In November 2023 we made a pilgrimage to the land of the outdoor climbing gym – Red Rock Canyon, specifically the Calico Basin. We planned to spend a whole week in Vegas and climb at least every other day with other optional downtime activities planned. I specifically had a hand injury on my dominant hand so I had to find an alternative to climbing for the week, or plan solo activities around the Vegas area. Considering the potential slippery slope of such activities, I decided to get into photography with the help of our resident amateur photographer. I read a single book on beginner’s guide to photography to understand how to change the settings and what aperture, shutter speed, and focal length mean. I borrowed an expensive DSLR camera, tried not to drop it or touch the lens, and successfully got over 1000 shots during the trip, of which 50 or so I was pleased with and edited.
The first day of climbing on Sunday we first stopped at the amusement park wall, a great crag with about a dozen climbs all more or less 5.7. A relatively short crag, but an easy approach made it a good starting point. After that we headed up to the panty wall, where everyone got on more interesting routes that were just a little taller and harder. The capstone of the wall is a 5.10 trad climb up an amazing up and right crack – but since there were so many options for sport climbing no one was interested. Our photographer brought his photography setup as well and jumared up the wall to get some good action shots from above. By this time I was also starting to feel more comfortable with the camera, and I was able to get some good casual non-climbing shots as well.
The next day we decided to go to the Hamlet wall, where there were even more long, beautifully featured sport climbs. Everyone took turns on the slightly harder routes, mostly 5.8 and 5.9, and I practiced my photography with the telephoto lens getting close ups.
Day three of climbing, we went to a great easy approach crag called the classic wall. Nestled between huge walls in a dry creek bed was a fun place to hang out in the shade and get on some interesting climbs. I was able to experiment with some framing and composition of people on the walls, and everyone was able to do about a half dozen climbs each.
Day four consisted of going to the black corridor, a narrow cut in the rock, hidden from the road, with a high number of sport climbs, some wildly overhanging. The highlight of the day here was watching our resident strongman send some cool overhanging 5.10s and 11s. The lighting and narrow constriction in the corridor made taking pictures from the ground difficult, but I did my best to capture all the great climbing happening all around me.
The other activities of the week included day trips to Zion National Park, the Grand Canyon, Valley of Fire, and the Hoover Dam. On Tuesday, while most the group climbed, a small group of us went to Zion National Park and did the Angels Landing hike and after dipped our feet into the river at the start of the narrows hike just to get a couple good photos and check out the location, we even saw some people on Moonlight Buttress as we were riding the bus out there. Zion was amazing this time of year, with the leaves turning color and the temperatures cool, although I still got sweaty in 60 degree temperature as the first 30% of the angel’s landing ascent is in direct afternoon sunlight. On Thursday a couple of us went to the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon West on Thursday, first stopping at the Hoover Dam to take the tour before continuing the long drive to the Grand Canyon. The Hoover Dam tour was great, but it would have been a cooler experience to pay for the extended hard hat tour - next time. There was a funny propaganda film from the mid-2000s video that you start the tour with, and we really enjoyed this extremely stereotypically American "short film". At the Grand Canyon West we paid the exorbitant entry fee to get bussed to the rim. There were two stops, and we should have stayed on the bus to go directly to the second stop, Guano Point to start, since the first stop at Eagle Point was a little pointless without paying an additional fee to go on the skybridge. Guano Point was fantastic regardless of the name, and we walked around for about an hour and got pictures on all sides of the point.
We had one night of going out, first stopping for dinner at an Italian Japanese fusion restaurant that was hit or miss with the whole group, thankfully for me it was definitely a hit. Next we took a stroll around the Bellagio and Paris, lost a few dollars and headed back home. The rest of the time consisted of hitting up the same climbing spots we were at previously to nail all the climbs everyone wanted to do. It turned out to be a very successful trip.