The Desert Climbing and Biking

This past week I put my skis away just for a little and went down to the desert to enjoy some warm weather and some climbing and mountain biking. We started out our trip in St George, Ut in Snow Canyon, which actually has some great climbing and biking. I have not done a lot of climbing on sandstone, but the stuff I have done I absolutely love. It is very grippy and I can use my feet and feel more confident. There was also some great technical biking that I was not expecting over sandstone through slots in the rocks. Really fun and a great way to start out biking again! We climbed and biked everyday which was really fun! We then headed down to Red Rocks, Las Vegas. Red rocks is a a beautiful area with canyons and amazing climbing just out of Vegas. When you are climbing you can see the strip. It is pretty crazy because the differences between the two are like night and day. We climbed the entire time in Black Velvet Canyon which is a beautiful canyon with water running through and huge walls for climbing. The first day we climbed a classic called Frogland, which was six pitches of about 5.8. The next day we climbed Yellow Brick road, which is on Black Velvet wall. This climb was 5.10a and 5.10b which was a lot more challenging for me. Very steep and exposed, but it was one of my favorite climbs I have ever done. It was 4 pitches and pretty sustained the entire way. I am beginning to become more confident with climbing and I hope to eventually be comfortable leading trad. We had great weather the entire time and it was hard to leave, it was a great break from skiing after a long and crazy winter. I am excited to still do some skiing in the Tetons.