Black Orpheus.In October of 2007, Shirley & I went to Red Rocks for a weekend of climbing. On Saturday, we hiked in to the Brass Wall and both led the (nice) Straight Shooter (5.9) pitch. As we were hiking back to the Pine Creek Trailhead, we ran into Fred Beckey. Fred the player gave Shirley a radiant smile which was probably the highlight of the outing (for Shirley anyway). We then made the long hike in Calico Hills to the (short) Atman (5.10-) crack. Figuring this was enough of a warm up, we called it a day. Next morning we hiked into Oak Creek Canyon and climbed the classic Black Orpheus (5.10-) swapping leads. Nice route with the most memorable (& nicest IMHO!) pitches being near the top. The low-5th class mid-portion detracts a bit from quality but overall a very nice line.
Photos
Shirley starting up the Straight Shooter (Oct. 2007).Straight Shooter (Oct. 2007).Shirley on Straight Shooter belayed by yours truly (Oct. 2007).Shirley on Straight Shooter (Oct. 2007).Shirley nearing the top of Straight Shooter (Oct. 2007).More of Shirley on the thin crack of Straight Shooter (Oct. 2007).Straight Shooter (Oct. 2007).Yours truly leading Straight Shooter (Oct. 2007).Leading Straight Shooter (Oct. 2007).Straight Shooter (Oct. 2007).Coiling the ropes and moving onto Atman (Oct. 2007).Leading Atman (5.10-) belayed by Shirley (Oct. 2007).Shirley following the short Atman (Oct. 2007).Shirley topping out on Atman (Oct. 2007).Topping out on Atman (Oct. 2007).Shirley coiling rope atop Atman Crag in Red Rocks (Oct. 2007).Shirley hiking into Oak Creek Canyon with early morning sun illuminating Mount Wilson (Oct. 2007).Shirley leading pitch 1 of Black Orpheus on Rainbow Mountain (Oct. 2007).Shirley at the first belay (Oct. 2007).Leading pitch 2 of Black Orpheus (Oct. 2007).Shirley topping out on pitch 2 of Black Orpheus with Oak Creek Canyon far below (Oct. 2007).Arriving at the second belay (Oct. 2007).Shirley leading pitch 3 of Black Orpheus on Rainbow Mountain (Oct. 2007).Looking back at Shirley from the lead of a long, low 5th class section midway up Black Orpheus (Oct. 2007).Leading pitch 6 of Black Orpheus (Oct. 2007).Shirley near the top of the ~450 foot long low 5th class mid-section of Black Orpheus. Below on right is Oak Creek Canyon & far view is towards Vegas. The route comes up via dihedrals top of which is visible near lower right corner (Oct. 2007).Shirley starting the lead of P7 of Black Orpheus. View below is up Oak Creek Canyon toward the limestone cliffs “behind” Red Rocks (Oct. 2007).Mount Wilson from Black Orpheus (Oct. 2007).Pitch 7 (Oct. 2007).Shirley leading pitch 7 of Black Orpheus – couple face moves followed by a nicely sustained #0.5-#1 Camalot sized crack (Oct. 2007).Shirley leading pitch 7 of Black Orpheus on Rainbow Mountain. This is probably the best pitch of the route – bit of face to sustained finger/thin hand crack dihedral (Oct. 2007).Leading the well-protected crux of Black Orpheus…I think some other pitches provided more difficult & thought provoking climbing compared to this one (Oct. 2007).Looking back at Shirley from just below the crux (Oct. 2007).Higher on pitch 8 (Oct. 2007).Shirley on the crux pitch (Oct. 2007).Views back towards the state highway and the trailhead (Oct. 2007).Shirley starting up the pitch above the crux pitch on Black Orpheus (Oct. 2007).Shirley higher on pitch 9 (Oct. 2007).Yours truly following the pitch before the last one on Black Orpheus…kinda interesting for 5.6 (Oct. 2007).Shirley at the slab belay atop pitch 9 of Black Orpheus. One more pitch to the top (Oct. 2007).Leading the final pitch of Black Orpheus (Oct. 2007).Shirley at belay at the start of the “5.5+” final slab pitch of Black Orpheus. Great position, high above Oak Creek Canyon (Oct. 2007).Shirley nearing the top of Black Orpheus route (Oct. 2007).Eagle Wall in profile as seen from top of Black Orpheus route. Unknown party is rapping Levitation 29. Click photo for full res. (Oct. 2007).Shirley hiking the pretty-colored slabs atop Black Orpheus. We used the “double rope rap option” as described in Supertopo and that went painlessly (the raps anyway…after that much slab scrambling & boulder hopping down the wash are required; Oct. 2007).More of Mount Wilson (Oct. 2007).
