Cat in the hat is one of most agreeable and popular climbs at Red Rocks. It’s a very rare day indeed that you will find yourselves as the only party on the climb. If it’s going to be busy then you should at least be first on the climb I figure. So that’s what we tried to do. We got to the park gate just past opening time and were at the trailhead not long after. There were a couple of Washington State climbers there but they were going to climb Y2K, so no need to worry about them at least. There were some other cars without climbers, so it was conceivable that at least someone was on their way into the climb besides us.
All we needed to do now was shoulder our packs and start walking, so that’s exactly what we did. Another attraction of this particular climb is the very short approach. It’s only about 45 minutes into the base, and with very little elevation gain to boot.
The desert is a very special place especially in the early morning when the sun is starting to rise. It was still spring and there was a nice riparian area with a stream that was flowing that had some lovely pools of water. We were serenaded by a chorus of frogs as we passed. Undoubtedly they were a species local to the area aptly known as the Chorus Frog.
Mescalito
I had told our team that for sure we would not be the first people on the climb, but happily once we arrived at the base I was proven wrong. There were four of us in our group. I would team up with Andrew, and Renee with Bruce. Andrew and I got ready first and climbed first. The first pitch is rated 5.6 which is not really hard by any standards, but this pitch is a bit of a rude wake-up call first thing in the morning. It seemed a bit harder than the grade would suggest, but Andrew dispatched it in short order.
Pitch two is just sort of an easy scramble that has a boulder problem move on it. Short and easy. Pitch three goes up a crack and through some trees. The same 5.6 rating as the first pitch, but it seemed much mellower. You end up belaying from a tree. Pitch four is the money pitch, at least in my mind. It goes up some nice thin cracks, traverses left a bit then up through a small roof on really nice holds. You end up on a spacious ledge that has a huge bollard that is wrapped with slings. We could still hear the frogs many metres below along with the occasional braying of the wild burros throughout most of the climb.
This last pitch is where some options present themselves. For those that have it in them they can finish off the climb directly on a bolted face that is about 5.10c. The standard route description tells people to drop down a bit from the bollard and do a short 20 metre or so traverse to a belay and then to follow the crack and slab to the top. What we did was to traverse upwards to the right following a diagonal crack that leads to the aforementioned crack, and then follow it. This is certainly the crux pitch. The traverse is pretty easy but exposed and you need to remember to place some gear to protect the second. The varnished crack climbs and protects well with plenty of face holds for a ways, or until it ends. After that you are sort of on your own. It’s slabby with thin holds to a bolt then run out to the top where there are two fat bolts on a rounded ledge signifying the end of the route. If I recall correctly it took us about three hours from the base.
Last Pitch
Our intention was to not stop here however, and to continue the 250 metres or so to the summit of Mescalito. I scrambled up about a rope length and stopped on a ledge with some bushes. Andrew came up to me and we un-roped and coiled the ropes. Not long after we were joined by Renee and Bruce. We had a bite to eat and some water and held a brief strategy session. We decided to change partners and split up the team. Andrew and Bruce opted to carry on to the summit of Mescalito with the intent of descending the back side. Whereas Renee and I would down-climb to the top of Cat in the Hat, then rappel the route by the standard method.
Bruce gave us a quick belay for the slabby down-climb to the anchors, and we said our goodbyes and carried on our separate ways. By this time however there were other parties on the route. There was a climber who was belaying his second up the last pitch as we arrived at the bolts. He was thoughtful enough to arrange his set up so that we could easily share the anchors. It turned out that he was a guide and that his partner was his client. He was a nice young fellow and we had a good chat with him as we set up our rappel. Our plan was to use double rope rappels for the entire route, although you can do it with a single rope it does involve some extra jiggery.
The first rappel
I had rappelled from this very spot before and at that time we got in a real bind trying to retrieve the rope, so I was determined not to have this problem again. One thing done differently was to be sure that the knot could be positioned as far over the rounded edge of the top as was possible. The second thing was a real departure for me… I have done literally hundreds of two rope rappels over the past four decades and every single one of them had me tying the two ropes together with a double fisherman’s knot. It is a very strong knot, and pretty much the gold standard for joining two ropes of equal diameter. This time would be different however and I would be going with a knot that is receiving more and more recognition as the knot of choice for rappels. The Euro Death Knot aka EDK. Say what!!! We were 200 metres or so off of the deck and going to slide down two 7.5mm ropes that had been tied together with something called the Euro Death Knot. Yep, we were, and we did.
The EDK is a very simple knot to tie; it’s basically just an overhand knot. The best attribute of it however is the profile that it presents. It is a very flat knot. The main drawback to the double fisherman’s knot is that it acts as a stopper and can very easily get caught up in cracks, crevices, and even chicken heads resulting in making it very difficult if not impossible to retrieve if it gets stuck when pulling. The flat aspect of the EDK while not totally eliminating this risk certainly minimizes it greatly.
It was interesting…. Even though I had the upmost confidence in the knot, and regardless of the fact that I have been climbing longer than this young guide has been alive, it was very reassuring to tie it and rig the rappel under his watchful eye. The wind had picked up considerably and it meant for some tom foolery in tossing the ropes (no saddlebags) and sorting them out on the way down. I was eventually down at the top of pitch four and Renee shortly after that. The ropes were still very difficult to pull but not impossible like last year and they did come with a little effort.
The next rappel was also a double rope affair and deposited us at the top of pitch three, where we had a slight log jam. There was another guide and client here, but a totally different situation. In this case the client was a complete novice. It could have even been his first time out, which sort of says something about taking a client out on a multi-pitch climb that hasn’t climbed before. I’m not sure exactly what happened but the client couldn’t or wouldn’t continue. So the guide had to down-climb a fair bit to get back to the client at the belay tree. It certainly highlighted the need to be skilled at down-climbing. I tried to help out the client a bit with some rope management issues; the poor guy really didn’t have a clue. The guide during his down-climbing and arrival at the belay seemed a bit standoffish, but maybe that was attributed to his frustration with the situation. But… you get paid the same rate for climbing up as you do descending.
Since we have been talking about rappelling, and if you are thinking ahead you may be thinking that this client probably doesn’t know how to rappel either. If so, then you are correct in your thinking. So this is what they did. The guide rigged the double ropes through the anchor (double fisherman’s knot by the way), and proceeded to clip both of their ATC’s to the lines. The guide went first, and the client second. The guide kept very close to the client and in essence could do a fireman’s belay at any time during the descent. These worked very well for them and in some amount of time they were at the anchors above pitch one. This guide was pretty fast and efficient because he had both himself and his client on the ground and their ropes pulled before I reached the anchors.
Two guys from North or South Carolina were just finishing off pitch one when I got there and I nattered with them while Renee was rappelling down to me. I called down to the guide just to confirm that a 60 metre rope would reach the ground. I quickly threaded the rope and headed down. As I was descending Renee had a funny story when one of the Carolina gentleman says to her very apologetically “excuse me Mame but I have to relieve myself”. Very polite. She of course turned away and allowed him his privacy.
We were soon both on the ground safe and sound and happy for it. The pulling of the ropes went smoothly and we were almost home free when the tail on the last rope did a quirky flip and wrapped itself around a flake and chicken head and got stuck fast about 10 metres off the ground. #$%!
No amount of cursing or tugging was going to free it. We would either have to wait for the earlier guide and client to free it or climb up to get it which we could have easily done. However a third option quickly presented itself. There was a guy who showed up that was getting ready to solo the climb. I know it’s only 5.6+ but it is pretty high and anything can happen, so it’s not something I would probably do. In any event he was starting up and was able to free it for us in a matter of minutes as he worked his way up the climb.
We packed up and started down the trail and within minutes it was raining. The forecast called for a 50% chance of rain by mid-day and they weren’t far off the mark. We got soaked but we were safe and sound on the ground. Our thoughts went out to that soloist and even more so to Andrew and Bruce who were either on the summit or trying to suss out the descent. Thankfully the rain was short lived and the sun was shining on us again soon. We hiked back to the car and spent the rest of the afternoon tourist watching and lampooning them. In less than two hours the lads returned to us with a tale of epic adventure that I hope to be able to coax out of them into a little story.
Euro Death Knot
(Note: that the tails need to be this long)
Double Fisherman Knot
(The right hand tail should be a bit longer in this pic)
