Last week my company had a conference in Las Vegas just like they do every year. This year my brother flew down, so we could go climbing together. I was super excited about the climbing, but because of Vegas' grasp on our need to have fun at night we ended up doing less climbing than I had expected, but it turned out to be a great trip nonetheless.
My brother flew in one evening after I did, so I spent the first night hanging out with coworkers and schmoozing during the party around the pool. Despite the pool at the Golden Nugget not being as nice as the pool at Red Rocks Resort the party was still fun. The main attraction was the new shark tank they had coming out of the middle of the pool. They even hired a couple of scuba divers to swim around the shark tank holding 'Golden Nugget Welcomes Avanade' signs. That led to questions of, 'What do to divers in Las Vegas do?' It isn't like there are a lot of places for divers to dive around Las Vegas. The first night ended early for me as I was tired. Going to bed early in Las Vegas in pretty lame, but it let me get up early for our meetings the next day. Having energy for the next day was nice, but whether it paid off in the end is still questionable.
After the days meetings it was time to pick my brother up from the airport. The timing of his flight and the company dinner was not timed well. I expected to be able to pick up my brother from the airport, pick up the rental car (audi a6, which is awesome btw) and get back in time for food, but by the time we had gotten back to Jillian's on Fremont Ave. the food had all been put away. We got a couple drinks and walked around looking for my friends, but we couldn't find any of them. One of them played their early night card and another stormed off after USC lost to Oregon State. It was time for my brother and I to fly solo and get something to eat. He looked at the Vegas travel guide and decided to head to the Hard Rock. I hadn't been there last year, so I was game. We put on our collared shirts and designer jeans and headed out. We hit the strip with windows down and music blasting. It was pretty cliché actually and we looked just like everyone else out.
We walked around Hard Rock Hotel briefly and ended up at Mr. Lucky's. It was time to get some $10 all you can eat prime rib. I was excited since I had not eaten since lunch. We made our way to the front of the line, mainly through attrition, and we were going to be seated next when the hostess told us that the kitchen was going to get backed up, so we had to wait to be seated. This is where the fun begins. Throughout the day I felt fine. At the time I felt a little fatigued, but who wouldn't after 10 hours without eating. The next thing I knew I was feeling flush, getting sweating and my vision started to blur. I was leaning against the hostess podium, but I ended up passing out in the people behind me. They caught me and the next thing I remember was a woman asking whether I was ok. 'Yeah, it's cool. I just fell asleep', I replied. (honestly, that must have sounded retarded, but they believed me). They ended up standing me up again and my brother asked the hostess if we could sit down. I am unsure why, but she didn't want to let us sit down. I didn't remember that part, but my brother told me that. I only remember seeing the woman's face asking if I was ok, replying and then I was on the floor with my shirt open. I had passed out a second time only 10 or 15 seconds after the first time, my eyes rolled back and I tensed up, so a registered nurse eating at a nearby table said I was seizing, so I was put on the floor. Because the hotel's security was located in the back of the restaurant they had arrived as I passed out the second time. I guess combination of my low heart rate and the security guards inability to find a pulse led him to believe I had a cardiac arrest and I stopped breathing. As my brother puts it, he went 0 to 60 in no time, tore open my shirt and start giving me chest compressions. After a couple compressions I woke up and thought to myself, 'wtf, why am I on the floor with my shirt ripped open?' He told me I stopped breathing, asked my age and whether I was on drugs. Of course, the answers were 26 and no. After a couple more questions about whether I had taken drugs or if I was on medication bystanders (who I appreciate greatly) lifted to my feet and then security took me to their headquarters. I sat down in a chair and started to feel much better, a little groggy, but I was responsive. Just then, the EMTs rushed in with a gurney. Eric talked to them as they came in and answered questions about their confusion about why I was not overdosing and on the floor. Apparently the report they received said, 26 year old male with cardiac arrest, 3-5 minutes of chest compressions and I was defibrillated. When they came in they were like, what are you guys doing giving this guy CPR for, he is fine. I was still sort of confused this whole time. When you pass out it is hard to stay on top of things when everyone is coming and going and asking questions. I felt tired and just wanted to go home and rest, but since the over-excited security guard pounded on my chest the EMTs wanted to take me to the hospital to x-ray my chest. Supposedly, when CPR is performed properly the sternum gets broken. In this case it hadn't because this guy didn't know how to properly administer CPR … thank goodness. So I rode in ambulance to Spring Valley Medical Center. The EMTs were nice and friendly. They were honest with me about the whole situation and how stupid the security guards were. They also told me they expected to find me dead because of the report they received. I gave them some entertainment for the evening. I was admitted to the hospital and ended up spending the night there. I had blood and urine tests, an EKG and a chest x-ray. In the end they told me I was dehydrated and I didn't have cocaine or amphetamines in my system. At 6:00 am I was released, so Eric and I headed back to the hotel to get some much needed rest. I am sure it was interesting welcome to Las Vegas for my brother.
The next day I missed my meetings because I was resting up from the disaster the night before. The lesson learned was to stay hydrated. And the next day I tried hard to do that. In the evening we made our way out to Calico Basin to do some bouldering. We warmed up a little bit and the headed to the The Pearl. After some work on that we headed back in town to see Ka by Cirque du Soleil. Last year I had seen O and thought it was amazing, so my expectations were still high even though I knew it would not be the same as O. The differences were noticeable as soon as we entered the theatre. Ka's theatre was much wider and the seats were at a much shallower angle than those of O. Each side of the theatre had multi-tiered catwalks where actors were running around, swinging and jumping from level to level. Some were even connected together by ropes and would use each other as counterweights to move up and down from catwalk to catwalk. It was pretty neat. The story was about a brother and sister who get separated and the civil war their separation creates. The costumes and way the two of them performed had very anime-like feel, which was interesting. The stage was amazing and just like O, the transitions from scene to scene involved an elaborate and creative use the stage. In O, parts of the stage moved in and out of the water, but in Ka they made use of a hydraulic platform. The platform could spin and tip, which provided for interesting fight scenes where at one moment the actors would be running on an incline and the next moment they would be scaling a vertical wall. All in all it was a good show and I would recommend it to others.
Saturday afternoon was the day for our sport climbing adventure. An employee at Desert Rock Sports recommended we try the Black Corridor in the Calico Hills area of Red Rocks Canyon. We made our way to the Black Corridor and when we found it all I could think was how much it seemed like a climbing gym. Not because of the climbing, but because of the number of people climbing at the same time. My brother and I quickly got warmed up on a nice 5.9. It was time to choose the next route. There was some confusion about the grading of some problems between everyone there because we were all using different guides and it was apparent that new routes were put up that were not included in some of the guides, but included in others. I got on what we thought was a 5.10, but it ended up being a 5.11c, with a crux near the top. The first 30-40 feet was featured with scoops and huecos. The climb was a little tough, but it could have been 5.10 or 5.11. I am not good at telling the difference. The crux was above the lip where the rock changed from being featured with big jugs, pinchers and slopers to an almost featureless slab of about 5 feet. With all my sport climbing experience I thought it would be a wise idea to skip the bolt on the slab and try to find a jug, crimp or some sort of positive feature at the top of the slab. I thought I found something nice, at the lip of the slab, but it wasn't good. I let out a short yell and blew off the problem. I took a nice 15 foot whipper just as everyone was watching me. The fall was a little scary, but it was fun at the same time! I enjoyed the feeling of working hard and being on the edge because most of the time I sport climb I stick to stuff I can do and if I think the move will be too hard I will not try it. I would like to try the problem again, but I won't skip that bolt. On a funny note, you would think I would learn my lesson, but the next problem I worked on I skipped the second bolt and if I had fallen at the third bolt I would have certainly decked. Afterwards I asked Eric why he didn't tell me that I skipped the second bolt and he told me that he didn't notice. … what a great combination. It was turning out to be a pretty exciting weekend.
Saturday evening we went to Tournament of the Kings at Excalibur. I could not help but wonder whether any of the actors took themselves seriously. The show ended up being a blast, Norway lost, so I was disappointed in my section. Eric and I both almost lost our voices cheering and it was all for not. After the show we watched a couple fountain shows at the Bellagio and the pirate battle at Treasure Island. The pirate battle is great and it is best to watch on the south end, because that is where the siren's ship is. The pirate battle was fun to watch because it was almost like a shortened version of a show you could see inside one of the hotels. It had a plot, fire, pyrotechnics and a sinking ship. What else do you need?
Our last day was relaxing. We just did some bouldering at Red Springs. There are some pretty good problems in close proximity to each other, but it is not good if you want to climb really hard. I would recommend going all the way to the Karft boulders. The only nice thing is the cave can provide some shade and the boulder has problems on all sides, so you can find something to climb regardless of where the sun is in the sky.
Overall I had a good time and I can't wait until flyback next year. Maybe I will stay longer and actually climb more instead of trying to find time between the late night shows and late wake up calls. Pictures will be coming soon.
