Las Vegas is an extraordinary story of city-building. Fuelled by tolerant gambling regulations, and the construction of the Hoover Dam, the population of 5,000 in the early 30s, has grown to a sprawling metropolis of 3 million citizens now. Landing at the airport, barely a couple of miles from The Strip, and you could easily take your Uber to a fake version of Venice or the Eifel Tower, play slots or get married for a week, and leave without noticing the stunning surrounding desert and mountains.

Just a dozen miles from The Strip lies Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, part of the National Park Service, protecting a maze of multi-coloured peaks and canyons and home to the world-famous Red Rocks climbing Mecca. Less well-known, circling the city to the West and North, are a ring of Limestone mountains including Mt Charleston at 3,636m but also numerous smaller lumps and bumps. These are steadily being developed into a major climbing resource in their own right. The combination of Red and White rocks, the easy access and benign climate make Vegas perhaps THE major winter climbing destination in the States. It was the obvious place to spend the last ten days or so of our trip, as the temps fell in the higher areas nearby.

Whilst situated in the middle of a desert, Las Vegas isn’t completely immune from rain (though only 4 inches a year) and we got a couple of overnight sprinklings, so abiding by the “don’t climb wet sandstone” mantra, we had a mix of Red and White during our visit. For simplicity I’ll describe these separately rather than in chronological order, so here goes with the white stuff (see next post for a drop of Red and also some logistical considerations relevant to both).

The La Madre Mountains lie to north of town, in fact the sprawl reaches the foot of them.

Gun Club is an easily accessed canyon, a few hundred metres from the freeway, and a handy suntrap, with a good range of routes from 7s to 11s.

We did Bushmaster, 5.8, Under Cover, 11b, and Clay Pigeon, 11a.

Here’s some guys on Point Blank.

Also in the La Madre Mountains is Lone Mountain, and we visited Suburban Crag on our way through Vegas a month ago. This time around we visited the Cheap Beer and Urban Sectors.

Urban indeed!

Great Chert-rich rock, although not huge routes.

Some highlights: Strange Town, 11d, Philo Cramer, 11a, and Lone Star, 5.9+

Blue Diamond Cave, just west of the small settlement of the same name, is a well-used standby when the red stuff is damp. It was absolutely rammed on the two days we visited, but for good reason – sunny aspect until mid afternoon, sheltered, and some pretty decent routes.

Looks like everyone else had the same idea!

We had a couple of decent days there. I particularly enjoyed Scorpion, 5.9+R and Pandemic, 11a – a couple of recently developed, traddy-feeling routes running the full height of the crag (almost 40m so needing some shenanigans to descend on a 60m rope!) Here’s the view down Scorpion:

… and Pandemic takes the sun-kissed arete:

On the right of the crag are a bunch of about 9 routes that post-date the guide, and so make a bit of a haven from the zoo around the corner. The rightmost couple are decent, 30m outings: Tacho Trap, 10c and Uncle Michael, 10a:

Other decent routes in the melee were Whackamole, 11b, Too Soon Old, 10a and the Griswolds, 10b.

Okay, that’s a nice drop of White for starters – now onto the next post for your main course and a good glug of Red…