PRINT: Rock Climb Steel Monkey, Red Rocks

Steel Monkey

5.10+, Trad, 1100 ft (333 m), 11 pitches, Grade V,

Avg: 3.6 from 5 votes
FA: unknown
Nevada > Southern Nevada > Red Rocks > (16) Black Velv… > Black Velvet Wall

Access Issue: Red Rock RAIN AND WET ROCK: The sandstone is fragile and is very easily damaged when wet. Details

Holds rip off and climbs have been and will continue to be permanently damaged due to climbers not respecting this phenomenon. After a heavy storm, the rock will remain wet, sometimes for several days. PLEASE DO NOT CLIMB IN RED ROCKS during or after rain. A good rule of thumb is that if the ground near your climb is at all damp (and not powdery dry sand), then do not climb. There are many alternatives (limestone, granite, basalt, and plastic) nearby.

HUMAN WASTE Human waste is one of the major issues plaguing Red Rocks. The Las Vegas Climbers Liaison Council and the AAC provides free "wag bags" in several locations (Black Velvet, First Pullout, Kraft Mtn/Bouldering, The Gallery, and The Black Corridor). These bags are designed so that you can pack your waste out - consider bringing one to be part of your kit (just like your rope and shoes and lunch) no matter where you go. Once used, please dispose of them properly (do not throw them in the toilets at the parking area).

Description

Not claiming any first ascent here - just another way of climbing some of the best pitches on Black Velvet Wall in one push. This also lets you pass crowds. We have done the wall twice this way. Once to combine 'best' pitches, and another time to pass parties on both Prince and Turkeys.

These ascents were back in the 80's, just after Yellow Brick Road was put up.

Start on Gobbler and do these three unbelievable pitches up to the big ledge on DOWT.

Climb back left and up to (run out to lessen rope drag, careful) the bolts on Yellow Brick Road and do the two steep pitches of this climb.

Next, move left again (about 10') and do the last two pitches of Prince of Darkness to its logical top. Spooky

From here follow up the last four pitches of DOWT to it's top (eleven or twelve pitches total).

Not sure why people would rap from the top of pitch seven on DOWT and call it climbing the route - but most seem to.

This gives you an eleven or twelve pitch climb, moves from the right to left, and therefore straight up the wall, and combines the best and hardest pitches of four existing routes climbing the entire Black Velvet Wall.

Protection

Plenty of draws, a rack of stoppers and several mid size friends.

Location

Start with Gobbler and end on the real top of DOWT.

Comments [Hide ALL Comments]

Cunning Linguist

Interesting mix of pitches. I wonder if a couple mid sized friends is what most people will use on pitch 2 of the Gobbler. Sounds like sandbaggery to me. Agree on climbing only first few on Dream being lame sauce if you're claiming an ascent. The first half is just cragging :) Dec 14, 2013

Cunning Linguist

Tim Wolfe has been doing some linkups like this in Velvet over the last couple of years. A better name than the one posted might follow Tim's method and be "The Yellow Dark Turkey" or something like that. Either way, you guys are thinking outside the box and that's fun, Dec 23, 2013

Andy Hansen
Longmont, CO

I thought of this link-up before and wanted to call it "The Velvet Sea." Not saying that I was the first to think of it, but just giving my two cents for a name. Mar 13, 2014

Peter Lewis
Bridgton, ME

Gobbling the Dream of the Yellow Turkey Aug 26, 2015

Tim Wolfe
Salt Lake City, UT

5.10b/c

Crazy that I just noticed this after 2 years.
That's good. I like Gobbling the dream of the yellow turkey or just Gobbling the Yellow Turkey. Uses the names of the original FA but Kim can call it whatever he wants.
This is another nice combo. As Kim suggests, many of us did this combo right after these lines were established in the mid 1980's - I think before Fiddler existed and when there were signs on the rock indicating all the different lines. At that time most of the new bolted routes were pick and choose what combination you wanted for the day. Definitely different than anywhere I had ever climbed but new things were occurring in climbing and I was no one to judge and had a lot of fun with this new bolting of blank walls and signs telling me where to go. (This was about the time when there were climbing wars - bolt chopping, hate mail and debates over hanging on a bolt - hang dogging - we never moved up after a fall, never felt the higher holds as that was cheating - we always lowered, pulled the rope and started from the very bottom). But these routes were new and visionary up sweeps of stunning rock that could not be safely climbed without a lot of bolts. So few people were climbing here that few cared or got their tits in a wringer (well, maybe Rock Warrior ethics suggests otherwise). You would climb up, follow a sign in Yellow (Yellow brick road), Red (Dreams) or Black (Prince of darkness) with no idea of the grade. There was no guide book for these bolting lines and no internet and no one in the canyon for days at a time so it was still adventure climbing. All these combinations used to be marked at the junctions with road maps that have long since been chopped (now we just have a smart phone that does the same and in some ways makes it even less adventure given all the data available). I posted a photo of one of those signs on this site years ago. Sep 29, 2015

Hans El Grandote

Linked Gobbler to DOWT "reverse traverse" to YBR to DOWT all the way to the top of Black Velvet Peak. Was a bit sketched out about traversing over to POD after YBR, so we avoided that part of the suggested linkup. Excellent combination of pitches, and the voyage to the top really added some extra flavor too.

I'm a softie and appreciated a full rack for the gobbler and upper pitches of DOWT. Oct 1, 2019