Shelf Road -April

Planning a trip to Shelf Road with a few friends in mid April.  I’ve made a fair amount of trips to BC, Eldo, and Clear Creek, but this will be my first time to Shelf.  Anything unique or unusual that we should be aware of?  Approaches, weather, weird local ethics, etc?

Approaches are easy, nothing really further than 1-1.25 miles.  The weather will likely be good then. You’ll have to see what the weather brings those specific days in order to pick sun or shade.  It gets hot quick there.

Shelf has slightly stouter grades and sparser bolts than CC or BoCan. It is a beautiful area packed with cool routes. Have fun!

Ryan Moser wrote:

Shelf has slightly stouter grades and sparser bolts than CC or BoCan. It is a beautiful area packed with cool routes. Have fun!

At the grades Louis is climbing, I actually think they’ll find it softer than CC or BoCan. And large swaths of shelf have similar or tighter bolting than CC or BoCan, often competing with Staunton for how many bolts can be placed on a 60ft pitch

I think the “touch stiffer” comments about shelf generally comes from the fact that shelf style limestone isn’t in abundance (for better or worse) and takes a bit to “understand”, and generally requires more precise and specific footwork/beta than Clear Creek/BoCan below mid 5.10

I agree with Tal. I don’t find Shelf stiff, in comparison, at all. It is techy pocketed limestone. Think high feet and bad hand holds. It is the antithesis of the RRG, for example. I hate it. Approaches are mostly flat (some longer than others) and bolts are spaced pretty normally compared to most crags  throughout the US (Smith being spaced out and Ten Sleep being overly bolted as baselines/references). It feels just as adequately bolted as the RRG and NRG IMO. April is a good time frame. Some days might be quite warm and you’ll have to seek shade, could be muddy as well. 

Bring a stick-clip.  Despite the traffic, and generally good rock, Shelf still exfoliates layers frequently.  It's not worth popping off a flake trying to get to the first bolt and ruining your day.  Some of the popular crags (Cactus, Bank) will be absolutely baking by April, so plan accordingly to chase shade that time of year.