January 12-15, 2012

This year's Red Rocks trip during the post-CES weekend was a no-brainer. Warm temperatures, a big crew, and glorious sandstone awaited us in fabulous Las Vegas.

A larger Synapse crew combined with college friends and folks from previous trips made for a group big enough to rent a house for. We grabbed a VRBO about 20 minutes from the canyon and spent 4 days cranking in the sun, stuffing ourselves with food, and generally having a great time.

Day 1 involved an insanely early start from Seattle, but rewarded us with a pretty full day of climbing at the Second Pullout. After some warmups on the Magic Bus, we headed over to the Tsunami Wall for a bit of the business. I got up Abandon Ship (12a) and Aftershock (12b) with some work and had a blast.

Day 2 started at the First Pullout where a group hit the Panty Wall and myself and others headed over to the Dog Wall for slightly harder stuff. After warming up on the 10a and 10b, I hit K-9 (12b) and then a fun 11b. From there, we busted up to the Second Pullout and a group of us hit the Sweet Pain Wall. It was unfortunately in the shade, but we got on a classic 11a and 11b there to finish off the day. Despite pretty pumped forearms, I was able to manage an onsight of the 11b to finish the day.

Day 3 brought the whole crew to The Gallery, where we warmed up on the array from 5.9 trough 5.10c and then I moved on to A Day in the Life (11c) and then Minstrel in the Gallery (12b). They were both awesome, overhanging crimp-fests. Way too much fun. After that, a few of us headed up to the Stratocaster wall where we finished the day in the low sun on an 11a and 11b. I finished the day with the 11b onsight again and was pretty stoked. We capped off the day with a bit of a pool party and a rousing game of Round-Rossi (passing jug wine and seeing who can finish it). Solid.

Everyone was pretty spent on Day 4 and we were all flying out in the evening, so we hit the easy-access Calico Basin. I started the day with a little 5.4 trad lead to put up a rope on a 5.8+ for the rest of the crew. From there, it was on to one of my favorites--Caustic (11b). I've climbed this aesthetic arete every one of the last few years and had a nice time redpointing it. It took some time to motivate, but I finally headed over to the spicy stuff and got on New Wave Hookers (12c) and then Wonderstuff (12d). Both went quite well--I was able to get a couple of bolts at a time on my first tries and was super-happy with how strong I felt on hard twelves. We moved back into the sun in the Moderate Mecca to finish the day and I put up a rope on Side Effects (10d), a great free-standing pillar climb, then headed up the hill and led Valentines Day (5.8+), an awesome trad dihedral line.

After 4 days of hard climbing, we were all completely beat and ready for a massive Fatburger meal and a flight home.