I started drafting this story as a travel guide—until I remembered an unsettlingly relevant email that found its way into my inbox a while back: “I loved your piece on Swissco in Colorado, but I kind of wish that you’d kept it a secret. Now it’s going to get crowded!”
I’m flattered, email friend, but I highly doubt that more than a handful of people—i.e., those who read my previous travel guide—were inspired enough to actually trek all the way out to the reservoir and go bouldering. If you were, however, let me warn you: My trip there ended with me running like a madwoman through a hailstorm, dunking my new boots in a creek in the process and shivering like crazy the whole ride home.