In Jan, I went to Red Rocks again for a long weekend. Merrick was on the road, and Brian was on winter break. We alternated long multi-pitch routes, which were a challenge to do efficiently with a party of three, with cragging days. Click on the picture for a larger version.

Olive Oil is very good, similar but better than Cat in the Hat, IMO. No need for rappels on the descent. I led the first three pitches, after which Brian and Merrick took over. Great belay ledge before p6, which is a crux dihedral and chimney.

Tunnel Vision was an adventure. The crux pitch is the long chimney on p3, which was severely run out for me, seeing as two of the large cams were left in the previous belay (off route). It was committing to get into the steep 75 ' chimney with 2 obvious pieces. It got quite scary towards the top, as additional gear placements were difficult to find and reach. The "famous" tunnel pitch is pretty tough for 5.3. We finished the climb right at sunset, and descended in the dark through an adjacent gully.

I climbed Johnny Vegas on an aborted trip with Victor in 2004, when he got really sick and we turned back from the base on the climb. Ran into two Romanian climbers in the parking lot, struck up a conversation and joined them for the ascent.

List of Climbs

• Olive Oil (5.7 ***) 7p
• Chicken Dumbo For Your Gumbo (5.6) (Moderate Mecca)
• From Soup to Nuts (5.7) (Moderate Mecca)
• Soupy Sales (5.6) (Moderate Mecca)
• St Valentine's (5.8+ *) (Moderate Mecca)
• Tunnel Vision (5.7 ***) 7p
• Changing Chameleon(5.4 *) (Illusion Crags)
• French Bulges (5.7) (Illusion Crags)

• Johnny Vegas (5.6 **) 4p