malefactor (5.10) - Derek led the first pitch and I led the second. I'm not entirely sure which exact route I followed, although my aim had been to climb the standard 5.9 variation. This was fun climbing on heavily-featured black varnish. At the top of the pitch we moved onto 

Sweet Thin (5.9) - We started on pitch 3, the namesake pitch, which I led. This flake gets extremely thin (although still seems rather strong) at the top, thin enough that I worried I might even cut my hands on it. The moves were a combination of hand and foot jams in the crack between the flake and the main wall as well as standing on the edge of the flake and slowly working my hands up it as on a railing. I also led the offwidth (pitch 4) which followed. I have to say that this pitch intimidated me. I think I get a feeling of claustrophobia when I try to climb chimneys. I was able to get two small pieces in down low, one out on the face and one near the opening of the crack on the right side. This gave me enough confidence to keep moving up in the offwidth until I was high enough to pull myself back out onto the face. Near the top it turns into a far more straightforward fist/hand jam. Derek led the final pitch which placed us at the same summit as Armatron. From here we traversed 3rd/4th class to the north and followed the standard walk-off descent back around to the base (where we had left some gear) and then back along the creek bed to our car.

On top of Sweet Thin (Brownstone Wall)

December 8

We entered the park right at 6:10 AM and parked at Oak Creek Canyon. We were debating between Levitation 29 and Black Orpheus, but we decided to go for Black Orpheus in the hopes that we would have a more successful day (Derek in particular was also worried about his hand). Walking up the canyon, we struggled a bit to find the right trail up to the north. This turned into an episode of bush-wacking followed by some scrambling up easy 4th class.

Black Orpheus (5.9+) - I linked the first two pitches, not realizing I would ideally need to build a gear anchor before reaching the chains at the top of P2. Luckily there was just enough rope for me to reach the bolts as Derek moved a few feet closer to the wall. I found the first bit of this climb right off the ground rather intimidating. The pro was not as straightforward as I would have liked, and at least once I got suckered into moving towards the face on the right when I probably should have stayed farther left near the arete. P2 had an exciting lie-back/jamming section and finished up much easier terrain. From here there was a long section of very easy climbing to take us much higher up and then over farther left. None of that is very memorable. I led P8, and it was one of my favorite pitches on the climb. Solid at the grade, with a long, sustained finger crack and stemming feet. The crack is so splitter that I found myself just walking the same pieces (0.5 and 0.75 cams?) up as I progressed. Derek led the next pitch P9, and I then led the crux pitch P10 which followed. Rather than do a lie-back as I have seen described elsewhere, I came straight at the hard move, pulling on a few crimps and smearing to get me through the section. Above the crux was a choice between a 5.7 hand crack and a 5.8+ corner. After briefly spending some time in the hand crack, I decided instead to tackle the corner, hoping that it would hurt Derek's hand less, even though the climbing would be harder. Derek led P10 which we both agree may be the finest "5.6" we've ever done. Sustained finger lie-back on medium grade slabs for feet. I led the following runout pitch and can't say I was happy to get as far above the bolts as I did. The climbing is easy, but I was constantly worrying about the possibility of holds breaking off. This slowed me down, and along with taking much longer to build the final anchor than I should have, Derek was actually worried there was something wrong with me by the time he reached the top.

From the top we scrambled north and traversed left a bit deeper into the canyon, following a series of cairns that led into a wide groove down to a set of rap rings precariously close the edge. Three raps brought us to the Upper Painted Bowl. From here we followed our instincts, a hodgepodge of cairns, and an online GPS track to get us to the bottom. This involved quite a few sections of 3rd and exposed 4th class scrambling. The final 30 feet literally felt like sliding down oily glass. The descent was far more involved and nerve wracking than I had anticipated, and I most certainly would not want to have been doing it in the dark. 

Derek nearing the top of Black Orpheus