Great Red Book 

Unfortunately somebody has made a half-assed attempt to scratch out the memorial markings at the first belay. The engraving is still visible, but light scratches have been cut into the rock on top of it.

Randal gave a lot to Red Rock and it irks me -- as I'm sure it irks others -- that someone made a number of uninformed assumptions and took it upon themselves to do something about those assumptions.

Jason

Here is a little more on Randal Grandstaff, who fell to his death on the Great Red Book in June 2002:


Thursday, June 06, 2002
Copyright C Las Vegas Review-Journal

Legendary climber plummets to death at Red Rock

By J.M. KALIL
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Randal Grandstaff, a mountaineer who scaled peaks across the globe and ran the Las Vegas Valley's oldest and most successful climbing school, died Wednesday in an apparent accident at Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. He was 44.

A legend in climbing circles, Grandstaff plummeted about 150 feet to his death shortly after helping a tourist rappel down a rock face. Police believe the fall was accidental, but the 12:40 p.m. incident remains under investigation.

"At this point, we don't know what went wrong," said Sgt. Clint Bassett of the Metropolitan Police Department's Search and Rescue unit. "There's a dozen things that could've happened. There's equipment, human error, and then there's rock, and it could be any combination of those factors."

Police did not release the identity of the victim, but word of the Las Vegas native's death spread quickly Wednesday among the valley's tight-knit climbing community. Colleagues and an employee at Sky's the Limit, Grandstaff's climbing school, confirmed the identity of the victim.

"If you're a climber, Randal was the man," said Brandon Arens, a climber who worked for Grandstaff. "He was extremely impressive. Anyone serious about climbing Red Rock knows his name."

Fred Frazzetta, an employee at Desert Rock Sports, a climbing supply
store on West Charleston Boulevard, said Grandstaff was widely known by climbers because he had recorded so many first ascents at Red Rock, meaning he was the first person to perform a climb there.

"His name does appear in the Red Rock guidebook a lot," said Frazzetta, who knew Grandstaff for 12 years. "This guy had a pretty big reputation, and he had clients he guided from all over the world."

After he was introduced to climbing as a Boy Scout, Grandstaff began logging serious time at Red Rock as an adolescent and continued throughout his teen-age years.

The 1976 graduate of Bishop Gorman High School once got into trouble for scaling the brick tower in front of the school. Described as colorful by three people who knew him, Grandstaff also once gathered notoriety among climbers for scaling the Flashlight sculpture on the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

After a short stint in college, he became a heavily experienced mountaineer in both alpine and ice climbing.

He spent time on some of the most intimidating ridges on five continents, including Mount Everest and other peaks in the Himalayas, the snowy crests of the French Alps, and Alaska's Mount McKinley.

But it was the giant pile of sandstone west of Las Vegas that Grandstaff spent most of his life mastering.

"When there were only like 10 people climbing out at Red Rock, he was one of them," Frazzetta said.

Of the more than 1,500 rated climbs at Red Rock, Grandstaff could claim first ascent on about 800.

He bought a home close to the climbing area and launched Sky's the Limit in the mid-1980s. Colleagues said he enjoyed slowly building his business into a success centered on his love for the sport.

On Wednesday, police said he was leading a female tourist on a climb called the Great Red Book, a route up a rock face at the second turnoff on Red Rock's scenic loop.

The pair finished the climb, and the woman rappelled down on ropes first, Bassett said.

"She doesn't know what happened, because the next thing she knew, he just fell from the top," said Bassett, the police sergeant. "He was about to rappel, but just fell."

Police found the equipment the pair used to scale the rock at the bottom of the climbing area near the man's body.

Thanks for posting this article on Randal's death, Mike! What a terrible trajedy. But, having completed this route last week, the article raises more questions than it answers.

1) If the pair did reach the top of the route, then you'd need to do two raps to get down (the first pitch is 130', the second 120', according to Roxanna). However it is easy to walk off, and the top anchor is not set up for rapping. There are 2 bolts, but they are in a flat spot quite far from the edge. There are no chains for rapping (although maybe there were in 2002). Even so, there would be considerable rope drag pulling your ropes. Also, wouldn't the surviving woman have ended up at the first belay, rather than the ground? Perhaps he lowered her on a single line all the way down?

2) If they were at the first belay, after either completing the first pitch, or after somehow doing the first rappel, then the woman would have rapped normally and then somehow Randal fell from here.

Either way it doesn't really make sense. Has this been resolved? Where exactly was the rope when the rescue team arrived?

The incident did not make it into Accidents in North American Mountaineering, as near as I can tell. I checked the 2003-2005 editions and did not see it.

-George

Here's what I know: Randy had lowered his client from the top of the first pitch (bolted anchor). The rope, the belay device, and some cord were all attached to Randy. There appear to be two theories as to what actually happened. Randy sometimes used to use a knotted cord to rappel that was retreivable (leave no trace) from the ground by pulling on one strand of the rope (the knot would pop and the cord and rope would come down). I don't know how to tie the knot that he used, but others have said that you have to be vigilant when using it because it can come undone mid-rappel if you are not careful. Something about both strands of the rope needing to pass through the belay devive at the same rate.
Some folks think that Randy simply screwed-up the knot (not tied correctly) and it popped soon after he began his descent. The other theory has to do with the fact that Randy had some health issues that were causing him to have the occasional black-out. He may have begun to rap and simply blacked-out. Either way, shortly after he began his rappel, the knot popped.

I had heard something about either RB's or some kind of "retrieval" system being the cause.

Anyways, this route is great and has a bit of everything. I remember climbing into the slot you can see in some of the photos but I guess you could do this route in a number of ways.

You will probably want to walk off, when we did it it was not really set up for rappel (this may have changed).

One of the best routes I've done anywhere. Great gear, the bolts are far enough apart to keep things exciting and the 2 liebacking sections are amazing. Do yourself a favor and go straight up the face at the end of P2, no point getting in the chimney. The view from the top is priceless and even the walk off is scenic. Go do it. Now.

Do the belay stations have bolts? If so are they rap bolts or will I have to leave webbing if I don't want to walk down?

Yes, double bolts on both pitches. I am pretty sure you would need to leave webbing, if memory serves (it's been a few years). The walk off is kind of charming... When we did it there had been rain the week before and it was all green with pools of water.

it would take longer to rappel this route than to walk off of it.

also, i would suspect the rope pull on the first rappel would be brutal.

also, i never carry anything bigger than a red camalot on this route- but you might be able to make a case for a yellow...