trad leader

i went to vegas on friday to go climbing for a few days and MAN was it
it good! we (j., m., jh., and i) flew out of oakland in the morning, and were out at the rock
by about 1:30, where we did some easy sport
stuff to get used to climbing outdoors again.

on friday evening we decided that we'd try a multi-pitch trad route the next day, and after a little research we decided on one called geronimo, which is a 4 pitch 5.6.

we set off from the car at about 7:00 the next morning, and, after getting lost only once, we arrived at the base of the climb around 8:15.
it looked great; low-angle, with huge, juggy holds heading up a nice deep crack. since it looked so good/easy/safe i offered to lead the first pitch, and after a quick refresher on anchors i was off on my first trad lead.

it was great; not too hard, plenty of places to place pro, and exciting without being pants-filling. before i knew it i was at the belay station, on a huge ledge with plenty of space to spread out, my first trad lead successfully behind me. woo hoo!

once i got set, i belayed jh. up, then j. led, followed by m., who cleaned the route.

j. led the second pitch, i led the third (although i got confused about where the top was and set up a belay station about 20 feet below the real top of the third pitch), and j. finished off the last (short) pitch which had an exciting start onto an airy, crimpy, (compared to the rest of the climb) face.

we had lunch on the top, and then started the process of getting down. 4 rappells each, and a couple of hours later we were on the ground, just as it was getting dark enough for headlamps.

sunday we did a bunch of single-pitch trad, and i scared the poop out of myself on a horrible, slippery, 5.5 dihedral.
m. and jh. were working on putting up a 5.4 to the right of it, and had all the gear, but i was freezing and wanted to climb something to get warm, so i grabbed a set of nuts and headed up. the first placement i found was about 30 feet up, and it seemed pretty tenuous, and the rest of the climb was worse; very few placements, slippery rock, and tiny holds. i desperately groveled my way up it, terrified out of my head, stopping at one point to talk to myself -- out loud -- in an attempt to calm myself down. i was glad to reach the anchor bolts.

dinner was at pin-kaow, the best thai food in las vegas, bar none, and then we headed to the airport to drop m. and jh. off.

monday morning j. and i headed out to the red rocks loop for more trad, where i led a single-pitch 5.5, and attempted to lead the first, short - 5.6 - pitch of a two-pitch climb. i got within about 8 feet of the anchors, and had to back off. i would have had to make two pure crack moves to get there, and i just don't have enough crack experience to feel safe on lead.
j. finished the route off, and we packed up. before we left we spent about 45 minutes bouldering, which was a ton of fun, and a great way to finish the trip off.