Nov 21, 2023, Day 2 at Red Rocks which awaited an outstanding and spicy adventure.

Sandy:

Rick block led MysterZ in three pitches so I decided to lead all of Frogland, belaying a 63-year-old strong but novice climber (Mark) and my wall bunny Rick on two separate ropes. Getting to the parking lot of Black Velvet Canyon certainly requires a 4×4 because of the super tricky off-road section for about 3 miles. We started hiking from the parking lot of Black Velvet Canyon at 6:42am. The hike to the base of Frogland took us 70 minutes for 1.01 miles with 672 feet of elevation gain. It was an exceptionally warm day and therefore there were many climbers in the Black Velvet Canyon. We were the first ones on the base of Frogland but two other parties arrived shortly after us. Looking at our two ropes they decided to take the alternate start. The party of two disappeared after the top of pitch 1 but the Russian climbers (party of three) stayed with us until the top of pitch 3. We started climbing at 8am but had to wait about 45 minutes on the top of pitch 1 to let these two parties pass.

Despite being such a popular route, it requires gear anchors on every pitch. Since Mark needs a tight belay and we had to space out Mark and Rick, therefore until the last pitch we had a totally sequential climb i.e. I climbed first, then Mark, and then Rick. Avoiding the heinous rope pulling experience through two ATCs on After Seven at Yosemite (where we climbed multi-pitch with Mark for the first time), I used two Gri-Gri to belay them, and Rick used an ATC for lead belay. The rest of the experience is described in the image captions for each pitch.

Pitch 1 (left picture): Certainly, felt heady, hard to protect at places, the squeeze chimney (almost at the top of the left picture) can be avoided but squeezing through it feels secure for the leader. I remember having a bit of rope drag towards the top, but I think that can be attributed to the length of the pitch. I had extended pretty much all my pieces. The squeeze chimney section wasted some of my time. I reached the top of pitch 1 just moments after the leader of the party of two. But by the time Mark made it up at least three other climbers (follower of party of two and two climbers of the Russian party) were at the top of pitch 1. This pushed us behind two parties and resulted in a long waiting time at the top of pitch 1.

Pitch 2 (right picture): With all the delay we might have started pitch 2 at 9:30ish. Significantly easier pitch, run out but easy climbing.

Pitch 2: Top – I protected the right crack and used a double length runner before the flake, then climbed the face of the flake. Bottom – Mark right below the flake on the orange rope and the green rope goes to Rick. Pitch 2 ends at the tree.

Pitch 3 has an easy traverse and some cool moves over a couple bulges. There is very little space on top of pitch 3 and two of the Russian climbers were already there. So, I had to make an anchor on a horizontal crack to the right but that allowed for a comfortable seated belay.

Mark chilling at the top of pitch 2.

Mark starting on pitch 3.

Last section of pitch 3.

Pitch 4 Unprotected face section. I wasted a lot of time on pitch 4 by climbing the blue dotted line (guidebook line) at first and trying to traverse left from there which was steeper and a lot scarier. I had placed two pieces while going up to the horizontal crack so I did not remove them, instead downclimbed all the way to the ramp (white section), climbed the crack (white section) without placing a pro to avoid a Z (solid blue line). Although most pictures on mountain project suggests that most people climbed the dotted blue line and then traversed left but I think the solid blue line is easier. I had already used my #.2 so I could not protect the bouldery thin crack (last part of the solid blue line) section. This was quite scary for me because as you can see from the left image below, a fall could have been nasty at that place as per my pro.

Pitch 4 (left) I am figuring out bouldery moves as there is only one left foot jam in the thin crack and two crimps for hands and a high right foot on to a smear. My last pro is in the far right crack. (Right) Mark following pitch 4. Pitch 4 anchor was very tricky. There is no crack at the base of pitch 5 so the climber needs to go a little bit up on the left and needs #.75s and #1s to build an anchor. I did not have the ideal pieces to make an anchor so I got creative and built an equalized anchor with #1, .#75 and #.5 and a quad. You then have to down climb to the ledge for a comfortable belay.

Mark at the base of pitch 5. Such colorful surroundings are a paradise for a RAW image developer. I think this is the best picture of the whole trip.

Mark on the start of pitch 5. There is a bolt on the right side to protect the airy traverse to the left crack. After that there is a twin crack system that protects well and you can have two solid pieces in the crack below the chockstone before pulling on to the top of chockstone. This was my first lead which ended on top of a chockstone. My most memorable chockstone experience is on pitch 5 (5.9) on Stanley-Burgner on Prusik Peak (The Enchantments).

Pitch 6 : Traverse right from the chockstone. By the time Rick got up to the base of pitch 6 it was 4:30pm and we had only 30 minutes of day light left. I was told that pitch 6 is a unprotected 5.4 face climbing but honestly at least one mountain project picture agrees with me (I think).

Pitch 6: As I got to this section, I had a long run out and more run out above me, if I had followed the topo. Light was running out and I had two foot slips getting to the point where Rick’s climbing shoes are. After that there is no pro until a small roof. I was in a horrible situation where I have a long run out, horrible rope drag (rope was pinched in the crack right at the start after the chockstone), no pro further up, light is running out, I have no headlamp and I am getting radio calls to finish as fast as I can. In my seven years of climbing, I had never encountered the following two thoughts:

1. How many bones will I break if I take a fall?
2. How will I finish my PhD on time if I break bones?

At this point, I took a deep breath and said I am not falling today. I looked up and said, fuck the roof, I checked some of the patinas on the left side wall and traversed left pulling an overhanging move with smears for feet. I quickly placed a #0.75 on the narrow section of the crack adjacent to Rick’s foot. This section has some questionable rock but I was happy to have huge patinas rather than an unprotected slab. I slinged two patinas and prayed that none of the patinas break as I pressed hard on them with my despicable rope drag. I topped out exactly when it got dark and slinged a horizontal rock through the holes and quickly set up the belay to let both Mark and Rick climb simultaneously. Fortunately, Rick had a headlamp, so he climbed above Mark on the green rope and showed him the way.

Mark climbing the last sections of our variation of pitch 6. Due to horrendous rope drag on the orange rope, I could not pull it and so Rick tied him in short. Rick and Mark made it work with one headlamp and we all topped out safely. Mark lived to experience his 63 birthday :). I realized that I had 0 calories since I woke up but I know we eat significantly less when we are out in the wild.

Bright Vegas as seen during the descent: The descent route is very well marked with carins every few feet. Our packs and remaining headlamps were at the base of frogland so a little bit after this point in this picture we split up: 1) Mark and I went right towards the parking lot on a well-trod trail with Rick’s phone for flashlight 2) Rick went left cross-country to collect our packs which were mostly empty with the bright headlamp. Rick said to not get lost in the desert so I was assessing the trail at every step of the way and finding boot prints. We got to the end of the trail and tracked Rick’s headlamp who arrived after 30 minutes. On the way back we ordered mouthwateringly delicious Thai food from Chinatown and a bought a wine bottle. We toasted and celebrated Mark’s 63 birthday at 9:30pm in the hotel room. I was extremely happy that we all safely made it back.