A Week in Red Rock---A Photo Essay

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Messages 81 - 98 of total 98 in this topic << First  |  < Previous  |  Show All  |  Next >  |  Last >>
philo

Trad climber
boulder, co.
Jan 30, 2009 - 11:32am PT
I am really pleased this thread got bumped. I really liked it the first time around. But it was so good I went through the whole thing again from start to finish. What a delightful read. A fine way with a word and not too shabby of a shutterbug.
rgold

Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
Topic Author's Reply - Jan 30, 2009 - 02:13pm PT
I hope it doesn't sound conceited to say that I enjoyed rereading this again myself. After all, we partially create these things to remind ourselves about our adventures, and it is certainly gratifying to see this one resurrected long after it passed into the outer reaches of SuperTopo Space. Thanks, folks.

My enjoyment is heightened by the fact that, the financial situation being what it is, I probably won't be able to go anywhere this Spring, so that reading may be as close as I can get to a climbing trip.
Roxy

Trad climber
CA Central Coast
Jan 30, 2009 - 05:03pm PT
The perfect post lunch TR, thanks for sharing your adventure.
hoipolloi

climber
A friends backyard with the neighbors wifi
Jan 30, 2009 - 05:11pm PT
*THAT* is a fantastic TR. Powerful and oh-so-relevant closing message there.



Wonderful, thanks for sharing.
Dudeman

Trad climber
California/Idaho/Beyond
Jan 30, 2009 - 05:14pm PT
Very nice photos! Thanks for sharing. Makes me want to head to Red Rocks
Sherri

climber
WA
Jan 31, 2009 - 02:36am PT
Great TR, for sure, folks. Thanks!

Fun to see the pic of Joe Herbst there, too. I find his routes particularly appealing--partly because they always kick my butt(keeps me trying hard) and partly because they are always a satisfying puzzle to unravel. Given this, my mantra for tackling a tricky crux has become: "WWJD"(What would Joe Do?) Works like a charm. :)

Doug Robinson

Trad climber
Santa Cruz
Jan 31, 2009 - 01:02pm PT
Thank You, Rich.

I've come to enjoy over the last year your acuity of perception expressed in words here on the Taco. Now I can add photo wizardry to that. You use it at its best, to enhance the vivid sense of being there.

Missed this first time around. That's the trouble with being out climbing.

Looking at your very first shots makes me want to be out there this very morning, scrambling over mottled sandstone to visit what you and the still waters have reflected.


Glimpsing a current Joe Herbst back on the rock is a huge bonus. He was an apprentice of mine in the Palisades during those same years Peter describes you performing clean gymnastic maneuvers in C4. Just amazing to see where he took it from there.

Joe wrote a piercing Foreword to Larry De Angelo's fine little book Red Rock Odyssey. Here are a few lines from Joe:


"It was May '78 or '79. My world was still working. Most of the people I had known were still alive. None of us could have imagined a climbing world like the one you now live in.

"The sky was cloudless blue, blue, blue. Las Vegas was still keeping its distance. We weren't in a park, we were in the mountains, and nobody else knew or cared where we were.

"The rock was alternately white, red, and a deeply varnished inky black. The red was comfortable, the black was heavenly, and the white was trying to spit me out of its overhanging seven and five eighths inch mouth.

"I had two pieces of protection. The first was deep rhythmic breathing. The second, a homemade relaxation mantra, was fast growing thin. Surely a tube chock placement would present itself soon. 'Slow down and keep moving, loose as ashes, fine as frog hair,' I whisper."

Joe Herbst
January 2004
Captain...or Skully

Social climber
North of the Owyhees
Feb 1, 2009 - 10:37pm PT
RED ROCKS!!!!

Right on.
drljefe

climber
Old Pueblo, AZ
Feb 25, 2009 - 11:24am PT
favorites bump
SteveW

Trad climber
The state of confusion
Mar 29, 2009 - 07:31pm PT
Bump for climbing
Dirka

Trad climber
SF
Mar 29, 2009 - 07:47pm PT
Beautiful work.
donini

Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
Sep 21, 2010 - 09:58am PT
Nice TR! After the Gunks, the grades in Red Rocks must have made you feel 20 years younger.
mooch

Trad climber
Old Climbers' Home (Adopted)
Sep 21, 2010 - 10:23am PT
WOW!! Great TR! Skipped this one over the past year by accident. Well documented and keen eye for catching the right moment.
Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Sep 21, 2010 - 10:39am PT
That's fun and you gents filled your cups to the brim! Great TR for a super area!
rgold

Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
Topic Author's Reply - Sep 21, 2010 - 01:46pm PT
"After the Gunks, the grades in Red Rocks must have made you feel 20 years younger.

Which would launch me back to the age where a lot of climbers start complaining that they are old...

I think RR gets a bit of a raw deal on the soft grading issue. My experience, and some of it is in the TR (see, for example Jubilant Song) is that the grades are inconsistent as opposed to merely soft (I can't speak at all for the sport-climbing grades since I've never done even a single sport climb at RR).

A lot of people in disparate groups climbed at RR in different eras and the end result is that there are several versions of the decimal system in simultaneous use. Especially if you are heading for some of the lesser traveled lines, be wary of the grading and do not assume every pitch will be overgraded for your comfort and delight.
The Wedge

Boulder climber
Santa Rosa & Bishop, CA
Sep 21, 2010 - 02:34pm PT
Coool shots. One the few places where double ropes just seem to make sense, most of the time.
Technogeekery

Trad climber
Tokyo, Japan
Sep 22, 2010 - 02:42am PT
Hey Mr Gold - glad to see this post surface again. You might be tickled to know I climbed at RR last week on a visit to the USA, in large part due to inspiration from this thread. I snuck in two days of climbing with a guide, and got up Black Magic and all 10 pitches of Dark Shadows - and now I'm hooked - will come back one day for a bit longer. Thanks for the TR, photos, and your other contributions to this and other climbing sites.
Gal

Trad climber
a semi lucid consciousness
Nov 9, 2010 - 11:40am PT
I had not seen this TR (just really have been reading ST for a year), and I LOVED it. You mention climbs I want to do, and ones I have been on. Great job, inspiring, and good ending to show lurking danger of Vegas (how telling, considering about 6 months ago, I donated money to keep the sprawl from reaching red rocks). Gotta get back out to RR. Nice, once again, thank you! I wonder if it's weird for you to see how your TR is still inspiring a few years later?
Messages 81 - 98 of total 98 in this topic << First  |  < Previous  |  Show All  |  Next >  |  Last >>
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