The Monument  Photos:  Recent | Best | Popular Page Views:  13,652. Good page?    Administrators:  Larry DeAngelo, Tom Erickson Submitted By:  Craig Clarence on Mar 11, 2004 Make this area a Favorite What's New   Print a Mini-Guide with routes Add Route  Add Photo  Add Comment  Add Event  Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 90° | 68° 84° | 63° 81° | 57° 82° | 63° 84° | 63°

Andy Hansen on Lizard Locks, 5.11. Photo Jason Mol...

Description 

This series of cliffs is located just outside the entrance to the Black Velvet Canyon, on the right-hand side as you look up the canyon from the parking lot. The best way to find the area is to locate the Desert Reality roof, which is a large triangular roof capping a thin strip of tan rock surrounded by darker desert varnish.

Most of the routes here are single-pitch, with 2-bolt rap anchors of varying quality. Many of the raps require 2 ropes. The cliff faces southwest so it's a good place to go if it's too cold to climb on the Black Velvet Wall.

The highlight of this area is the route Desert Reality, pictured on page 339 of the latest edition of the Swain guide. 15' or so of dead-horizontal roof, with a clean splitter going right out its center.

Getting There 

Start at the Black Velvet parking lot, and walk up the trail a quarter mile or so until you can clearly identify the Desert Reality roof to the right of the mouth of Black Velvet canyon. You can see the roof from the parking lot if you know where to look, but it's a lot easier to identify after you walk up the trail about 20 minutes. The triangular-shaped Desert Reality roof caps a thin vertical strip of light-tan rock within an area of darker rock.

After identifying the roof, leave the Black Velvet trail and diagonal right across the desert on faint climbers' trails to the base of the crag underneath the roof.

The Classics

Featured Route For The Monument

Lizard Locks 5.11  NV : Red Rock : ... : The Monument

Lizard Locks is a strikingly beautiful, thin, splitter crack in hard sandstone on the northern end of The Monument wall. Start climbing to the left of the crack through easy and blocky terrain to reach the base of the business. Place bomber protection and move upwards taking any opportunity to rest before the real fight begins. As the wall steepens so too does the crack thin out. Move through a thin section to a good hand jam pod. From here your creative use of the features provided will bring y...[more]   Browse More Classics in NV