Trip Reports - 11/22/03 - Red Rocks, Nevada, Solar Slab

Submitted by Henry Gholz and Jan Engert, Washington, DC

Enlarge photo

Jan and I returned to Red Rock Canyon, Nevada, the weekend before Thanksgiving with the objective of climbing the highly touted, moderate route, Solar Slab. I am happy to say that we were successful! Here is a brief narrative - since we forgot the camera in the hotel room, you'll have to refer to the guidebook or search the web for photos (for example, there are some fine photos of the route at the very end of a report that you can find at http://home.echo-on.net/~toadhall/outside/climbing/rr98/rr98-3.html ).

Given the very short days at this time of the year, the high popularity of the route, and the 45+ minute approach from the Loop Road through the park that doesn't open until 6 AM, we opted to leave our comfy hotel room (on the Las Vegas strip, of course) at 430 AM, which put us at the roadside turnoff of the main route, Hwy. 159 (the extension of Charleston Street in Las Vegas) at 5 AM. Our scouting the day before showed that we should not go as far along the highway as the "old campground" as the guidebooks suggest, but rather should stop at a turnout about 0.9 miles before that. The turnout is east of the mouth of Oak Creek Canyon and opens across the fence onto an old gravel/rocky/dirt roadbed that starts at the highway and progresses almost due west into the mouth of the Canyon to the right of Wilson's Pimple. The roadbed is not visible from the highway, so you need to scope it out a bit to be sure you are in the right turnout. The roadbed meets the Loop Road approach trail along the edge of Rainbow Mountain near the route and is the most direct approach route to the canyon. The hike in was very pleasant, as we first observed the brilliant star display and then the sunrise over the desert while we walked. It took us just over an hour to get to the base of the approach route, Solar Slab Gully on the right-front (SE) side of Rainbow Mountain, and we were ready to climb at 630. This strategy put us at the base of the route before anyone else, since they all came in via the Loop Road at 6 or via the longer old-campground trail. The weather was calm and clear, as opposed to the day before when the wind howled the entire day that we spent scoping out the approach and the route. But it was still cold ...

We geared up for the Gully (5.3, 5 pitches), which worked out fine, although the first pitch and a short piece of the last official (5th) pitch are the only technical parts to it. The first pitch is listed at 5.1, but is more than that, which probably serves well to scare off the totally unprepared. In any case, the rock was frigid, my hands were freezing, and it was steep enough, so I was happy to rope up. But in fact, the technical parts of the Gully were really a blast and it turned out to be a great way to warm up physically and mentally for the route above. I only placed 3 pieces totally, but the climbing so much fun and safe that even those seemed excessive. The rest of the Gully is scrambling, which we simul-climbed without gear. The crux is a 20 ft high fun stem exercise right at the top. Suddenly we emerged onto a huge ledge, through the five "pitches" and at the base of Solar Slab in 1.5 hrs.

We also checked out an alternate approach route to the Gully, the adjacent 5.7, 3 pitch, Johnny Vegas, which looks great. We'll go back just for that climb some other time. We later talked to several folks who had climbed it and we used the route to rappel from Solar Slab to avoid the gully (see below). But, we have no regrets for going up the Gully (in spite of disparaging comments we heard from folks later, who it turned out seemed unprepared for even the Gully; we didn't see them on the climb above, so maybe the Gully is a good filter). The view from the large ledge above the Gully and the top of Johnny Vegas was already great; we were surprised at how much elevation we had actually gained in such short order.

We were the first on the ledge, so had the route above to ourselves, but we could hear others both in the Gully and on Johnny Vegas (or other nearby routes), so didn't spend much time sitting around. The route itself is pretty obvious, and has bolted anchors at most belays. True to its name, Solar Slab was in full sun by then, a circumstance we were able to revel in almost the entire day. There was no wind, and it was actually very comfortable. I won't describe the details of the climbing, as there is so much in the guidebooks and on the web about it. Suffice it to say that, for the grade, it was everything that it was touted to be: variable climbing (face, cracks), wonderful rock and holds, very safe and easily protected, enough challenging moves to keep it interesting, long, and exposed. There were several times when a sequence of moves was such a perfect combination of me, the rock, the route and the weather, that I found myself laughing out loud as I climbed!

Swain's guidebook is okay in describing the route, but pitch 4 was much shorter than it says, you sometimes can actually see the rappel anchors from the route (but not always), and the combination of pitches 5 and 6 is really the only way to go, but it will use up your entire 60 m rope. The route is pretty obvious and there are sometimes many alternatives for parts of pitches, so passing or being passed shouldn't be a big deal. We climbed to the top of Pitch 7, arriving onto the expansive upper ledge at 1230; we skipped the two pitches above (a scramble and a 5.5). The downclimb to the rap anchors 2/3 up Pitch 7 is easy.

The descent is pretty straightforward, but longer than you will expect. We met up with two climbers who had just soloed both Johnny Vegas and Solar Slab, Jason and Lisa (from Ouray, CO), and the four of us rigged alternating raps on the way down, which saved some time (coincidentally, we were able to watch them climb a beautiful 5.12 route in Zion a few days later). It took us 7 double-60m-rope raps and 3+ hours to reach the base of the gully (2 50m ropes would likely work), with 4 to get down Solar Slab and 3 more to rap down Johnny Vegas. We rapped using the great anchors straight down the face from near the top of pitch 7, following a direct line largely to the right of Solar Slab and ending up at the base of that route. The first rap is low angle and ropes can get caught. We then moved over the big ledge to the anchors at the top of Johnny Vegas and rapped that route to avoid the gully (the gully would be a pain to rap, although there are anchors set up for it). The first rap here leads into a 60 ft free section over a 20 ft roof - be sure you anticipate that, especially if you have a heavy pack on...We were down at 4 and back to the car at 5 PM, just as the sun set. A long day, but a great one!

Based on an earlier visit, folks looking for other moderate wintertime routes should check out Cat in the Hat on Mescalito (5 pitch, 5.6+). We look forward to going back and hitting more long moderates, hopefully sometime with longer days and warmer weather...

Here's wishing you a great holiday time, Henry and Jan.

Submitted by Henry Gholz and Jan Engert

Red Rocks Photo Gallery

How to send your Trip Report

Top of Page

`