Colorado trip during memorial day weekend (2024)

Hi Folks,

(My first post here.. so excited!)

My girlfriend and I booked the tickets to Colorado for Memorial day weekend. We plan to spend most, if not all, of our time climbing! I would greatly appreciate it if you could give me some insights into some of the following questions:

1. What are the weather conditions and camping options at RMNP during May? We would love to climb the northeast ridge of the Sharkstooth, but we are worried about the weather, approach, and camping options. (Both of us are strong winter hikers and have moderate experience with icy trails. We don't mind the snowy-icy approach, but we would not climb if the rock is wet/icy.)

2. What are some of the classic non-alpine multipitch routes that we can reasonably aim for? For reference, we are from Boston and climb frequently at the Gunks, Cathedral, Rumney, and Mt. Washington Valley. We both find comfort in 5.6 trad routes at the Gunks, 5.7-5.8 trad routes outside the Gunks, and  5.10 sport routes. We don't like routes that have runouts. PG-13 is our limit in risk-taking regardless of how easy the climb is. 

3. Can you recommend some sport crags? We would love to do some good multipitch sport routes.

4. What are the areas to avoid? I am sure some of the popular crags will get a lot of traffic.

Colorado is a large state. Based on your post I assume you will be somewhere near the Front Range or Estes Park. 

There is a CRAP-TON of climbing here. Memorial day weekend could bring snow or 85 degree sun, it really all depends on that. RMNP particularly can go either way in late May. The good news is that no matter what the weather is there will be something for you to climb. I suggest you use the route finder tool once your trip is closer and you have a better idea of what temps will be. If it's cold or wet Clear Creek, Boulder Canyon, and Eldo warm up and dry out very quickly. The sun here is not the same sun you get in the Northeast, it is incredibly powerful. If it's hot you can seek shelter at the high altitude crags in RMNP or around Estes. In my experience the crowds around Denver/Boulder tend to clear out a bit on holiday weekends. 

I consider myself somewhat of an expert when it comes to crag/climb selection based on weather and season. As your trip comes closer feel free to message me if you have any questions or need any recs. 

1. RMNP will approaching the winter/melt out transition in late may. Some rock routes may be dry but things could also be quite wintery. My guess is that anything north facing would still be mixed climbing at that point but I'll let someone with more experience chime in. As far as camping in the park goes, if you do not already have a permit, goodluck. There are some first come first serve sites, check rec.gov. You can also get a bivvy site if you plan to climb. Idk what lodging in Estes is like on Memorial day weekend, but I assume it is a shitshow. Book something today if you want to stay there, you are already late. In the Estes area, Lumpy Ridge is a better bet for dry rock climbing that time of year than the park proper and you have a really nice view of the Continental Divide. There will still be snow hanging out on north faces but anything that gets sun should be dry.

2. Eldo or the South Platte are your best options for non alpine trad multipitch on the Front Range. Eldo is more accessible if you want to stay in town, South Platte is more remote with camping. One is sandstone, the other is granite. Plenty of options if you spend some time looking through the areas on this site. The classic moderates in Eldo (Bastille Crack, Rewritten, etc) will probably have lines on memorial day weekend. It's probably easier to get away from the crowds in the South Platte but it's a really big and diverse area so ymmv. 

3. Clear Creek Canyon and Boulder Canyon are the obvious choices for sport climbing on the Front Range. Both have some multipitch climbs. Both are covered extensively by this website. Boulder Canyon has tyrolean traverses across the creek on half the canyon so heads up on that if you've never done one of those before. Further from the Denver/Boulder Metro, there is St Vrain Canyon, Poudre Canyon, South Platte, Shelf...

4. To be honest, you are the traffic. Memorial day weekend is basically the kick off for tourism season throughout the country and there will be crowds where ever you go. All the normal advice applies: pick the longest approaches, pick climbs that aren't ultra classic with 1000 ticks this year, get out early, etc. 

Also there are various wildlife closures up and down the front range for Raptor nesting. Please heed these closures. The MP area pages will have a warning about closures. 

Have fun in Colorado!

The couloir to Edge of Time might still be in then. Bring crampons and know crevasse rescue and you might have a chance to make it past the seracs.

If you don't like runouts, Eldo, the Flatirons, and (most of) the South Platte are a bad choice. The PG climbs there would be PG-13 in many other places. Lumpy Ridge and Devil's Head (mostly sport) are both good high elevation choices for beating the heat. Lower down, Boulder Canyon or some of the safer climbs in Eldo would be good.

A few random suggestions:

- You'll want to find shade if you hit up Eldo. It gets hot and greasy in the sun (a bit like the Gunks on a summer day, but perhaps even worse depending on the route). Swanson Arete and its neighbors (Dirty Deed/Icarus/Daedalus) are good shaded options until around 2-3pm. Bastille and its neighbors (Werk Supp might be worth consideration) get nearly all-day shade but will be swarmed from 7am onward on a summer weekend, let alone on memorial day.

- There's a lot of mellow sport multipitch around (Boulder Canyon, CCC, S. Platte, Mt. Royal, etc) but you'll want to get there early as those routes tend to be funnels for the holiday crowds

- I know you said 'nothing R' but consider doing a long easy route in the Flatirons (eg: the N Arete of the first flatiron via the 1st flatironette). You can get a late start and climb in the shade and bypass the crowds. Or, for something even easier, soloing freeway - it can be a bit of a zoo but is nothing like anything you've done before (imagine if Clip a Dee Doo Dah were 4x as long).

Anish D wrote:

Hi Folks,

(My first post here.. so excited!)

My girlfriend and I booked the tickets to Colorado for Memorial day weekend. We plan to spend most, if not all, of our time climbing! I would greatly appreciate it if you could give me some insights into some of the following questions:

1. What are the weather conditions and camping options at RMNP during May? We would love to climb the northeast ridge of the Sharkstooth, but we are worried about the weather, approach, and camping options. (Both of us are strong winter hikers and have moderate experience with icy trails. We don't mind the snowy-icy approach, but we would not climb if the rock is wet/icy.)

2. What are some of the classic non-alpine multipitch routes that we can reasonably aim for? For reference, we are from Boston and climb frequently at the Gunks, Cathedral, Rumney, and Mt. Washington Valley. We both find comfort in 5.6 trad routes at the Gunks, 5.7-5.8 trad routes outside the Gunks, and  5.10 sport routes. We don't like routes that have runouts. PG-13 is our limit in risk-taking regardless of how easy the climb is. 

3. Can you recommend some sport crags? We would love to do some good multipitch sport routes.

4. What are the areas to avoid? I am sure some of the popular crags will get a lot of traffic.

May in RMNP is for ski mo and ice/mixed climbing, not so much for rock climbing