red rocks national monument - ginger cracks class 5.8 - march 2016
Oh man; this was a memorable trip because it was my first trip to Red Rocks. I went with my friends Fernando and Mario who I had met at Joshua Tree a couple weeks prior. We all initially planned to climb Crimson Chrysalis, but it was a cloudy, cold and very windy day and when we got to the base of the climb we realized we were too late, and it was too cold to be able to do this climb, especially with 4 people. After consulting the guidebook we decided to hike down the hill a bit and climb Ginger Cracks, which had the same great rating but was a shorter route and sheltered from the wind more.
Each of the four pitches were very memorable and had their own set of challenges. The first pitch had a chimney to negotiate, among a couple other wider cracks. The second pitch began with a scary traverse out to the right with wicked exposure, then a runout face climbing section. The crux was on the third pitch which consisted of a stemming box with thin cracks. At the top of the 4th pitch we saw rain coming in, plus I really had to go to the bathroom, so we decided to start rappelling. It took us awhile as we had to wait for 4 people for each rappel and I wasn't able to make it all the way down before I couldn't hold it any longer. Trust me it was as bad as it possibly gets, so I'll spare you the details and just say there was a little present left on the rappel route. Luckily it rained hard as soon as we all got to the base of the route to wash it off!
Our hike back was fairly wet but it had settled down when we returned to the cars. Looking ahead to the next day, it was going to rain all day so we decided to skip climbing and check out the super bloom in Death Valley, which I had heard was in for the first time in many years. So we drove towards Death Valley on a very windy evening and found a place in the desert to camp. I slept inside my car while everyone else put up tents. I was glad to be sleeping inside since it was windy all night. I was amazed any of them got any sleep!
We mainly took a driving tour of Death Valley to see the flowers (which I saw many posts on Facebook about). It was beautiful actually, and the gloomy clouds made the scene even more interesting. We stopped for a breakfast buffet in Death Valley which was also awesome. We decided to make a short hike up Grotto Canyon while we were passing through, which ended up being quite scenic. There was even a couple spots we could scramble around. We ended the day with the long drive back to Los Angeles, where I met up with Emily again, who wasn't able to join on this weekend trip.
Each of the four pitches were very memorable and had their own set of challenges. The first pitch had a chimney to negotiate, among a couple other wider cracks. The second pitch began with a scary traverse out to the right with wicked exposure, then a runout face climbing section. The crux was on the third pitch which consisted of a stemming box with thin cracks. At the top of the 4th pitch we saw rain coming in, plus I really had to go to the bathroom, so we decided to start rappelling. It took us awhile as we had to wait for 4 people for each rappel and I wasn't able to make it all the way down before I couldn't hold it any longer. Trust me it was as bad as it possibly gets, so I'll spare you the details and just say there was a little present left on the rappel route. Luckily it rained hard as soon as we all got to the base of the route to wash it off!
Our hike back was fairly wet but it had settled down when we returned to the cars. Looking ahead to the next day, it was going to rain all day so we decided to skip climbing and check out the super bloom in Death Valley, which I had heard was in for the first time in many years. So we drove towards Death Valley on a very windy evening and found a place in the desert to camp. I slept inside my car while everyone else put up tents. I was glad to be sleeping inside since it was windy all night. I was amazed any of them got any sleep!
We mainly took a driving tour of Death Valley to see the flowers (which I saw many posts on Facebook about). It was beautiful actually, and the gloomy clouds made the scene even more interesting. We stopped for a breakfast buffet in Death Valley which was also awesome. We decided to make a short hike up Grotto Canyon while we were passing through, which ended up being quite scenic. There was even a couple spots we could scramble around. We ended the day with the long drive back to Los Angeles, where I met up with Emily again, who wasn't able to join on this weekend trip.
View of Ginger Cracks
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View from the route
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Climbing Ginger Cracks
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Grotto Canyon
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