You go Looking for an Adventure...

And you might just find one.

First Creek Canyon. Lady Luck reaches the dark band, Celtic Cracks is above.

One of our climbs in Red Rock proved to be obscure for reasons beyond the long approach and byzantine descent. It was also among the most memorable.

In an effort to try a few 'modern-moderates', Garrett, myself, and Rad Roberts hiked into First Creek Canyon, aiming for the 1000' slab climb called Lady Luck, and planning to link that into the 1000'+ Celtic Cracks on the Labyrinth Wall, which looms above the slabs.

For this day, our third in the canyons, the wind never gusted above 40MPH, a welcome change from the tempestuous chaos of prior outings. In fact, we all thoroughly enjoyed the calm on our first 7 pitches, lulled into a sense of complacency by the mellow climbing, solid stone, and sunny weather on the enjoyable Lady Luck.

While we snacked on a ledge, dark clouds flew in over Mt. Wilson, reminding us that Spring in the desert does not reward complacency.




By the time Rad lead the first pitch off the ledge, a steady mix of snow and hail covered positive handholds and ran down the cracks.By pitches 3 and 4, more than frozen precip would be falling.



Pitch3 of Celtic Cracks follows a left-arcing corner, which becomes a roof on the route's signature pitch. Unfortunately, this roof pitch sheltered us from falling snow only to shower us with falling dirt, gravel, flakes, and climbers.

Garrett knocks debris at Rad, scores several hits

Above this pitch, a short vertical sandbox brought us to a 600' offwidth and chimney crack. Snow continued to spit on us as for the 3 final pitches, where multiple 40' runouts, questionable flakes, and some stretches of suprisingly OK climbing crested the wall.

Bushwack canyoneering down a complex network of gulleys and rappel points provided ample time for contests like "what plant is poking me now?" and "who's got the most thorns in their boxers." Reaching our backpacks at Headlamp:30, we crowned Red Rock wildnerness as the day's only winner.