Shelf Road’s Hardest Route Climbed
Colorado’s Shelf Road , a network of vertical limestone cliffs near Cañon City best known for sunny moderates, has a new 5.13d pitch and may soon get its first 5.14. On Sunday, March 7, Mark Anderson redpointed a striking, super-technical arête at Cactus Cliff that was bolted in the early 1990s but apparently never free-climbed. Listed in the guidebook as Wild Virus, the newly redpointed climb has been renamed Carnage (5.13d).
Carnage ascends 5.11 ground to a big rest ledge, followed by sustained 5.12 climbing up the prow, with the desperate crux coming below the eighth bolt in the form of an “ultra-subtle V10-ish boulder problem [that] slaps directly up the arête.” Anderson, an engineer who lives in Morrison, spent four days working on the route and sent on his ninth attempt. … Continue Reading






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