Vegas

After a heinous drive through seemingly countless hours of snow and ice, I finally arrived in the sunny Nevada desert. Our plans changed on the fly due to some unpredicted weather, and thus I wound up in Las Vegas. Cresting the final desert hill at night, and seeing the brilliant lights of this wild spot for the first time was some kind of invigorating. Complete with excessive gambling, an obvious lack of environmental sustainability and a good amount of grit, Vegas is everything I thought it might be - but strangely, there is an allure.. bright lights, a fast pace scene and of course the surrounding mountains have certainly made me rethink my position on Sin City.

Chris Weidner, Zeke and I are posted up at a good friend's house, the amazing Heather Robinson, within a 15 minute drive of Red Rock Canyon. I had my first taste of this well traveled area on Monday, in some unfortunately bitter temps, but it was fun none the less. We checked out some warm ups on the Sweet Pain wall and finished the day at the Tsunami. I must admit that, while the landscape is truly incredible, the short and crumbling routes did not excite me too much. Regardless, my favorites were 'S.O.S.' 13a, 'Man Overboard!' 12d and 'Aftershock' 12b.

chasin' rabbits all day

Zeke and I explored the maze of sandstone boulders and cliffs for hours on Tuesday, I took a few pictures and we found all kinds of interesting treasures buried in the amazing landscape.. it's a total playground out there. The lack of any sunshine and a frigid breeze drove me into the local gym, the Red Rock Climbing Center - a great little spot if you're ever in town and need an escape from the elements. Today I got out to support the team on a rest day and snap some photos of Heather attempting 'Nothing Shocking' 13a and Chris finishing 'Resin Rose'. The sun liberally poured onto the red stone, making sunglasses a necessity and smiling easy. As soon as the wind picks up however, you're brutally reminded that it is indeed, January.

Chris sends the gnarly 11+ offwidth, 'Resin Rose' ... hilarious video here.

Heather Robinson.. one move away from 'Nothing Shocking' 13a

At night, a good sized crew of Vegas folk are always meeting up somewhere and having a drink - the scene here is very inviting, and the locals are rad. Climbing by day, a night life unrivaled and a solid community makes it easy to be psyched in Vegas. In the next couple days we plan to check out Mt Potosi, an area I know very little about, but the locals seem to love. One of my long time heros, Bill Ramsey will be joining us and hopefully spraying me down with betas.

I'm so stoked to out and about.. new areas, great new people and fresh landscape. It's a great way to begin the year and I'm hopeful to keep it this way!