Red Rocks

Red Rocks is a notoriously windy place.  If you spend any amount of time camping here you will see some tent carnage.  Getting stuck hundreds of feet up a wall when the winds start to howl is not fun.  Much to our surprise, our first week here was refreshingly calm, and we enjoyed many nice, stress free days on the rock.  All that changed a few days ago, and our planned climbing schedule was, pardon the pun, torn to shreds by the wind.

Thankfully we had one more day nice enough to get on a long route.  We decided to head up Dream of Wild Turkeys, 5.10a, which climbed 10 pitches and over 1000 feet up the almost vertical Black Velvet Wall. Here is Kristal leading the long angling crack of the second pitch.

Following up the fifth pitch.

And again coming up to the top of the seventh pitch.

It was an awesome climb, on a mostly overcast, barely warm enough day, which could have been miserably cold and unpleasant had the wind decided to pick up.

We had hoped to get on a couple of more long routes, but instead had to resign ourselves to go bouldering.  Which presents it's own challenges when the gusts start up.  Despite the many instances of having to scramble to keep the crash pads from blowing away, we still managed to get on many fun problems.  Here is Kristal on an unnamed V0.

Me on the cool Peruvian Flake, V2.

Kristal topping out the super fun Sorange, V3.

And me on an unnamed V1.

All considered our stay in Red Rocks has been awesome.  We climbed the two longest routes of our trip so far.  It's tempting to stay longer, but the forecast is not looking so great for the next few days (and it is currently raining).  We aren't patient enough to wait it out.  Tomorrow we leave.