OK to climb in Black Velvet Canyon after rain?

It rained Monday. So Tuesday I just went for a hike in BVC. In the morning, there was a party heading up Triassic Sands on Whiskey Peak. Should they have stayed off or is BVC safer to climb due to the varnished rock?

I'm not trying to get anyone in trouble, just want to learn for myself what is safe/acceptable on that type of rock, particularly in BVC. Thanks.

Depends on how much rain, temps, wind, etc. Black Velvet does not see a lot of Sun, so with any significant amount of rain, not a good idea to climb the day after. Large amounts of rain may take several days to dry.

Highlander wrote:Depends on how much rain, temps, wind, etc.

I'm hoping the Las Vegans who experienced the rain couple days ago can chime in. If it helps, I got an alert on my smartphone to be careful of flash flooding. When I was hiking the next day when I saw the climbers, the ground was definitely wet and yes those north-facing walls were not at all in the sun.

Legion wrote:It rained Monday. So Tuesday I just went for a hike in BVC. In the morning, there was a party heading up Triassic Sands on Whiskey Peak. Should they have stayed off or is BVC safer to climb due to the varnished rock?

The amount of varnish doesn't matter.

Marc801 wrote: The amount of varnish doesn't matter.

Good to know.

Thanks all. The party was not speaking English so maybe they weren't familiar with RR. It was a party of 6 so they could've trod heavily on that route. As I was hiking out, a helicopter flew in and of course I thought the worst, but it seemed to be just scanning the canyons.

I gotta chime in on this since I just saw a bunch of pictures on facebook of people I know from out of state climbing in the rain this week. Being new to vegas, I kinda thought this was a bunch of gobbly goo, until I went out to calico yesterday to walk my dog. The road to calico was covered in sand and the trail on the boulderfield was eroded and reshaped by the storm. That alone was enough to convince me not to touch a boulder problem, let alone climb an actual route.I'd hate to be the douchebag to ruin a climb for the future, so props for posting this!

Leslie McG wrote:I gotta chime in on this since I just saw a bunch of pictures on facebook of people I know from out of state climbing in the rain this week. Being new to vegas, I kinda thought this was a bunch of gobbly goo, until I went out to calico yesterday to walk my dog. The road to calico was covered in sand and the trail on the boulderfield was eroded and reshaped by the storm. That alone was enough to convince me not to touch a boulder problem, let alone climb an actual route.I'd hate to be the douchebag to ruin a climb for the future, so props for posting this!

There's this:
mountainproject.com/v/weeke…

And somewhere in the forum is a thread that started a listing of all routes that have been altered due to holds breaking off from people climbing during or shortly after rain.

Edit to add: found it!
mountainproject.com/v/best-…

clarification: In addition to Mon it dumped over the range on Sun. Note the new waterfalls.

Thanks for asking, Legion. Given the amount of rain I'd wait at least 48h to climb.

Nice pic fossana!

I think it's ok to climb sandstone when it's still wet, It just requires more gear, I leave the cams at home because I don't trust them when it's wet and I double up on the iron. It's more effort, and weight when climbing, but I feel so much better about pins then I do my cams on wet dessert rock.

I highly recommend that while nailing wet sandstone you opt for the largest pins you can get in. Sometimes I will farm the side of the cracks with my hammer to allow for a bigger pin to get slammed in just for piece of mind.

I saw the large party climbing on Triassic on Tuesday, as well. When I hiked past their vehicle, a silver SUV with California plates, I could see barcode stickers on it indicating that it was a rental.

They were still climbing after the helicopter flew around, so there didn't seem to be a connection between the two events.

We hiked into Juniper Canyon yesterday, and the dirt on the trail was still visibly saturated. The logs next to the trail were soaking wet to the touch. A climber we talked to had started up MysterZ but backed off because of how wet and crumbly it was. We saw a party making their way up Crimson.

Even though the rain stopped on Monday, there was low, heavy cloud cover over RR most of the day on Tuesday, so yesterday is the first day the sun could really facilitate the drying process. I'd be leery of climbing anything that remains full shade for at least another day.

JPVallone wrote:I think it's ok to climb sandstone when it's still wet, It just requires more gear, I leave the cams at home because I don't trust them when it's wet and I double up on the iron. It's more effort, and weight when climbing, but I feel so much better about pins then I do my cams on wet dessert rock. I highly recommend that while nailing wet sandstone you opt for the largest pins you can get in. Sometimes I will farm the side of the cracks with my hammer to allow for a bigger pin to get slammed in just for piece of mind.

Some sandstone is okay, some isn't.

Red Rocks is considered not okay, and it is marked as such in the guidebooks. Climbing after it rains can supposedly cause even strong holds to rip off, leaving routes permanently changed.

Bryan Manning wrote:Nice pic fossana!

thanks!