Sandstone Solitude a Stone’s Throw from the Strip

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Come June, heat devils shimmer in the smog above Las Vegas Boulevard. On the street corners, sweaty smut peddlers hand out baseball cards advertising escorts.The sidewalks are hot enough to melt your soles. You can duck into a casino to escape the inferno, but it’s only a matter of time before Vegas’ sinister racket prevails, leaving your throat parched from air conditioning and your pockets emptied. You’re in hell, nature boy, and you can’t escape. Or can you?

Try driving west. Once past the strip malls and sprawling housing developments, take the Red Rock Canyon loop road. The smog lies over your shoulder now, and the sky has turned blue again. Hiking into the shady north fork of Pine Creek Canyon, to climber’s right of the 1,000-foot, pyramid-shaped Mescalito formation, you’ll enter a pristine wilderness that becomes darker and cooler with each step. Shimmering red walls extend skyward. Deep pools fed by underground streams teem with croaking frogs, and the water is so clear it borders on invisible. It’s a wonder that an ecosystem so healthy can exist next to another so ravaged.

One of Red Rock’s best climbs, combining fun face and steep cracks, Dark Shadows is in deep shade all day; it’s best in early fall or late spring. Begin at a four-foot waterfall where stream meets cliff. The first pitch (5.5 PG-13) ascends a hueco’ed face, and though only two bolts protect the initial 45 feet, just enough jugs on the low-angle wall keep it from seeming too scary. The second and third pitches follow a lofty dihedral on perfect rock so black and varnished that it shines. Here, humongous grips and solid natural pro temper slick footholds and big exposure.

The crux comes on pitch four (70 feet), where you’ll tackle an offwidth and squeeze chimney. Here, however, the sandstone gods have been kind: fortuitous face holds moderate this intimidating and strenuous-to-protect fissure. Finish under a large roof roughly 350 feet up, where you can either make three double-rope rappels to avoid a long and tricky descent, or summit after another nine adventurous pitches. The view is sublime — savor it before descending anew into gamblers’ heaven (aka, your Hades).