We returned from LA to the desert of Las Vegas to find that it was raining. The rain soon turned to ice and that ice soon turned to 7 inches of snow. It hasn't snowed like this in Vegas since the late 70's and apparently they haven't had snow on The Strip for 40 yrs.
On Day 1 of the snow storm, Ed thought we could beat the weather and find some dry, possibly overhanging rock to climb on. So we headed back out to Red Rocks to find that it was a complete whiteout and that the park was actually closed. On Day 2, we looked out the window to find a small blue patch of sky in amongst the clouds so we raced off back to RedRocks anticipating to find a small dry patch of rock. When we arrived the road had only literally just opened and the snow cover was deep over all the ground, rocks and trees. We still thought we might have abit of luck so we drove to an area called The Sandstone Quarry which is slightly overhanging and hopefully a little bit dryer. We trudged through 300 metres of snow up to our shins and thankfully the rock was semi-dry. In fact there was another couple of climbers already on it with the same idea as us. We were limited by two main factors, one: wet rock that looked dry on the outside but was porous and therefore too brittle to climb and two: Ed's finger injury which he sustained a few weeks ago preventing him holding small holds. After about 30 mins of breaking several holds and getting freezing feet and hands, we pulled the pin.
Even though we didn't get to climb it was really unique to see so much snow in the area that last week was a boiling dry desert. It was absolutey stunning scenery especially as the snow was still sitting in the trees and in rock crevices.
Since then, we have been locked in our hotel room watching tv and living the Vegas lifestyle of cheap buffets and expensive drinks but we still refuse to put any money in those slot machines! We have almost seen enough TV ads for lawyers and health insurance in America to last us a lifetime. As of today, the snow has ceased and melted we now have clear blue skies and we are desperately hoping that tomorrow will be dry enough for us to get back out on some rock.
