The Red Rocks Rendezvous was last weekend in the beautiful Red Rock wilderness area outside of Las Vegas. PrAna had a presence with many of it’s top climbers attending including Chris Sharma, Alli Rainey, Kevin Wilkinson and Katie Brown. The Yogaslackers also attended putting on slackline clinics, product giveaways and free massages. Part of the festivities was a live auction put on by the Access Fund to raise money to help keep climbing areas open. They auctioned off all sorts of climbing and camping gear, clothing, bicycles and even art to support the cause.

PrAna’s own Chris Sharma contributed by auctioning off himself and one generous couple bid $2100 for a day of climbing with Chris ! Even better, a second group of folks matched the bid and plan on traveling to Spain to climb with Chris in the fall. The live auction raised over $10,000 for this worthy cause. Thank you Chris !

And our own Alli Rainey had even more to say…

Red Rock Rendezvous 2010

A joyous gathering of climbers from around the country, with 44 states represented this year, along with an international presence as well, the 2010 Red Rock Rendezvous (RRR) welcomed the spring climbing season with its usual enthusiasm. The seventh year of this enormous climbing event took place without a hitch—no windstorms to blow tents down or rain to drive climbers into the gym. Instead, perfect weather and happy faces abounded throughout the weekend, as participants and pro athletes mingled with industry sponsors both at the event venue and out on the rocks during this three-day climbing extravaganza.

Check out the cool video that Lewis shot with a Flip HD

This year (the third time I’ve taught at RRR), I attended courtesy of the combined efforts of prAna and Petzl, teaching “Climb Like a Girl” on both Saturday and Sunday. My clinic took place at the Winston Wall, a location I’d never seen before, but thanks to the remarkable efficiency of the guide assigned to help, Viren Perumal, and top climber Audrey Sniezek (who graciously agreed to come and assist with my clinic), we managed to get all of clients down to the base of the climb safely—a scramble down a gulley with a 5^th class move at the end—and climbing quickly, which is always a goal of mine at clinics. Clients climb first, and if I get any climbing in at all, it’s more about demonstrating what I’m trying to teach.

Audrey had the great idea of stringing up the rappel station as another top rope, since the climb, a 5.7 called Man’s Best Friend, would end up being relatively easy for everyone in the clinic. This proved to be a wonderful call, since this little face provided a much greater challenge for everyone, as well as adding a second climbing station to the clinic. With a climber, belayer, and back-up belayer, two ropes kept the clients pretty busy throughout the day.

We worked on developing confidence in foot placements, especially on smears, and on not using upper body power to just pull through moves. I directed the focus on pushing with the legs and feet, watching the feet connect with each hold, and finding good balance points, even trying to take the hands off of the rock with every step up. I also fielded a ton of questions about training for climbing, which I thoroughly enjoyed answering, since training for climbing is a passion of mine—I love helping other people figure out how to direct their climbing training endeavors.

As a bonus, everyone in my clinics received a free pair of brand-new sunglasses, thanks to Native Eyewear, a prAna item of their choice from a huge bag of goodies, and a Clif C Bar, plus some stickers.

As usual, by the end of the day on both days, I felt thoroughly exhausted, not from climbing (I think I climbed a total of three pitches in the two days of clinics), but just from pouring energy into teaching—in a good way, of course. I’d laughed a ton, enjoyed meeting the people in my clinics as well as catching up with friends in the climbing industry and other pro climbers, and also, realized just how ready I am to be back on the road and climbing on real rock again after a winter spent indoors training. RRR 2010 provided the perfect kickoff to my 2010 climbing season, once again impressing me with its amazing organization and community-building power. Thanks to all the folks at Mountain Gear who work so hard to make RRR a safe and fun event, as well as my personal thank you to Audrey and Viren for making my life easier during the event.

~Alli

Photos/Video courtesy of prAna & Audrey Sniezek.

Tags: 2010, Access Fund, Alli Rainey, auction, Audrey Sniezek, Chris Sharma, Clif Bar, Climb Like a Girl, Climbing, clinic, Katie Brown, Kevin Wilkinson, Las Vegas, massages, Mountain Gear, Native Eyewear, Red Rocks Rendezvous, Spain, Viren Perumal, Winston Wall, Yogaslackers

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 27th, 2010 at 1:00 am and is filed under Alliances, Athlete Team, Culture, Environmental, Festival, Rock Climbing, Sustainability. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.