Shelf Road Climbing and Camping

I spent the end of last week and the weekend pursuing one of my passions... CLIMBING!!! During my last trip to Austin my friend touted the awesomeness of some climbing area and made me promise I would go before I move back to Texas. Since there is so much good climbing close to me, I couldn't see driving 3 hours to another area to climb. Yet, I decided to take my last summer vacation and head with my friend Alex to climb somewhere new. We chose to drive to Shelf Road (by Colorado Springs) and climb for a few days. Of course, Shelf Road just happens to be the place Alan had raved about. We stopped at a climbing area outside of Buena Vista on our way down. It was pretty cold out, but the rock was amazing. Our first route was around 85 feet long and used up almost all of the rope. We climbed one more route before succumbing to the lack of light and the approaching cold.

We rolled into the camping area around 8 p.m. and set up camp. There was only one other group when we arrived. It was wicked cold, got down to the teens. I turned into a caterpillar that evening as I cinched my mummy bag around my face, exposing only my nose and mouth to the bitter cold. As morning came, I shivered my way out of my cocoon and into my climbing attire.

The first two walls we chose to climb were not wise choices. They didn't get very good sun and the rock sucked the warmth right out of our hands. It's much harder to climb with ice fingers... I guarantee you. Later in the day we hiked across the canyon and found where we would climb for most of the remainder of the week. Cactus Cliff (as it is called) stayed in the sun almost all day and had a myriad of epic routes. You couldn't look at the wall without seeing at least 5 routes that cruised for miles up the perfect limestone.

We learned from the first day that we might as well just spend the whole time at Cactus Cliff in the sun. It was warm enough to climb with our shirts off before the clouds blew in that afternoon.

Jamming my hands into the sharp limestone cracks left my hands looking like a leper. I left my fair share of blood on the rock to get back at it.

Our final day of climbing led us to a different area with fewer people called the Menses Wall. The view was still gorgeous.

The first climb we chose was called Period Epic, followed by the walls namesake, Menses. It was named this because of the huge red streak that made its way down the route. We made our way up a few more before realizing on the route Lightdays, the theme of the route names. A bit disturbing, but funny none the less. If you don't get it, it may be for the better.

We couldn't have chosen a better group of days to climb during this time of year. Overall, the sky's were clear and the climbing was outstanding. I would almost consider living in Colorado Springs just to have easy access to the thousands of routes in the area.