I've been invited to a friend's wedding in Vegas on the last weekend of May. It's an expensive/long trip out there from the UK so I'm looking for something to tack on to make the most of it. But none of the friends I'll be with in Vegas are climbers so I'm riding solo.

If anyone has any ideas of good solo objectives, guided trips worth doing, gatherings, events etc, suitable for a moderate trad climber, I'd be interested to hear. I've been toying with learning more about snow and ice climbing/mountaineering too so I could be tempted to do a course if there's anything less than 2 days drive away from Vegas that people could recommend?

I'm casting the net wide right now so the more ideas the better. Thanks in advance!

2 days drive from Vegas = most of the North American continent. Did you mean 2 hours?

Lone Pine California is about a 4 hour drive away and the jumping off point for Mt. Whitney and other high Sierra mountain destinations. Check out whitneyzone.com. Also, there is an Inyo National Forest Service visitors center in Lone Pine that is worth checking out for more info once you are there.

In May, most of the Spring Mt range will have consolidated snow, depending how the El Nino pans out.

http://hwstock.org/chazsno10/

Opportunities for scrambling in Red Rock may be boundless depending on the temperature. I've seen snow and hot weather in May.
http://hwstock.org/rainb_nutz/
There is absolutely no need to travel to California.

nartreb wrote:2 days drive from Vegas = most of the North American continent. Did you mean 2 hours?

I didn't mean 48 hours driving, more like 12 or 14 hours driving split over two days.