Vegas

We've been climbing for two days at Red Rocks, just west of Las Vegas. We went to the Gallery at the second pullout, and tried out some of the warmups,Yaak Crack (just left of this guy on the Gift)

and then on to Fear and loathing

but got a little shut down, and found the moderates short and uninspiring (sacrilege!), compared even to the modest local crags near Grenoble. The natural beauty of the surroundings makes it all worthwhile though:



and we were happy to hang out and watch the throngs climb, get spastic about onsighting .10c's, and watch the sun come down


The next day, we went to the much better Sunny and Steep crag, which has a beautiful canyon flanked by polka dotted and striped sandstone



and longer routes with fewer people.

Two days later we are firmly ensconsed in the breakfast-buffet, climb at red rocks, play slot machines trying to win BMW Z4(worlds better than the Z3 IMO), look at craps table, eat overpriced and bland meal cycle. Tonight we were taken by surprise by the statuary that comes to life in the Caesars Palace fountains, and stepped off the excalator to the Bellagio walkway just as the final triumphant water jet ended... impeccable timing as always! As we walked sadly away from the Z4 after our final try, I overheard two guys talking about Pretzels: "You've never had an Italian Pretzel, man? See, an Italian pretzel is like... a dual layer pretzel".

Tomorrow we leave for bishop.