Apologies that it has been so long since Innes' last post. We've just been having too much fun to seek out an internet connection.
After leaving Arizona we spent just over two weeks in Red Rocks, which is near Las Vegas in Nevada. Red Rocks is a set of sandstone mountains and canyons which are literally about 3 miles from the edge of Las Vegas. There are all types of climbing available there - long multi-pitch routes, sport climbing and bouldering.
Our time in Red Rocks was pretty sociable, as when we arrived there we caught up with Tom and El, and later were joined by Kimm, Amy and Sheona. We had arrived at Red Rocks with aspirations to do a lot of long routes, but somehow that didn't happen. This was mainly because it was pretty cold and windy most of the time, and we didn't fancy trying to abseil off any of the big routes with our ropes flying horizontally and getting snagged everywhere. However, we did manage to get one of our big ticks done, which was a long route called Epinephrine. We knew about this route before arriving in the US, as it features in various selected climbs books. It is 2,000 feet long and the first half goes up these incredibly smooth chimneys. I've never climbed anything like this before - the sheer effort involved just to stay in one place was incredible, and making upward progress was very difficult. Afterwards I was tired for days. The whole route was brilliant - it definitely lived up to its reputation. Apart from Epinephrine I also did a classic route called Chrimson Chrysalis with El. This was also brilliant, and we were very proud to get up it without our boyfriends!
During our time in Red Rocks Sheona and I went off for a little holiday within our holiday to see some of the non-climbing sights. We went to both Zion National Park and the Grand Canyon. Zion National Park has the tallest sandstone walls in the world. I was glad we weren't climbing, because it all looked very hard. At the Grand Canyon, we walked from the South Rim down to the river and back up. This was a bit like climbing Ben Nevis in reverse, and going down through the layers of rock and geological time was very interesting. There were lots of warning signs saying "do not attempt to hike from the rim to the river and back in one day" and "what goes down must come back up". We decided to ignore these, as we figured that they were aimed at people who never walk anywhere, and who try to do it in the middle of summer. In fact when we were there it was pretty cold - there was snow on the rim at 7,000 feet, and at the bottom at 2,000 feet it was just pleasantly warm.
Then Sheona and I returned to Las Vegas to meet up with the others, who had been enjoying the delights of the Las Vegas strip in our absence. Kimm and Amy had to go back to the UK, and we set off for our next destination which was Bishop in California. To get there we drove across Death Valley National Park. This involved going down to 190 feet below sea level, the lowest point in the USA. It was actually less arid than I expected, with the desert floor being carpeted with lots of tiny yellow flowers. To get out the other side we had to climb from below sea level to a pass at 5,000 feet. We were proud of the RV for getting up this hill without overheating.
When we got to Bishop we met up with Matt and Anna who had just flown out from the UK. Bishop is in the Owens River Valley, on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada mountains. It is in the rain shadow of the mountains, meaning that it is dry and sunny about 300 days a year. There is world class bouldering here, on both granite and volcanic tuff. We've been here about a week now, and have all managed to wear out the skin on our fingertips. The bouldering is pretty hard - some of the V0's are savage. However after a hard days bouldering you can go and relax in one of the many hot springs in the area, which is pretty cool - hot water, cold beer, view of snowy mountains - what more could you ask for?
Sheona left today to fly back. We hope she will be able to get on her flight, as we were shocked to discover last night that the whole of Europe is under a cloud of volcanic ash. Looks like we picked a good year to go away. We're also not sorry to be missing the general election campaign.
The pictures are from top to bottom:
Anna making a cool shape on Buttermilks Stem
Me in one of the chimneys of Epinephrine
Just a quick blog to upload some photos from the last 3 weeks. Lots of good times have been had, and I think that everyone who came out had a good time - ask them about it, and I'm sure they'll update you with the all the stories when they see you next. In the mean time - in order above:
