2,240-plus feet of heart-racing chimney and face in Vegas’ wildlands

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IN 1978, JORGE URIOSTE BOLTED HIGH on an airy extension — what would later become Epinephrine —to Joe Herbst and Tom Kaufman’s Original Route (5.9), on the Black Velvet Canyon’s eponymous wall. Then an insect bit him. While Urioste experienced an anaphylactic reaction, he and his wife, Joanne, rapped without delay and hurried to a Las Vegas ER. There, doctors had just enough time to save Jorge’s life with — you guessed it — epinephrine, and the climbers returned to the canyon that evening.

Later that summer, Herbst joined the couple to fi nish the climb in a merging of two often-confl icting Red Rock Canyon traditions. Calling themselves the “elves of route tinkering,” the Uriostes strove to create routes for the masses, even if that meant placing bolts to link cracks — a technique then derided by many peers. Herbst, on the other hand, was a tradster with a talent for offwidths and sparsely bolted FAs — on the Rainbow, Aeolian, and Black Velvet walls, among others.

The result of this unlikely trio is that, 31 years later, Epinephrine endures . . . despite its infamous 500-plus feet of chimneys. And with good reason: the line offers 2,240 feet of varied climbing on readily protectable, high-quality sandstone.

Park and head into Black Velvet Canyon through a low, prickly wash, until you reach a smooth, bolted face — pitch one, just right of the Black Tower. (Take note: guidebooks differ on pitch count, and it’s possible to link several pitches and rap from various points.)

Pitches three through six comprise the squeeze chimneys, with intermittent cracks and bolts for pro. Pitch seven heads up and then rightward to the Elephant’s Trunk, a 65-foot tower of angling blocks (pitch eight). Pitches nine through 12 combine delicate face with good 5.7 to 5.9 cracks, followed by a fun, speedy scramble that’s slowed only by a few exposed sections, up pitches 13 through 16.

Top out, ticking Black Velvet Peak, which marks the beginning of the two-hour descent — a pleasant, cairned ridge leads to the trail. But don’t drop prematurely into the gully — a fairly common mistake and one that requires fifth-class down climbing, sketchy rappels, and otherwise unpleasant epic-ing.