Approach as per Solar Slab Gully. The start of Johnny Vegas is just to the left (when facing the wall), behind a boulder perched on a short pedestal of rock.
p1. Start up the double cracks, which eventually become a single crack. As the protection starts to become sparser, trend up and left. Belay at a bolted anchor on a platform at the base of a short dark dihedral. A long pitch.
p2. Stem up the dihedral to gain a face with some questionable rock. Continue up and slightly right to another bolted belay, below the base of a right-facing dihedral capped by a roof.
p3. Head up and right on the easy but run out slab, and continue up, and around the corner. The pro is better once around the corner. The crux route-finding is deciding when to surmount the apex of the face and start trending back to the left. It's easy to come up to slabby ground and find yourself above the belay/rappel anchor.
p4. Head up easy climbing to the boulders near the edge of the main Solar Slab Terrace, and continue scrambling up to the base of Solar Slab if so desired.
With the exception of p4, all of the pitches felt like they had some 5.6 climbing, and some friable rock.
Rappel from the top of p3 with two ropes (or if you only have one rope, head down Solar Slab Gully).
It's also possible to do a different pitch 1 starting right of Beulah's Book. A party got in front of us using this alternate start and reported it's similar in difficulty to the regular pitch 1 (maybe a little more runout, though).
We also combined 3&4 with a 50m rope, I think it just barely made it (Swain calls it 180', and we might have had to simulclimb a little with our 50m). This way you do not have to downclimb to the 3rd anchor (after climbing too high)!
By Scott Conner From: Lyons, CO Mar 1, 2004 rating: 5.6
We combined the pitches 3 and 4 too, George, but we had a 60m. Going straight up the corner for P3 and moving out right at the bolt is 5.9 friction.
By Mike Morley Administrator From: Oakland, CA Mar 3, 2004
A fun route! P1 and P2 are each approx. 135 feet long. As Jake mentions, it is easy to miss the bolted anchor for P3, and I ended up 30 feet above it before noticing (not to worry - you can easily build your own). There also appear to be two different ways to approach this pitch. One way is to stay left in a corner, then step right (protected by a shiny new bolt) once the crack peters out. The other way is to stay further right off the belay out on the face, which is somewhat runout but probably no harder than 5.4. Done this way, the singular bolt is a bit out of reach, but is not needed.
By Bill Gibbs From: Andover, Ks. Apr 23, 2004 rating: 5.7
I'd honestly have to give this route a higher star rating, 2.5 at least, and as for the grade...by Red Rocks standards I would definitely have to say this was a slight step up from anything in the 5.6 range there. If it were in other places I could see it being called 5.6. Anyhow, it's all subjective.
By the way, the nice shiny bolt on the 3rd pitch is for the 5.9 variation in the right facing dihedral, which is by far better than the right traverse out to the rounded arete. Going right at the 3rd belay is 5.4 but harder to protect off the belay than in the dihedral.
Don't rappel this route. This recommendation is based on personal experience and also that of others. It is very easy to get ropes snagged while descending this route. You would be much better off making your way to the right and rapping Solar Slab Gully with one rope.
This climb was a blast. The second pitch is just fun cruisin'. Rapping each pitch individually is probably the best option for rope pulling and traffic issues.
By triznuty From: Murray, UT Nov 10, 2006 rating: 5.7
Classic must do route! Our rope got stuck temporarily during the raps... So be careful!
I would disagree with John about the rappel-this is the quickest and most safe descent from the solar slab ledge that I know of, and I've done every route on the wall that's in the guidebook. I've descended the Solar Slab Gully by rappel at least three times (I may be blocking out other times-*find a happy place!*) and find it complex, sketchy to find and traverse to certain anchors on the way down, and Johnny Vegas offers a quick, safe solution. A short (50 ft) rap from the boulder, a 120' exposed rap over the roof to the P2 anchors, two full length raps, and you're back at your packs. Stuck ropes are as common as cheap hookers in Vegas, but do the math on how many short, diagonaling rappels are in the gully, and you'll see my point-mathematically speaking, it's better odds doing 3.5 raps straight down. See Nevada Forums for info about the accident report in SS Gully-I climbed Horndogger Select that day, and very nearly got to witness the results of that rappel and an inexperienced and tired climber. I went down JV and hit the ground in less than 20 minutes of rapping. We weren't there to assist because we were already scarfing pizza at home by the time the other party got to the next to last rap in the gully.
I have a question about the slab on the start of P3. That sure didn't feel like 5.6 (to my fat ass anyway) I went about half way and fell on my pro, then traversed out to the right and went up that way on much easier terrain. Clipped the bolt from above/right. Can anyone comment on these moves? Are they really .6 or more like .9 (in the dihederal on the left of the slab)? Man I love friction but that freaked me out for some reason.
Cammyjams-- it sounds like you got onto the 5.9 variation. The standard route goes to the right from the 2nd belay. The climbing is very easy, but not much protection on the right (unless you do something weird, you will be too far to the right to even clip the bolt).
By George Wilson From: Las Vegas Nov 27, 2007 rating: 5.6
JV is a fun route. We had two parties rappelling down while we were climbing up...This made for quite a scene!!! Both parties reluctantly climbed back up to free their snagged rope. I would recommend rappelling the gully as it puts you right back were you start JV. Using the gully for descent also creates less traffic on JV. We descended the gully, had no issues and were down about the same time the snagged rope climbers were packing up. This descent uses one rope (we had a 70 meter) and is very straight forward. There are even some old pitons next to one of the rap anchors for your viewing pleasure!!! Be prepared to walk out in the dark.
Thanks Larry, I realize this probably should have been posted in the forums. I'm gonna go back up there soon and nail that slab. It just seemed like the 'right' way to go off of the belay at the time. Live and learn. 5.9, not 5.6, LOL.
..named for my old friend, John Rosholt, I hope your pulling down where ever you are...
By saxfiend Administrator From: Atlanta, GA Apr 7, 2008 rating: 5.7+
Great route! The climbing was always interesting and never really stressful. This was our "warm-up" for Solar Slab, so we had a full day.
As for the dreaded rope snags, ours got snagged twice coming down JV after rapping Solar Slab without any issues. It was a real pain in the ass, but it doesn't look like rapping the gully would have made any difference: as we were hiking out, we heard obscenities from a climber with a snagged rope in the SS gully.
Solar Slab - Lower Tier
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