Red Rocks, Las Vegas, Nevada, USACat in the Hat (5 pitches, 5.6+) Black Magic (4 pitches, 5.8) |
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In November 2006 we went back to Las Vegas to be part of our good friends Carsten P. Jensen and Kate Coopers wedding. The wedding was arranged on a very short notice given that Kate would otherwise be evicted by our racistic right-wing government! True love is not enough for staying together in Denmark anymore - now you also need a wedding certificate, a certain income, a home of a certain size, a certain age, strong family ties etc. etc. I am quite embarrassed by being a Dane when we welcome aliens this way - but believe me when I say that I did not impose these rules! Anyway, we had a blast at the wedding - and it is the first time I had been driven in a Hummer Limo and been at a wedding in a casino hotel rather than a church! Afterwards we had time to climb another couple of routes in the Red Rocks :-)
Black Magic, located on the Lotta Balls Wall in the First Creak Canyon. We read about the route on Jan Nicolaisens great website and given his high recommendation we chose to climb Black Magic rather than the classic Lotta Balls, which has given name to the wall.
First Creek Canyon. The Lotta Balls wall is in the shade on the left side at the start of the canyon. The mountain on the right is Mount Wilson. |
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Elvira on the approach to the Lotta Balls wall. The descent route is marked with dots. Move the mouse cursor over the picture to see the route Black Magic. |
The Black Magic route. The big cracks on the left is the beginning of the routes "Trihardral" and "Lotta Balls", respectively. Move the mouse cursor over the picture to see the route Black Magic. |
Elvira approaching the first belay. The first pitch (5.8) has a crux at the very start (a traverse under a roof) and then it is plain sailing on slabs until another overhang is reached on pitch 3 (5.8). |
Hans at the first belay. |
Elvira putting a wire in a crack to protect the first belay. As you can see there was couple of bolts on the route. |
Elvira leading the second pitch. The white vertical line above her is an incision in the rock leaving an overhang above it which is the crux of the third pitch. |
Elvira at the second belay with the overhanging crux of the third pitch above her. The overhand can either be climbed directly (5.9) or partly circumvented by traversing right (5.8, start with the crack seen on the right and then traverse right before you reach the overhang. There is a bolt on the "nose" which is hard to see before initiating the traverse. I thus found it a bit hard to judge when to leave the crack!) |
Above the overhang the inclination lowered and the route got quite easy. Here Elvira is seen on the final slabs of the third pitch. |
The descent is a walk off with a few occasional rappels. Here Elvira is concentrating while downclimbing to a rappel anchor in the tree/bush right of the center of the picture.
Conclusion: another great moderate trad climb in the Red Rocks! |
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