Red Slippers

This route has the most "narrow exposed arete" climbing of the SW + South ridges of Calico Peak -- plus some other interesting situations, like crossing chasms. It takes the middle of the three ridges, and (unlike before August 2019) the climbing on it is pretty well worked-out from bottom to top.

Protection is the critical deficiency. The bottom wide ridge lacks belay anchors (and perhaps could use some directionals to protect the followers from side-swing impact), and while the lower part of the main narrow ridge has anchors, the upper part of the main narrow ridge lacks belay anchors - (then the connection to the Calico Viewcap summit does have some anchors).

So until someone works out some clever careful ways to construct more trad-gear or natural anchors, or (more likely) a team puts in some labor hours and expense to install fixed-bolt-hardware anchors, most of this route must be regarded as interesting Free Solo.

context: There are three South ridges for Calico Peak [see Photo]. The most prominent from the Red Rock Scenic Loop road is the left (W) one [see the route SouthWest Ridge], which goes up directly to the south ViewCap (N36.1585 W115.4380) - (which is not the highest summit) - and it requires more difficult climbing to get onto it near its bottom. The right (E) one [see the route Stone Sweet Ridge] aims more at the two highest summits of Calico Peak, but has some ups and downs along the way. There is also this middle ridge between those two with some rather interesting climbing + scrambling, which higher up connects with Stone Sweet Ridge to reach the Viewcap summit.

equipment: Tight-fitting technical rock-climbing shoes are not needed, because very few moves depend on stepping on small edges. But many moves stepping on slopy footholds, so a sticky-rubber rock-climbing style sole on a well-designed climbing-oriented approach shoe is valuable.

Using Trad gear to "fill in" the long runout sections is mostly unknown. Many climbers with lots of outdoor experience are well-capable of solo-ing this route in approach shoes (except for the risk of a hold breaking).

Hiking poles (collapsable) useful for approach and descent.

Effort: to the south ViewCap +935 ft uphill over 0.6 mile. Additional +130 ft uphill on return to Parking.

warning: Many loose rocks and weak breakable hand- and foot-holds on and around this route - (even when the rock is plenty dry). The rock becomes especially weak for a couple of days after significant rain or snow, so holds are even more likely to break off.

The middle one of the three SW + S ridges going up to the South Viewcap of Calico Peak.

Base of the low Wide ridge is around (N36.1558 W115.4370) . . . Top of low Wide ridge is around (N36.1566 W115.4369) Base of Main narrow ridge is around (N36.1572 W115.4371) . . . Top of main narrow ridge is around (N36.1584 W115.4376) Viewcap is around (N36.1585 W115.4380)

Photos to be added soon.

parking: 2nd Pull-Out parking (GPS latitude longitude approx N36.1518 W115.4374) on the Red Rock Scenic Loop road is small for the amount of climbers and hikers. Spot the three SW + S ridges of Calico, and especially note the middle one for Red Slippers.

approach: Starting 2PO, hike about 300 ft N on trail descending, then at junction sharp Right down 130 ft E into wash. Next about 500 ft N without obvious trail, a bit above left (W) side from the wash. . . . Variation: in very dry conditions instead of flirting with that hill, can just go 300 ft close along left side of wash, then NNE 250ft downward into center of wash (N36.1549 W115.4365).

Then in the midst of an uphill around the left side of a hill, at (N36.1549 W115.4371) turn sharp Right (E) and traverse 120 ft around right side of hill, and down into the bottom of the wash (N36.1551 W115.4367). Next bear Left (NW) off the main track up rough about 150 ft into the bottom of a rocky gully, which is the normal approach to the Stone Wall sport crag.

Each anchor in pitches 4 through 6 is two bolts with hangers, but so far in 2019 no connecting chain or rappel rings or quick-links.

So far in 2019, No intermediate bolts for protecting the Leader or directionals for protecting Followers against side-swing.

. . . All hardware is 304 Stainless Steel. . . . The bolts of the P4 + P5 + P6 belay anchors are 4 x 0.375 inch Powers five-piece sleeve bolts.

Using Trad gear to "fill in" the long runout sections is mostly unknown.