Bachelor party in Vegas

Hello all,

I am planning a bachelor party in Vegas with 3-4 climbers (including the groom) and 8 non-climbers. We plan on doing half our time in the mountains and half our time on the strip. I want to pick a moderate/easy multi pitch climb in Red Rocks that allows for a hiking approach/descent on the backside (so that everyone can meet near summit). Does anyone have recommendations on specific routes or areas where this may be possible?

Thanks

Frogland is a some what stout 5.8 with a nice walk off
It’s in black velvet canyon 

You could always just go sport climbing 

Ezra Ellis wrote: You could always just go sport climbing 

He said he wanted to go climbing..

Olive Oil is good to drag sport climbers up who barely know how to clean gear, I did this in 2017 during my buddies bachelor trip. The walk off is easy and straightforward. Birdland is even more accessible but a bit harder climbing, and you must rap. You can bail whenever though. Frogland is fun but many sections would be hard/scary for non climbers. If they’ve truly never climbed just go cragging and clip bolts. Just my 2 cents.

I think you guys misunderstand, the non climbers are just going to hike to the summit and meet the climbers there, If I read it correctly. 

Doug Chism wrote: I think you guys misunderstand, the non climbers are just going to hike to the summit and meet the climbers there, If I read it correctly. 

Frogland has a very easy walk off, Olive oil has a tiny bit of 4th class and goes up a steep/ loose gully if you were to reverse the descent. Frogland is much more annoying to get to though given the road into BV and the approach is steep (from non climber perspective). BV road is in really good shape this season though compared to past years.

Jordan Angus Gay wrote:

Frogland has a very easy walk off, Olive oil has a tiny bit of 4th class and goes up a steep/ loose gully if you were to reverse the descent. Frogland is much more annoying to get to though given then road into BV and the approach is steep (from non climber perspective)

A more important question would be: are these non-climbers able to route-find their way to and up an unknown descent to an unknown summit?

Marc801 C wrote:

A more important question would be: are these non-climbers able to route-find their way to and up an unknown descent to an unknown summit?

It’s very heavily cairned and I’m pretty sure hikers tag Whiskey Peak often, but yeah I would have similar concerns.  

The real question - are the strippers going to hike up? Or climb?

Anything on Windy Peak. Great moderate routes, and the walk-off is popular with hikers.

n3uro wrote: Hello all,

I am planning a bachelor party in Vegas with 3-4 climbers (including the groom) and 8 non-climbers. We plan on doing half our time in the mountains and half our time on the strip.

Good luck planning anything with a group that size in Vegas. All bets are likely to be off within an hour or so of your arrival when the party gets going. Just have fun, keep the expectations low, have a plan z, and you'll be just fine.

Please let us know how this trip goes, climbing and otherwise. Enjoy!  

 

 

 

Stone Sweet Ridge in the Calico Peaks area has a 3rd - 4th class scramble descent back down to 2nd Pull-Out parking.
From the wonderful summit vista of the Calico ViewCap.
. (Now with a new pre "pitch 0" available by using the running together the first two pitches of Red Slippers to connect above the (interesting) Stone Wall gully scramble to the bottom of P1 of Stone Sweet Ridge.

Or a shorter perhaps trickier scramble combined with easier hiking (and a visit to the biggest "tank" in the Calicos) if instead descend the NE Ramp (with car shuttle) to Sandstone Quarry parking.
Trickier logistics (including finding the correct descent off the summit down to the "tank").
But non-climbers might enjoy hanging by the Tank (perhaps after seeing the view SE to Las Vegas city from the pass between Calico Peak + Tank Peak) even if do not make it to any summit.

Ken

also possible to reach the Calico ViewCap summit from 2PO by first climbing Bewitched on the Observatory, next scrambling/hiking up aiming for the striking pure SW ridge. Get onto this "witchy" ridge by moving to right of its base and climbing a bolted pitch (? 5.8 ?) to reach the crest of the ridge, finish up that to the ViewCap summit vista.

The disadvantage of taking this striking "pure" ridge is that it's mostly just a long uphill walk.
A possible advantage is that the upper "pure" ridge could be reached (as in this route) from Sandstone Quarry parking, so then descend to the "tank" and to SQ parking without needing a car shuttle.

While the "impure" broken Stone Sweet route has lots more interesting climbing in varied situations.

Ken

^^^

You don't want to have non- climbers on fourth class territory.

When are you going? Its triple digits hot in LV already. I climbed the Black Velvet wall in June once (deeply shaded) and the heat was very serious. 

Hmmm.  Climbing mixed with bachelor party mixed with non climbers mixed with Vegas.  

What could go wrong?  

Seriously though, I know where you’re coming from.  My crew has done several BP’s with a climbing or paddling focus.  But they were trips where ALL involved were climbers/paddlers and that was the only trip focus (i.e no Vegas type activities)

The potential issue is trying to have both a Vegas style BP and an adventure style one where lives will be on the line in a mixed group.  Not saying it can’t be done, but seriously think it through when trying to mix it up like that.  Might just be best to stick to either one or the other.  

Either way, have fun and be safe.  Good luck!!

FrankPS wrote:You don't want to have non- climbers on fourth class territory.

Fair point.
Which is why I offered the big "tank" (mountain lake) and the Pass viewpoint as an alternative meeting place for the climbers and non-climbers -- because those are reached by a well-known hiking trail.

My experience is that I see lots more non-climbers hanging around the lake than around any "viewpoint".
Given the difficulty of coordinating the timing of the arrivals of the climbers versus non-climbers, I suggest the "tank" as a more likely point where they might actually have a successful intersection of timeframes.

And I sort of remember the difficulty/exposed section between the tank and the Calico Peak summit is fairly short, so if you could slip a harness onto a non-climber for a few minutes, you could get them to a true summit (for any non-climbers you could actually persuade to labor up higher than the lake).

Ken

Awesome, thank you guys for the responses!! I think your concerns about the non-climbers are valid. To be fair though, the non-climbers are all outdoorsy and athletic, but I agree having non-climbers on true 4th class terrain is not ideal. The more straight forward the hike OFF/descent is the better. We may also send one of the actual climbers to lead the hiking party. We  would definitely not be combining alcohol with this portion of the weekend. It'd be an early approach with lots of coffee.

The group size may also end up being more like 3 climbers + 6 non-climbers which would be a more manageable group size. With the 6 non-climbers all with reasonably good hiking experience, I think they would be capable for an adventure hike and we could even map the hike as much as possible before the trip and drop a pin on the summit.

Windy Peak sounds like a possible option with Jubilant Song, although the route is just a touch on the longer side. If we did that, I think we would have one of the 3 climbers join the hiking team and then the bachelor with the other climber (probably me) attempt the 8 pitches as a 2 person party for efficiency sake. Always an option to do super casual sport climbing with the group and share shoes/harnesses so everyone can get to climb something but a summit accomplishment for the whole crew would be cool.

We are planning to do it in early April (getting on this planning early) so hopefully it won't be too hot by that point.

And as always, will have a plan Z in case all of this falls to s*** --- could always just do an adventurous hike (would take recs on that as well) with everyone instead if we aren't feeling it the split party coordination the day of. And worst case if we get too drunk the night before we could always just find something on the strip to do and bag the outdoor option all together, but I think everyone would agree being in vegas and not getting on some rock would be a shame!!

What is the best strip club in Vegas? Asking for a friend

kenr wrote:

Fair point.
Which is why I offered the big "tank" (mountain lake) and the Pass viewpoint as an alternative meeting place for the climbers and non-climbers -- because those are reached by a well-known hiking trail.

My experience is that I see lots more non-climbers hanging around the lake than around any "viewpoint".
Given the difficulty of coordinating the timing of the arrivals of the climbers versus non-climbers, I suggest the "tank" as a more likely point where they might actually have a successful intersection of timeframes.

And I sort of remember the difficulty/exposed section between the tank and the Calico Peak summit is fairly short, so if you could slip a harness onto a non-climber for a few minutes, you could get them to a true summit (for any non-climbers you could actually persuade to labor up higher than the lake).

Ken

Would a climb on the riding hood wall get you to the tank?