Thanksgiving in Vegas

It's been a while since I've posted, but fortunately not due to lack of climbing.  While I haven't been to Bushwhack or anywhere further out for a while, I've been getting in a lot of good sessions at Northwest Branch recently, repeating old favorites and trying a few things for the first time.  One of the more memorable recent moments was sending Crimps right as a downpour started, making the descent almost as exciting as the trip up.  This came only minutes after Vince decided that the right variation of Crimptastic was too easy, and summoned his bear strength to rip away the final hold.  Keep this man away from your projects...

A few weeks ago I took my yearly Thanksgiving trip out to Vegas.  Mostly an exercise in people watching as we eat and drink our way through the strip for three days, weather permitting we always try to start our trip with a visit to Red Rocks.  With a beautiful 70 degree day ahead of us, we drove from the airport to Desert Rock Sports to take advantage of their crashpad rental program, which is way cheaper than airline baggage fees and perfect for short stops through town.

Arriving at the Kraft Boulders, we walked down to the Monkey Bar boulder for a little warmup on the fun juggy traverse.  I started to work on Monkey Bar Direct, and although I could make all the moves, my decision to wear brand new shoes left my feet in too much pain to string it all together.  My attempts at Slopey Traverse were equally painful, so I headed to The Pearl in one final effort to regain my dignity.  I had gone to check it out once before, but had immediately walked away after deciding that the starting left pocket would probably blow my fingers.  This time I decided to change my approach a bit, reinforcing my index and ring fingers with my middle and finding a good thumb catch, effectively turning the two finger pocket into a four finger pinch that I could hang on all day.  A few attempts later I was at the top, happy to have at least taken down one of the classic moderates on my list.  After a painful downclimb, I joined Emily around the corner to enjoy a few of the other lines the boulder had to offer, then called it a day and headed off to meet her dad on the Strip for dinner and a few celebratory drinks.

I somehow got through three nights in Vegas without blowing too much money, preferring instead to come home and drop a huge chunk of it on a new laptop and a copy of Final Cut Pro.  It'll be a while before I've learned everything there is to know about it, but have had a great time so far playing with it and seeing what can be done.  Here's my first experiment with it, pulled together from some of the Red Rocks footage. Looking forward to playing with some local clips soon!