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Anyone have suggestions for good Jan/Feb climbing locations on the front range?

Original Post
zach pierce · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jan 2017 · Points: 0

Looking for new ideas on dry and south facing for winter climbing. trad or sport.

peakest · · Manitou Springs, Colorado · Joined Aug 2016 · Points: 31

Shelf fits the bill

Dan Cooksey · · Pink Ford Thunderbird · Joined Jan 2014 · Points: 365

2nd for shelf and elevenmile, sheepnose, weekdays when dry GOG is nice pretty much many areas south of Denver are great.

Jon Frisby · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Feb 2013 · Points: 270

Shelf

Halley Stocks · · Boulder, CO · Joined Oct 2010 · Points: 55

Eldo

Alexander K · · The road · Joined Oct 2014 · Points: 130

If it's above freezing and sunny go for it. Above 40 and cloudy can still be quite doable. The key thing to watch for is the wind. There are often very high winds that accompany warm fronts in the winter in Colorado. And high winds aren't much fun to climb in, especially for multipitch. They don't just make you colder, they make it really hard to do balancy and technical moves. Trying to climb the Yellow Spur in January with gusts in the 30-50 mph range is one of the hardest days of climbing I've ever had.

Remember you don't need perfect warm temps. If it's above 50 Shelf Road can rapidly become too hot in the blazing Colorado sun. When I was there in December we tried to climb in the shade on a 50 degree day...

Morgan Hartley · · Denver · Joined Sep 2015 · Points: 10

I've been climbing in Eldo almost weekly when the weather is good. Sometimes it gets a little cold--put handwarmers in your pockets or chalkbag-- but otherwise the friction is solid and the crowds are gone!

chris murphy · · Centennial Co · Joined Nov 2010 · Points: 20

Shelf sucks, over run no matter the time of year. Look into the Wet Mountains. Better quality climbing less people and some areas are the same driving distance as shelf is from downtown canon city. titanic, Newlin lower newlin Stultz, Tanner Heucco wall so many areas that make shelf look like north table, at least that's my opinion. shelf is the gym crag of soco.

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

Colorado
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