Physical Graffiti
Red Rocks: Nevada
Total Time: 4:15
Distance: ~ 1 mile
Elevation Gain: ~900′
Crux: 5.6
Pitches: 2
Companions: Holly, Colin Pickles, Alex Wallace, Emily Elkins
Over the years during my trips to Vegas, I’ve often made it a point to visit Red Rocks. While I’ve done plenty of scrambling, including on Bridge Mountain, I’ve never done any Trad or Sport Climbing in the area. So for my ‘Dirty 30’ birthday weekend, a group of friends and family were heading to Vegas for a weekend of climbing. While the final headcount would be a bit too large for any multipitch trad, a smaller group heading up early on Friday would make for more manageable numbers. I had to work Thursday night and couldn’t be up there until around lunch time, limiting us to climbs that were at most 2-3 pitches. After alot of research, I decided on Physical Graffiti, a classic 2 pitch 5.6 crack in Calico Basin. After getting little sleep on night call, Holly, Colin and I left Phoenix directly for Red Rocks. The drive direct to Red Rocks took a bit longer than expected and we didn’t start hiking into Calico Basin until almost 1PM. Red Riding Hood Wall and Physical Graffiti lie straight ahead, and we could see some climbers on an adjacent route.
We followed the trail and split off on the left aiming for a gully just before the base of the rock face. Some short scrambling sections quickly got us to the base of the first pitch, taking less than 30 minutes from the car. A pair of climbers was on the route, but the second was already heading up by the time we had all geared up and figured out who was tying into what rope. As the birthday boy it was my honor to lead, and I tied into two ropes, with everyone else bringing up a tow rope for the person behind them. By the time we had everything sorted, I started up the incredibly featured crack, with a seemingly limitless number of holds and pro placements. The first 20′ were somewhat sustained and certainly the most vertical section of the route, but I was quickly onto the easier lower angled crack above.
While the route did follow a crack for both pitches, it was easier to climb as a face route, with large lips and ledges on both sides of the crack, never really needing to jam or use pure crack climbing techniques. I reached the anchor on the 100′ pitch just as the leader on the pair above was topping out. I helped the second manage his gear before he started up and I built my own anchor off the two bolt belay. The belay station was not as roomy as I had hoped, and I hung a few slings from the bolts to try and help manage the number of ropes that would soon be hanging down. I brought up Alex next, and he quickly cleaned the pitch.
I next brought up Colin, and the three of us were quite cozy on the narrow ledge, although nowhere near as bad as Hanging Gardens. The plan was for Alex to belay everyone else up the first pitch while Colin belayed me up to the top of the route. I untied from Alex’s rope and left it coiled through a sling; he would have Emily, the last climber, tow it to the top once he was done bringing everyone up the first pitch. A short traverse from the belay brought me back into the crack for the second pitch and I started up. Similar to the first pitch, the beginning was the most vertical, but there were plenty of options for holds and protection throughout. Colin had some issues feeding out my rope when I was about 40′ up leading to an uncomfortable break on a sloping ledge in the crack. But once he untangled the small loop, I continued on climbing rather quickly. I had read that the upper portions of the crack became more finger sized and had brought some small C3s for the upper section. But in reality the crack was so irregular and pocketed I could still use gear between #0.4-2 C4 cams, and didn’t need any C3s along the way. The second pitch was almost double in length compared with the first, and the final ramp led to a pair of bolts high on a boulder. My 60m rope was just too short to make it to the high two bolt anchor, so I untied, clove hitched the rope to a single bolt lower down, and built a long extended anchor with multiple slings and cord to belay from. I then belayed up Colin, who cleaned the second pitch while Alex brought up Holly and Emily to the crowded first belay station.
Colin had a tow rope to Holly, and I brought her up next, thankfully carrying a backpack of summit beers. Emily topped out fourth, with Alex attaching his tow rope to her. He cruised up the route, happy to finally be off of the cramped belay ledge and joined us at the top of the route for victory beers. The views in Calico Basin were incredible in the low light with clouds overhead.
The Calico Peaks ridgeline was only another 100′ above us, so we dropped our gear and scrambled up to a high boulder on the ridgeline, offering views of the main bulk of Red Rocks, with classic multipitch routes in the distance.
I got a text from my sister that she had nearly arrived to meet us at Calico Basin having just landed from Tucson, and we started scrambling back down the gully to the base of the route. I moved ahead of the group to pack my things to meet my sister and brother-in-law at the base, who had been waiting for over 30 minutes by the time I made it down to her. I had hoped we would have more time to set up some top ropes on nearby Cowlick Crag but by the time we hiked over to the base of the crag, the sun was dipping lower and we were nearing our set departure time for dinner reservations. I set up an easy 5.6 at the corner so Cara and Steve could get one route in, which they had climbed by the time the rest of the group made it to us from Physical Graffiti.
I broke down the anchor and we headed to dinner before checking into our hotel. The next day we spent on the other side of the range top roping in the Hamlet area, making for an overall great introduction to climbing in Red Rocks and fantastic birthday weekend.
