Help, Las Vegas friends. I'm driving with my daughter from LA to Denver next week. If we can stop for one day at Red Rocks, what are good options, 5.7-5.9, either for a nice longish route, or good cluster of shorter ones. Ideally they'd be not too far from the road and user friendly for RR noobs; I've never been.

PS: I tried to do an MP search, but with nearly a thousand routes and dozens of areas, it was going to be laborious figuring out what was noob-friendly.

Shawn,

In Pine Creek
Birdland 5.7+, five pitches, and has a short 30 minute approach, plus you can easily hit up the Brass Wall, and Straight Shooter Wall after Birdland, and do Topless Twins single pitch 5.9+, and Straight Shooter single pitch 5.9+.

In Willow Springs
If you want to do a mega Red Rock classic, 2 pitch route with a short 10 minute stroll in a beautiful uncrowded area then hit up Nadia's Nine. You'll never forget it!
Ragged Edges is another one you can hit up in same outing. It's a
5 minute approach from the Willow Springs picnic area; classic two pitch 5.8 on beautiful varnished rock.


In Ice Box Canyon
The shady Necromancer Wall in Ice Box Canyon has 3 great routes (Hop Route, Sensuous Mortician, and Fold Out) in the 5.7-5.9 range; 20 minute approach, and it's easy to find the distinct varnished wall.
Stay the hell away from Atras unless you want to discover what an obscure Red Rock route really feels like. I enjoyed it, once... oh shit, it was twice! Crazy days.

Hope this helps, and have fun!

G

Thanks for the tips Gigi and sqwirll. Any other friendly steers?

LOL

I might be OK with that, even outside Wyoming. But taking advantage of a steer that thinks it's a horse? ...or vice versa... That's sick. Even in Wyoming.

I've gotta give a shout out for Tunnel Vision. (5.7). Maybe not a super high quality route, but absolutely unforgettable.

i had a lot of fun climbing Birdland, which Gigi recommended. It was pretty hot, even in march when i was out there, but it's a really great climb. you might even be able to do Birdland in the morning and then do the first four pitches of Dark Shadows afterwards. that would be a super fun day.

Tunnel Vision was fun, too, and was shady & cool almost all day back in march. i imagine that might hold true for may climbing.

I'd vote for the frigid air buttress. Its 5.9+ but it has a lot of variety and two stellar cracks in it. The only bad thing is the walk off and repels. Its a short hike from the ice box canyon parking lot (30 min) and it get shade really early, hits full sun around 8, but then goes in the shade in the afternoon. When I did it, today, we started about 8:45 and it was in full sun. By the time we got to the chimney pitch (pitch 3) we were in shade and I think pitch 4 was in the shade. I know the pitch with the short chimneys were in the shade. The nice thing about this climb is that you can find shade to belay even when the sun is out.