I'm heading down to Shelf for the first time this weekend, and looking for peoples' lists of the 5 best 10's, so post up what's good.

I appreciate everyone's advice. Thanks.

I really enjoyed Suburbia (Contest Wall). Fun from bottom to top. Great moves. Great rests and an excellent finish.

I cannot recall the name but it is directly right of purple toe nails on cactus cliff area. good lie backing flake really fun moves.

If you have the latest guidebook to Shelf Road (Copyright 2005)check out Cactus Cliff. I pretty much went down the list of all the 5.10's to 5.11's and got on everything with 4-Stars. My friends and I couldn't have had a better time that weekend. I really liked the very left side of Cactus Cliff. It tends to be alot more concentrated. About 150-ft right of Dihedrus (Awesome 5.10b) it starts to get more spread out, but there are really good climbs as well all the way to Spiny Ridge.

Here's my favorite in no order on the left side of Cactus Cliff:
1) Three Quarter Ton 5.10c/d
2) The Alignment 5.10c
3) Blackman's Burden 5.10b/c
4) Dihedrus 5.10b
5) Third Stage 5.10b/c (Slabby and old school bolting, but awesome)

Don't pass up Muscle Beach 5.11a. Move wise it's no harder than 5.10b, but the pump will get ya. All grades listed are straight from the book and not my own opinions.

Have fun...

i was climbing solid 5.10 and decided to break into the low 11's at shelf. i suggest you do the same. shelf's a great place to push your limits and have an awesome time doing it. you may take a few whippers but hell it's sport climbing, and you'll definitely learn a few new techniques. i think most people would agree that the most classic climbs at shelf are in the 5.11 - 5.12 range. i would spend most of my time at cactus cliff, contest wall, and especially the bank (back to the future, 5.11b) sharp end makes a beautiful guide book for shelf. it's a wise investment. you're also gonna want good edging, aggressive sport climbing shoes, have fun

Crack of Dawn
Menses
the Big Chill
Block Party
Dihedrus
Suburbia
Black Man's Burden
John Cruiser Meloncrimp
B/C (5.9+) not a .10 but sweet

If you think that the .10s at shelf are good just wait till you get to the mid .11's. Shelf is really all about sweet .11's.

Three-Quarter Ton
The Alignment
Stress Rehersal
Dihedrus
2150 A.D.

I agree with Bill regarding B/C (5.9+), an awesome route for the grade.

d.

I can't think of 5, but I liked Funktamental.

At Sand Gulch:
Warm up on Dune then do

• Spiny Dan* Suburbia has been mentioned already.

• The Alignment*

• Muscle Beach*- the .11a rating is for pump factor, any .10 climber can do this climb if the rests are milked.

• Politically Incorrect*

• Toxxxic Entertainment* -this is the beatiful layback flake mentioned in a previous post.

Toxxic Entertainment is the .10a directly right of Purple Toenails on Spiney. Access All Areas is another great .10d at Spiney as well as Down n' Dirty .10c

In terms of best .10's at Shelf, you'd really be hard pressed to climb them all in one day (or one weekend for that matter) since they're all spread out among the different areas. These are some of the best IMO but everyone has different ideas of what's the best.

Toxxxic Entertainment .10a (Spiney Ridge)
Suburbia .10b (Sand Gulch, Contest Wall)
Politically Incorrect .10c (Cactus Cliff)
Menses .10d (Menses Prow)
Cactus Drop .10d (Sand Gulch, Contest Wall)

Suburbia .10b (Sand Gulch, Contest Wall)
Menses .10d (Menses Prow)