Good evening everone,

I was wondering if anyone has done the Original Route on the Rainbow Wall in Red Rocks, Nevada. Does anybody have any beta to offer? I know the approach is long...but is it difficult? What gear will I need? Are there bivy ledges? How long should it take and how should I break up the climb? What pitches do i *absolutly* have to free climb? I would like to do the opposite of what Bobbi Bensman and Roxxan Brock did...I want to aid most of the climb. Is it a good first wall? Thank you for your time and for helping me out.

-- Brian (slobri@aol.com), July 29, 1999

Answers

Bri, Search the other postings and ask Burt. He is the man to talk to about Redrocks routes. Good Luck.

Tea

-- Tea (mtea@ptc.com), July 29, 1999.

The original route on the Rainbow is a real adventure. The approach is hell. It took 4 hours to get through the canyon before the actual approach to the base of the wall I attempted it with my wall buddy, Fast Eddie, over the millenium new years. I strongly advise you to hike in half the gear the first day, fix the first two pitches (are really one long pitch), bring the rest of your gear in and climb to the ledge system on top of 7 the next day. Complete the route and rap doen the third. Pitch three and four can be run together, and 7 is a series of ledges to the big one above the arches. I have several years of yosemite wall experience, and I feel that the aid rating is slightly underrated. As far as a rack, cams to 4, alien hybrids, and the usual assortment of goodies. Most definitely bring hooks and leaper cams. Pitch 3 gets pretty manky, and I did not have any. I stepped on an old pin, who knows how long it had been there, and I took a fall that forced a retreat. I tore up my knee and life was hell. I would not recommend this as a first wall. Get some grade 5 experience in the valley before hitting up this one. I will tell you this, it is one of the coolest and most beautiful places I have visited. If you get there, you will know what I am talking about.

-- William Tyler (wtyler@inhale.com), November 09, 2000.