Fear and Bouldering in Las Vegas

After a quick pit stop at Saguaro National Forest and very nearly running out of gas along the way (I swear there are only two gas stations between El Paso and Vegas), we arrived in Cyn City last Tuesday evening where, through some coincidental and purposeful planning, several friends from New York met us to climb for the week.

Las Vegas is home to Red Rock Canyon, Red Springs, and Calico Basin, which boast some of the USA's finest sandstone climbing. The rock is brilliantly red-colored (as the name might imply), perfectly textured, and unlike many of the other places we’ll visit in the next few weeks, the area has a generous mix of both bouldering and lead climbing (I was going to try to succinctly define these two types of climbing, but there’s too much jargon to explain so please see this nice article if you’re unfamiliar with the terminology).

If you know me at all, you know that I am a boulderer. Bouldering is creative, varied, powerful, and technical; social but doesn’t require other people in order to participate; and the routes are short, which means I can try really hard for 45 seconds and then sit down for 10 minutes (truly the golden ratio of effort to rest). Although I’ve been climbing for almost 7 years, it’s only recently that I’m finding myself being pushed to lead more (big fingers pointed at Jamie and Nikhil).

There are numerous reasons I like bouldering more than leading, but I think the biggest factor is fear--I am deeply afraid of falling on lead (maybe I got into the wrong sport). Of course, I fall when I boulder. In fact, I’m mostly falling when I boulder. I do get afraid, especially when the route is tall or the landing zone is treacherous, but the falls on lead strike a different level of terror into my soul. They’re bigger and harder to predict, and so much (read: your actual life) rides on the competency of your gear and your belayer to catch the fall well; and my brain just cannot abide. Apparently, these are the kinds of things you can get used to and eventually feel comfortable with; for now, your girl is shivering in her timbers (like, literal trembling and sometimes crying) at the base of every sport route. But here I am in Vegas, surrounded by tall, beautiful mountains and people who want to climb them, so I guess I’m taking the gamble. 

I’m slowly learning how to find the balance between healthy fear that prevents injury and inhibiting fear that prevents sending. After two days leading and two days bouldering, I leave Vegas with several fresh tick marks on my climbing To-Do List, as well as some projects I am excited to come back for. Most notably, I led (with falls) Caustic (5.11b--my hardest sport route to date!), sent Jones’n (V4) and Pork Chop (V3); and got all the moves on Monkey Bar Traverse (V6). All the fist-bumps to Nikhil for sending Hyper Glide (V4/5) with a bum finger and generally inflexible hips. 

We’re Bishop-bound now!