Thank You, Iron Oxide: My Trip Takeaways
As we drive closer to the canyon, streaks of bright red rock painted across the mountain come into view. These striking, bright red lines in the mountains are caused by the Iron Oxide that gets concentrated and oxidizes in certain areas more than others. As we hike through the canyon, the stones we step on are polka-dotted and then further into the mountains, they’re swirled and marbled. You feel like you’re on a different planet.
My time in Red Rock was amazing. I won’t lie, it wasn’t perfect. I got frustrated and anxious more than I’d like to admit. But I also felt more present than I have in a long time. This trip was perfectly imperfect, as are all things in life.
I managed to send 4 V10s, 5 V9s (one was a flash) and many more moderates in 9 days of climbing. I was hoping to break into V11+ this trip, but the reality is that trying to send a new grade on a relatively short trip is tough. You must choose between getting a good sampling of a new crag or projecting a couple of hard lines. I unknowingly chose the former.
One of the best parts about climbing trips is getting a clear view of your weaknesses. I learned that I could work on weighting my feet, my heel and toe hooking skills, pulling on directional feet, and my patience while working on technical moves (a heel popping a billion times will drive me crazy). Without further ado, here are my main takeaways from our trip to Red Rock Canyon.
Stop fighting your body.
I got upset when trying difficult climbs and not figuring out how to do them. I was confused because they looked so damn easy in the videos… Why was I struggling? The thing is, videos are deceiving; they don’t show you the projecting process or tell you what a climb will feel like. I made assumptions while watching these beta videos. Then, when I touched the holds and felt the positions, I was surprised that they were way harder and worse than these people were making them look.
Why must I work so much harder for these climbs than the people in these videos? I bet they all sent in a single session. I suck!
I know… Bad, bad mentality. I was comparing myself to other climbers when I should’ve been focused solely on the climb and my body. I had to remind myself of why I climb in the first place – because I love a good challenge. So why was I fighting the fact that these climbs were challenging me? Isn’t that the whole point?
Even though I didn’t send many of the climbs on my tick list, I now know what I need to work on to prepare for the next trip. I know I am capable of these climbs, but they’re not going to be easy.
Hard climbs are hard everywhere.
Like I said earlier, videos are deceiving. Some people can make V10 look like V2. Be prepared for climbs to feel completely different than you think. ideally, try to go in with no expectations. Grades are subjective. Maybe an area feels soft to one person, while another person will say it is sandbagged.
I am not sure where I got this idea that climbs would be easier here, but they aren’t. Novelty can be misguiding. Your first experience on a climb can cause you to overgeneralize the whole area. Maybe you get lucky and pick a boulder that is your style. This may cause you to conclude that the whole crag is soft. Or maybe the opposite happens, which it did to me. You get on a hard climb that is also antistyle, and then you believe the whole crag is sandbagged and limit yourself to only trying climbs under that level.
My point is that you should probably not pay too much attention to the grade nor make assumptions about a crag or climb. Focus on finding climbs that are both challenging and inspiring. Prioritize learning over sending. Ultimately, it’s about finding the right balance for you.
Nothing is in your control. Be strategic, but not rigid.
At the beginning of the trip, I made a list of all the boulders I wanted to send and planned out which days I would send each one. How was I able to predict that I would send each boulder? Well, I wasn’t… Of course, the planning proved useless. If anything, it was stressful. I quickly learned that you can only be so strategic on climbing trips. First, everyone in your group will want to get on different boulders. Second, you can’t know how a boulder will feel until you start pulling on it.
We were lucky to get a week of ideal temps for bouldering, cool and sunny. But rain hit us hard and we had no choice but to take a couple of days off climbing in Red Rock (you can’t climb on sandstone until it is completely dry). We made an impromptu trip to Joshua Tree, California, which was 4 hours away from Las Vegas.
Joshua Tree was very different from Vegas. Most of the boulders in the park are made of quartz monzonite, which was a very sharp (and I mean sharp) contrast from the smooth, almost gym-like holds in Red Rock. The climbing in J-Tree was unique; it was more about finding tiny crystals to crimp and stand on (provided they didn’t break off). The style was reminiscent of what you might find on a trad/sport line, not a boulder. There were some fun lines in J-Tree but it was pretty hit-or-miss.
On our last two days of climbing, we were struck by high winds and cold temps which made it nearly impossible to hike around. I got pushed and shoved. I was afraid the wind would blow me away like a tumbleweed. Climbing in these conditions was arduous. I could not get warm and everything was numb… Not exactly sending temps.
In fifteen days, I had about seven quality climbing days. Temperature, skin, motivation and energy are hard to control and can often be limiting factors. Our climbing days were long, and by the end of each day, my body and skin were destroyed.
I could have had more high-quality climbing days if I limited how much I climbed on a single day and did more projecting instead of volume on sub-limit boulders. Near the end of our trip, we went back and tried these hard projects. I realized I could send these climbs if I put in the time and effort, and quit falling for my self-limiting thoughts.
Overall, I’m pleased with how our trip went. I had fun and learned a lot about climbing and trip tactics, so I’m excited to use this new knowledge on our next trip!
