Rock Climbing Outside the Epicenter of Gambling

What could go wrong on a climbing route named after a Dr. Seuss character? That’s the question posed by Los Angeles Times writer Michael Ybarra, who with his long-time climbing partner attempted to follow a route called the Cat in the Hat up  the 5,400 pyramid known as Mescalito, a stony giant that sits just few miles outside Las Vegas. Ybarra tells us that he followed a series of vertical cracks up Mescalito, and by 2 p.m. they were on the top of the route, a small bulge of gray rock halfway up Mescalito with a bolted anchor for rappelling down. Most climbers turn around here, he writes, rather than continuing up to the summit.  Guess what Ybarra didn’t do. Guess what happened. Or don’t guess: read the story here.