Epinephrine & Frogland

Timanis arkadaslarimdan Dan ile bir suredir tirmanalim diye konustugumuz rotalardan biri Nevada'da bulunan Red Rocks parkindaki Epinephrin idi. Bu yaklasik 15-17 ip boyluk, cogu baca tirmanisi iceren, dunyaca unlu sahane bir col rotasi. Las Vegas’in 20 dk disindaki bu milli parki ve icindeki sayisiz kanyonu ve tirmanis rotasini Las Vegas’a gelmis insanlarin cogu bilmez. Bilenler de sadece visitor center’in oraya kadar gelip geri doner. Tabi ki doga tutkunu insanlar icin Las Vegas kalabaligindan uzak olabilmek kadar guzeli yok. 

Cilgin tempom arasinda bu tirmanis icin ayirdigimiz gunlerin Miwok100k yarisindan 10 gun sonraya denkgelmesi de ayrica enteresan bir durumdu. Arada climbing gym’de tirmaniyor olmama karsin disarida cok uzun suredir tirmanmamistim, hele uzun duvar tirmanmayali cok olmustu. Ama Dan’e uyan tek tarih buydu, ve Persembe aksami is cikisi Las Vegas ucaginda bulustuk. Kiralik arabamizi alip Black Velvet Canyon’a yakin biryerde kalacagimiz motele gelip, 1-2 saat uyku sonrasi geceden hazirladigimiz cantalarimizi kapip bu kanyonun girisine kadar arabayla gittik. Sabah saat 5:30-6 civari arabayi parkedip kanyonun icine dogru yuruyuse basladik. Ikimiz de Red Rocks parkinda daha once cok kereler tirmanmistik ama bu kanyonda daha once hic tirmanmamistik dolayisiyla Epinephrin’in baslangic noktasini sadece tariflerden ve resimlerden biliyorduk. Netekim 1-2 saat kadar kanyonda ilerledikten sonra hata yaptigimizi ve duvarin baslangicini kacirdigimizi farkedip geri donduk. Bu bize yaklasik 2 saat gecikmeye yol acti ki Epinephrin gibi uzun bir duvar rotasi icin sabah saat 8'de baslamak cok gec. Karanlik basmadan duvar bitse bile arkadan sirttan inis de cok zor ve karmasik. Oyle ki bir dolu ekip inis sirasinda kaybolur ve bu hikayeler yuzunden cogu ekipler de aslinda tepede gecelemeyi secer karanlikta kayalarin uzerinden yol bulmaya calismak yerine. 

Neyse, tirmanisa basladik. Saatte 50-60 km’yi bulan cilgin ve beklenmedik ruzgar yuzunden birbirimizi cok zor duyuyorduk. Ben ilk ip boyundan sonra tasidigim 1-2 parca extra giysiyi uzerime gecirmistim bile. Golgedeydik ve inanilmaz bir ruzgar bizi araliksiz patakliyordu. Ilk 2 ip boyu cok fazla teknik olmadigindan ben approach shoe denilen, yuruyus-tirmanis ayakkabisi arasi ayakkabim ile devam ettim, 3. ip boyunda normal tirmanis ayakkabilarima gecmek uzere. Ruzgar yuzunden yukarilardan surekli kucuk tas parcalari tak tuk diyerek kasklarimiza carpiyordu. Normal ayakkabilarima gecmeye calisirken ayakkabilardan birini ruzgar resmen elimden aldi, ayakkabi da sanki kanatlandi ve uctu gitti. Ama sonucta hata benim ve cok utanilacak bir hata, arka kismindaki lastiginden once bilegime gecirip sonra giymeye calismaliydim, ya da en bastan giyecektim. En yapilmayacak seyi yapmis oldum. Ayakkabi kanatlandi diyorum cunku direk assagiya dogru gitmedi ilk basta, havada asili gibi duruyordu. Her emniyet noktasinda sarmalayip asagiya atmaya calistigimiz 60 metrelik ipimiz gibi. O da sanki ucan bir yilan gibi bizimle ayni hizada yuzuyordu resmen. Ipi bir sekilde kontrol ediyorduk ama benim sol ayakkabi dusmustu. Sol ayagima tekrar approach shoe’yu gecirdim ve tirmanmaya devam ettim. 6 ip boyunu bu sekilde rahatca tirmandik. Cogu inanilmaz guzellikte ve tutarli baca sistemleriydi. Fakat ruzgar bizi beter etti. Yuzumuz gozumuz dudaklarimiz kupkuruydu. Iple de gerektiginden cok fazla ugrasmak zorunda kaldigimizdan ve de sabah rota girisinde kaybettigimiz vakit yuzunden planlarimizin 2 saat gerisindeydik ve daha onumuzde 11 ip boyu vardi. 7. ip boyu, icinde baca kismi olmasina ragmen daha cok yuzey tirmanisi idi ve tek ayagimda approach shoe digerinde friction ile tirmanabilecek kolaylikta olsa da ruzgari ve saati dusunerek o noktada geri inme karari aldik.  Ikimiz de devam edebilirdik, karanlikta da son kisimlari tirmanip, gerekirse tepede de geceleyebilirdik, oyle seyleri cok yaptik zamaninda ama zaten 2 gunluk bir seyahat oldugu icin ve bir sonraki gun de kaliteli tirmanislar yapabilmek icin duvari bitirme isini bir sonraki seyahate erteledik. Iniste benim dusen ayakkabiyi da bulduk :)

Geceyi ruzgardan resmen kuruyan vucudumuzu hydrate etmek ile gecirdik ve ertesi gun ise yine Black Velvet Canyon’un orada bulunan 6 ip boylu cok keyifli Frogland rotasini tirmandik. Tirmanis bitip arabaya geri dondugumuzde sadece ustumuzu degistirmeye ve yemek yemeye vaktimiz vardi. Yemekten sonra da direk havaalanina gidip kiralik arabayi biraktik. Ucakta bizim gibi pek cok tirmanici vardi, kilik kiyafetlerinden ve cantalarindan cok rahat anlasilacagi uzere. Normalde insanlar Las Vegas’tan cumartesi aksami donmezler cunku, tirmanicilar haric :)

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My climbing buddy Dan and I had talked about climbing Epinephrin a lot, a world-famous wall of 15 to 17 pitches in Red Rocks Canyon national park in Nevada. It is a fantastic desert route only 20 minutes outside of Vegas. Most people who come to Vegas don’t know that there is a great national park right next to them and those who know come only up to the visitor center and go back after hanging out in nearby areas a little bit. Of course climbers and nature-lovers are perfectly ok with that.

Due to my crazy schedule lately, the date that we set aside for this climb was only 10 days after the Miwok100k race. I hadn’t been climbing outside for some time and gym climbs were not enough. But we had only this date that was fitting both of our schedules and were going to go for it. We met at the airport on Thursday night and made our way to our motel near Black Velvet Canyon with our rental car. We slept only a few hours and made our way to the entrance of Black Velvet Canyon around 5:30-6amam where Epinephrin was. None of us climbed in that particular canyon before although both of us climbed in Red Rocks area many times. So we missed the beginning of the route and walked too far in the canyon. By the time we located the start, we already lost about 2 hours which is super precious on a long wall-climbing day. It was really late, around 8am when we roped up and was surprisingly crazy windy (around 30-40mph or so). I climbed the first two pitches in my approach shoes to change into friction shoes for the 3rd pitch. Small rocks were constantly hitting our helmets due to winds. We were already wearing almost all of our layers since the wind was so strong and so cold. It dried us so quickly. We were not able to hear each other. At the beginning of the 3rd pitch, I started to change into my friction shoes and after I put the right one, the wind took the left from my hand and kept it in air and throw it down! I lost one of my shoes!! Totally an embarrassing rookie mistake - I should have put both shoes on at the vey beginning and/or been super careful given the wind. After a brief panic, I decided to put my approach shoe back on my left foot and continued climbing the major chimney sections that way. It was not terrible until the start of the 7th pitch where I felt like I needed both of my climbing shoes to move faster. The wind was not slowing down and we were completely dry. We were throwing the rope down but the wind was pushing it upward creating these crazy scene where our rope was flying and dancing around us. It was too tiresome to control the rope. And considering also the lost time early in the am, we decided to bail. We were going to be climbing still in the dark and probably going to have to spend the night on top too. Although we did our share of epic stuff before, we didn’t feel like pushing it too much this time since we wanted to climb some more the next day. And we started to descend and decided to come back for it another time. Good thing we found my other shoe at the bottom :)

We spend the night hydrating as the wind dried us up and in the morning we climbed another wall (only 6 pitches) called Frogland at the entrance of again the Black Velvet Canyon. It was an easy and super fun climb. We changed at our car at the trailhead and headed to have dinner and then straight to the aiport. The flight was full of climbers (you can easily tell from the faces and the outfits etc) like ourselves cuz normally no one else really flies out of Las Vegas on a Saturday night :)