Days 47, 48 and 49: Shelf Life

I didn't get far driving on Saturday night after spending the whole day climbing Diablo Canyon and overindulging at a Mexican restaurant.  In fact, only an hour outside Santa Fe to the small town of Las Vegas, New Mexico that is.  I parked at a visitors' information center in the city and since I couldn't really gauge my surroundings, felt less comfortable than usual.  During the night, a couple of cop cars pulled up to the center and got out for a security check.  They drove away after about 5 minutes and just as I was getting back to sleep another officer walked past the few cars in the parking lot, shining his light as he passed.  I layed still because I didn't want to risk being seen and asked to leave and sure enough he left me to sleep. 

New western time zones - daylight savings time = early mornings.  That's how I got an early start to my Sunday morning.  I was headed to Shelf Road, one of Colorado's best winter climbing destinations.  On my way up I25 this blog was weighing on my shoulders so I decided to stop in Pueblo, CO to use the public library.  The libraries in America are great and I'm sure they will be valuable facilities on this leg of my trip where I have fewer friends and family to stay with.  I killed time at a Mexican restaurant during lunch as the library didn't open until 1:00.  Once there, I typed away the beautiful day and traded a day climbing for a day writing. 



Dave surveying a few of the
thousand+ climbs at Shelf Road

 I finished the final stretch to Shelf Road after the sun slid behind the mountains around 5:30.  I both like and dislike night driving.  On the one hand, driving at night frees my day to enjoy the outdoor activities I love to do.  On the other hand, I miss the scenery, make more navigation errors, and lack much knowledge of my surroundings.   Finding Shelf Road was fairly straightforward and when I thought I had found the entrance I pulled into a turn around to get my bearings and let a car pass.  The car stopped and I heard a voice call out "You lost?".  "Are you a climber?" I replied.  "Hell yeah I am!" he answered back and that was how I met Dave, a climber saturated in stoke. 

Cactus Cliff is just one of many
limestone crags at Shelf Road

Dave was sleeping in his car too so I asked if I could tag along to the parking lot and trade a beer for some beta (a term used by climbers meaning information about a climb or crag).  We spent the next few hours trading stories, reading the guide book, planning climbs and getting pumped up for the next day.  It turned out that Dave had a whole group of friends, about 10 strong, coming the next day to meet up.  Dave kept promising me I'd love it there and it turned out, he was right. 



A well deserved fist pump
 after sending the Cactus
Cliff classic Dihedrus

 Since his friends would be a little late, we decided to get a few climbs in before they got there.  Dave had a few classics that he wanted to introduce me to.  We started with a great warm up called Crynoid Corner (5.7).  It was good relaxing climb that gave me a good feel for the integrity of the limestone we were climbing.  We moved onto another warm up nearby called Kalahari Sidewinder (5.8) which happened to be right beside a four star dihedral climb fittingly named Dihedrus (5.10b).  The routes in the guidebook are given stars based on their popularity and Cactus Cliff, the Shelf Road crag we were at, was not short on four star climbs.  After stemming my way up an open book dihedral, I reached the anchors and ticked my second four star climb of the day.  

We decided to go meet up with the rest of the crew who had just arrived and so we headed back along the cliff until we saw them.  Dave parted with someone else to climb and left me with Bill and Lee to do a fun and reachy climb called Slicer (5.10a/b).  I spent some time with the guidebook and found a couple of four star 5.10s nearby.  The next climb was Blackman's Burden (5.10c), a thrilling 75 foot route that had a good variety of face and crack climbing through corners and along flakes. 



Lots of great climbs in
this corner including
I Claudius and I Lean

 We left the rope up for others to top rope and continued along the cliff to find the others in a big corner that had a few routes in it.  That was where Dave pointed out a beautiful crack that snaked its way up nearly the whole 80 foot wall.  Cracks to climbers are like peeling waves to surfers or fresh produce to an inspired cook.  In what most people see as just some ordinary feature or object they see something special, something that they can use their talents to interact with, to create feeling and accomplish goals. That's how I felt when I saw the crack I Claudius (5.11b); it needed to be climbed. 



Jam feet, reach with
hands, step up, repeat.

 I'm not a very experienced crack climber, so when I started up the hand-sized crack flanked on both sides by featureless stone I wondered if I'd get through this climb with all my gear (if you retreat you leave gear).  The moves down low were mostly jamming (camming your hands and feet in the crack).  The key to crack climbing seems to be trusting your hand and foot jams and with every crack climb I do, my trust does indeed grow. 

Lay-backing through
the crux of I Claudius

The top part of the climb was the crux for me.  Just as my arms were beginning to pump out, the crack narrowed and I switched to the physical technique of lay-backing.  In this position I was able to pull on one edge of the crack with my hands while smearing and walking up the opposite wall.  It relies on two things, the friction of your feet and the  opposition force held by your hands.  Needless to say I took a quite a few whippers (falls) before finding the solution to pass the section, but in the words of Ozzy Brian (a climber who came through Taiwan a while back) "if you're not flying, you're not trying."

Shelf Road climbing friends

I was so pumped, both physically (tired) and mentally (excited) when I reached the anchors that I wasn't even thinking straight.  While I was still on the route someone had asked if anyone could lead and set up a top rope for Chunky Monkey, a 5.10c/d with a really powerful start over a roof.  I, of course, volunteered and got myself in way over my head.  It took me at least 15 minutes to pull the first move and I couldn't even do that without frenching (pulling on the gear).  Since the gear wasn't even mine, I knew I had to reach the anchors so I could clean the rest of the gear off the wall.  Somehow I did it and managed to get down safely to end a long day of climbing. 

Even though I had leftover rice to eat, I was too tired to cook and opted to my new friends for pizza in town.  I was glad I did because not only did I have great pizza and a refreshing beer, but I also organized a partner for the next day.  Carl, pictured far left above, said he was game for climbing the next day and we meet in the same parking lot around 9 am. 

I'm up there somewhere
near the anchors on
Three Quarter Ton 5.10b/c

The nights in the high Colorado deserts are cold but the days are deceivingly warm.  The previous day I'd been in a t-shirt most of the day and even felt hot in the sun, despite the highs of just 62 degrees.  The weather reported indicated that a cold front would be coming and the forecast for Tuesday was just 50 degrees.  For anyone interested in going to Shelf Road, don't be put off by low temps, it's so much warmer when you're really there.  Maybe its the higher altitude or the dry air, but 50 at that crag feels like 75 in the sun. 



Carl at the anchors
cleaning I Lean (5.11a)

 We climbed 7 more routes in the day and nearly all of them were four stars.  In order they included, Oscare de la Cholla (5.9), Three Quarter Ton (5.10b/c), The Alignment (5.10d), Crynoid Corner (5.7), Politically Incorrect (5.10c), I Lean (5.11a) and Poquito Mas (5.10c).  I put the draws up on each except for Crynoid Corner which Carl led on trad for practice and to have me critique his placements (I can't believe anyone would trust me to do that).  All the other routes for both days were sport routes since limestone's thin but hard shell doesn't hold trad gear as well as other more solid types of rock.  By the end of the day my arms were crying and my finger tips were raw, but I felt great.  I left Shelf Road at dark and headed north through the snowy weather of Colorado Springs, past the mile high city (Denver), and to my future step-sister's place in Boulder. 

Big thanks again to Dave, Bill, Lee, Carl and all the other folks who made my Shelf Road trip a blast.