It was a couple of days after Festivus and Renee, Franck, Linda and I found ourselves in Las Vegas. Linda was there for a well-deserved vacation and the rest of us were there for some well-deserved climbing. The catch was a couple of days prior it had actually snowed. Not only in the high country which one might expect, but right on the Strip as well. Franck had a buddy who was out of town and was gracious enough to lend us his truck. That was a really sweet deal.
Franck and Renee picked me up at our hotel in the pre-dawn chill. Strike that… it was cold! We got to the park entrance just at opening and wound our way around the loop to the parking lot at Oak Creek Canyon trailhead. Our ambitious goal was to climb Solar Slab. This is a nine pitch climb. But… you need to do a five pitch climb first, just to get to the start.
It takes about forty-five minutes to hike in and we used all of that. We miraculously had the whole place to ourselves. This is a hugely popular area. I’m sure the freezing temperatures had something to do with it. Eventually another party of two showed up but they were going to do the climb next to ours. It was slow going. In theory a group of three needn’t be too much slower than a team of two. We on the other hand didn’t really have our technique dialed in, and compounding the situation was the cold and in spots water flowing over the rock. At the belay at the start of pitch three the belay slings were partially submerged in a pool of ice water and there was a mini waterfall we were belaying in. Ice was forming on the ropes.
We got off route on the last pitch and took this funky diretissemma variation. Franck was leading (thank goodness) and he got in a bit of a jackpot near the top and ran out of suitable gear. The other two dudes had finished their climb and could see him. They were able to lower Franck the piece that he needed and he was able to safely and quickly finish up and belay us to the massive ledge that serves as the end of the climbs on the lower tier and the start of the longer climbs above. This whole climb is mostly in a deep cleft and doesn’t see much sun, even less so at this time of year. It was a big relief to finally be out of the shade and into the sun as it at least provided some small amount of warmth, even if it was mostly psychological.
We could look up and easily see the entire climb of Solar Slab. Nine pitches and close to 450 metres! There was no way we were going to have anywhere close to enough daylight to even have made it to the top of that thing let alone get down. But there was another factor that was influencing our decision and that was that a lot of the route was glistening in what remained from the waning sun from either ice or water… probably both. We didn’t really need to discuss our choices at this point. We hung out on the ledge for a bit while we ate some yummy science food and drank our fill of liquids.
We could un-rope and relax which we did, but as it turned out maybe for a bit too long. After our respite we wandered over to where the route actually ends and began our descent. This involved a series of rappels. The first being a single length, the remainder mostly doubles. We now were back in the gully and out of the sun. These weren’t really clean rappels either. By that I mean there is some blocky and twisted terrain which makes for an awkward time in lowering the ropes and anxious moments in retrieving them. We had to set up a rappel station in the mini waterfall which of course was flowing more vigorously than it had been in the morning. The whole process was cold and tedious and the meter was running as far as daylight goes. Sunset would be early at around 1640 but there would obviously be some amount of usable light for a while after that. We got to the very last rappel with a bit of light left. I always went last on the rappels as I often do. It was actually officially dark by now and I remember double checking the anchor and the threading of my Reverso by headlight. It was kind of fun abseiling down into the darkness but a bit spooky as well. I actually quadruple checked everything to make sure the ropes would pull smoothly. There was no way I wanted anyone having to climb back up and sort some mess out. But I got down to the others safely and the ropes pulled just fine. We hastily packed up and somehow managed to find our way back to the truck in the dark. We found it and were doubly relieved because we were well past curfew for being in the park without a late stay permit; but there was no ticket so we beat it out of there and back into sin city.