Cloud Tower.Memorial Day weekend. What will it be? Another long drive to Red Rocks just to get rained out? A long standing tradition for us. The forecast looked solid however and so we gave it a go. In short, it was a standard, pre-packaged, microwaveable, dishwasher-safe, three-day weekend. Drive out on Saturday. Climb on Sunday. Drive home on Monday.
Cloud Tower (7 pitch 12a) is outstanding – even if much of the 12- dihedral got French-freed, there’s a ton of spectacular 5.10/+ crack climbing that made us very happy. The final pitch was much more strenuous than we had anticipated particularly in the blazing late May sun (rest of the route was comfortably shady). Down in Summerlin by 6 and enjoying some frozen high-fructose corn-syrup before hitting the road. A Bay Area style traffic jam by Mt. Hood where we lost about 2 hours welcomed us home.
Photos
We’ve criss-crossed Nevada probably covering most of the paved highways there over the years (May 2016). “Secret” Nevada granite crags – 10 hours from PDX…maybe someday…(May 2016). The drive down was going so well that we even got to do some sightseeing…Mercury entrance to the Nevada Test Site (May 2016). Late spring in the desert (May 2016). Cloud Tower, pitch 1 (May 2016). Shirley topping out on pitch 2 (May 2016). Leading pitch 3 – a thin hands (easy) crack to a short face climbing section (May 2016). More pitch 3 (May 2016). Shirley on pitch 3 of Cloud Tower (May 2016). The short face climbing finish (May 2016). Pitch 4 – much free-below-the-waist here for me…thin, thin, thin (May 2016). Shirley starting up pitch 4 (May 2016). Topping out (May 2016). Shirley at at the belay (May 2016). Leading pitch 5. Probably the funnest pitch of the route (perhaps because it’s much easier than it looks from below). Views of the Brownstone Wall from high up on Cloud Tower (May 2016). Higher on the same pitch. There were 2 fixed blue Camalots here (May 2016). View down from midway up pitch 5 (May 2016). Looking up at the splitter crack above (May 2016). Shirley on pitch 5 above the roof (May 2016). Entering a section of #4 Camalot (May 2016). View back to the trailhead, Calico Hills, and vapid Vegas beyond (May 2016). The finishing crack is wide but with plenty of features around (incl. a thinner crack inside), the going is quite moderate (May 2016). Arriving at the belay (May 2016). Shirley in the easy & horizontal chimney of pitch 5. Not a hint of a squeeze – think a big fucking McMansion complete with a jumbo loan, three screaming little banshees, white picket fence…where was I going with this? Into the frying pan. After nice and comfy conditions on the north facing aspects, you emerge into a sandstone oven on the west side and a very strenuous hand crack (I think an overhanging hand crack but without bulges would’ve been considerably less strenuous). The final bulge looms above (crux of the pitch). Shirley starting the long, strenuous final pitch (#7) of Cloud Tower (May 2016). Views of Rainbow Wall with its Bird Hunter Buttress visible in profile. We met two guys on the approach who were heading up for that route earlier that morning (May 2016). More shirley on pitch 7 (May 2016). Passing one of the handful of bulges (May 2016). Shirley very much looking forward to a cold beer (May 2016). Rapping the topmost pitch of Cloud Tower. You realize how steep it is on the way down… Hiking down in the afternoon. There was a party starting the rappels from the top of Crimson Chrysalis at about the same time (May 2016).
