We hiked in with the plan to do either Lotta Balls itself (5.8 four pitches) or Black Magic which was a similar grade and a similar proposition. When we got there, we found that both routes were taken by various groups of old timers. Later, I discovered Joanne Urioste was among them. In the old days, Red Rocks was never considered a world class climbing destination, long approaches, loose rock and poor protection made Red Rock climbing something esoteric. With the spread of Vegas, the inevitable development of new roads, cleaned up rock by increased traffic of climbers, the advent and widespread use of camming devices and the placement of bolts, the popularity of Red Rocks grew. But compared with other climbing places where the routes were done by a huge number of people, Red Rocks is unique in that very few people did most of the first accents. Jorge and Joanne Urioste’s routes are perhaps the most popular, they believed in safe climbing and as such placed many bolts on their climbs. This was a huge achievement as all the holes were hand drilled by Jorge and most of the time on lead. Don’t think that the Urioste’s made sports climbs. We climbed Olive Oil and Cat in the Hat (which were both theirs) and there was not one protection bolt on either of the routes, but when needed they were prepared to bolt and many of their face climbs have plenty of bolts. One of the other pioneers was Joe Herbst, he favoured clean climbing and most of his routes are bold and adventurous (even today with modern protection). Certainly there was controversy between the two styles, but they seem to co-exist perhaps most likely because of the huge quantity of good rock in Red Rocks.
I only had the Select Climbs and it didn’t show many other choices but Joanne suggested that we climbed Trihedral, which was one of Joe Herbst’s routes. I later noticed that the Select Climbs mark this as “ugly loose corner” in their topo. It wasn’t ugly and loose, it was aesthetically pleasing and loose. Joanne did say that she didn’t remember the route very well (it was 25 years ago when she climbed it). I remember it well, it was hard, the crux felt like very sandbagged 5.8 and was poorly protected. I had an excellent cam 7m below me and managed to get a so-so microwire and an appalling cam to protect the crux. This involved cutting on to the face and making thin face moves for about 3m. The moves felt shakey, and I was very nervous on them.
Trihedral is marked in red. Lotta Balls is marked in blue. Subsequently, when I saw the definitive guide I noticed that about as much information is given in this picture as in the guide, and now readers of this blog will know more than those blessed with owning the guide. It's not a bad route, but very testy at the grade.We then did Lotta Balls. It was again done by Joe Herbst but this time with his wife and had two very important protection bolts (I don’t know if the bolts were her influence). This felt excellent, the protection was secure (albeit spaced) and the climbing felt intuitive (perhaps having a guide book helped). There was a fantastic and memorable section of the second pitch where you leave a crack system and start face climbing on bizarre looking nipples of rock. This wasn’t difficult but required extreme care. When you placed your foot on one of these, you had to keep it very still as the slightest movement could twist it off. The only handholds were the nipples which you had to pinch in a strangely sexual way. I had previously thought the buttress was so named because you had to have a lot of courage to climb on it, but after this pitch it was obvious how it got its name. The face climbing was protected by two bolts, it felt run out and strange but contrary to the previous route I felt in control and confident at all times.
See I wasn't telling lies about the nipples.
And the same for feet.
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