by Skittles
Following a couple of days of visiting shops and hanging out with Kelli Emmett in Colorado Springs, 
we decided to head to one of Colorado’s premier climbing areas: Shelf Road. Local climbers and almost all the climbers we had met on the road thus far had mentioned Shelf Road as an epic winter climbing destination and it was as epic as everyone had said it was going to be. We ended up pulling into the empty campground late Thursday afternoon. The twisty drive up to the campground had amazing views of the limestone cliffs glowing orange as they reflected the afternoon’s sun. Both Dave and I were itching for the opportunity to get back on the rock during the day and enjoy the camraderie of fellow climbers at night. Little did we know that that was exactly what we were going to get and then some!
Friday was full of experiencing some Shelf Road’s 4 star routes. Our favorite, pictured here is an 5.11c called Lats Have Feelings Too! It took a couple of lines to get used to the rock and the style of climbing and break out of the 9’s and 10’s, but once we did, we were pleasantly surprised with the climb-ability of the harder grades. Lots of the routes felt like we were climbing bolted trad routes (which I loved). When we got back to camp we were lucky enough to befriend Becca and Rob from Colorado College. Good drink and good times around our campfire that night. With night time temps dropping to about freezing, it was so nice to have the RV to retreat to — so deluxe!!