After a slower start involving lots of coffee, we drove a little further out on a rocky and slightly rutted dirt road to the 'Black Velvet' wall. From there we hiked up a desert wash, and eventually found the start to 'Prince of Darkness'.
We had mistakenly assumed the the entire route was bolted, so we took no trad gear. This was not the case, the first pitch (a mostly easy scramble) had no bolts so Chris improvised some rope stoppers to protect the short section of proper climbing.
I had the second pitch, 140' of sustained climbing on thin holds with no easy sections. I finished it cleanly, my toes screaming by the end. I belayed Chris to the top, then he set off on the next pitch.
He had clipped the first bolt, climbed past it, and was close to the second when he suddenly fell. I managed to get out of the way in time, but as he fell he his smashed his ankle against the wall, straight away Chris knew something was wrong.
We rested for a couple of minutes, but he realised he couldn't go on so we rappelled down to the ground. We packed our bags, and started the long hobble out of the canyon back to the car.
Chris made good time, I found him a decent branch for support which only broke once! We got back to the car, after a consolation beer I drove into Las Vegas to get Chris some medical attention. He had badly sprained his ankle, but it could have been a lot worse. Our climbing trip had finished prematurely, but the adventure wasn't over yet.
More photos here
