Ouray Ice Park Trip 2011

We have nearly 10 people on board for this excursion to ICE Disney in the Colorado Rockie's town of Ouray.

The Ice festival is the weekend of the 9-12th which will be beyond crowded but something I'd like to attend some day.

The following weekend is that of Martin Luther King holiday and I'd anticipate a holiday crowd, so I chose the following weekend. (I will arrive on the 20th and leave on the 28th.)

This is an open ended trip, come for this weekend for sure if you want to get in on a day clinic through the San Juan Mountain guides. The rest of the time you can just top rope to your heart's content with the rest of us. So come for the weekend or stay a week.

Ouray Mountain Sports has gear rentals, but borrow as much as you can to save if you wish.

You can save 20-25% on accommodations while in Ouray simply by purchasing a membership to the ice park for $40. This card gets you 10-25% discounts on meals and much much more!

Here is a list of hotels and motels
Check out the Victorian, Comfort Inn and the Ouray Chalet for their features and discounts.

DELTA flights from the DC (DCA) area fly to Atlanta then on to Montrose, Colorado (MTJ); my RT fare was $296 total. Many hotels offer free shuttle to and from the Montrose airport. You DO NOT need a car rental on this trip! Buy your tickets soon!!! They have gone up about $25 as of Dec.1.

PLEASE READ ABOUT THE 2010 TRIP on this blog- not much has changed. I am using a google document spreadsheet to organize who is going, and what gear, accommodations and flights we all need to know about.  

Well that's all I have for now.

The Cohort

As fantastic as Ouray and the surrounding area may be, this trip would not have been as wonderful for me without my friends from the Potomac Mountain Club. John Oster . . . thank you for being the driving force behind the whole endeavour. Stephen McKay, Lee Jenkins, Bill Dudley, Naz Ahmed & Vincent Penoso all gave me belays at some point. Christy Dudley, what can I say other than to apologize for not having a photo of you. What a good sport you are. Thank you all again!

The Ouray Ice Park Primer

Map from p.18, Ice Fest Feature Article, Vol.14, No.1, Thursday, January 7,2010: WATCHNEWSPAPERS.COM
THE WATCH: Serving Telluride, Mountain Village, Ridgeway, Ouray, Montrose, Norwood and the Western San Juans.

The town of Ouray caters to ice climbers during their slow winter season in a number of attractive ways. The Ouray Ice Park is free, but they sell a $40 membership that I encourage everyone to purchase no matter when during the ice season you will visit. Right off the bat we got a 20% discount at participating hotels which paid for itself. Participating merchants offer 10% discounts of food and merchandise across town!

I flew RT from Washington, DC., the nation's bulls eye to Montrose for $278. We didn't need a car while in Ouray. Food was a pricey affair but the usually very satisfying.

Ice Climbing is what this park is all about and Ouray Mountain Sports has everything you could possibly want for climbing. The also rent gear and bend over backwards to outfit your day.


Ouray Ice Park: Support the park with the park membership of $40.

Accomodations:


There are a number of options in the town of Ouray. We made reservations at the Comfort Inn which is a block off Main street and conveniently located to restaurants and to the climbing. I would walk main street out of town south (Million dollar highway) to the bridge, a pleasant and gradual morning walk that took me 20-23 minutes (YMMV). Most people, I guess, approach by way of 3rd avenue, and skirt box canyon road UP to the bridge (I come home this way since it is a faster down-hill walk).

The comfort Inn affords the ice climber a full breakfast, an accommodating staff and a caring host and hostess, Betty and Ted , who make you feel like you are visiting them instead of the town of Ouray. Goes without saying, the staff is Ice climber friendly because they are ice climbers themselves.

Betty and Ted will make your ice climbing visit very special! Betty's cookies, which live on a bottomless plate at the front desk, come fresh from an oven daily waiting for you as your stumble in from a hard day of swinging picks!

Guests of this Ouray hotel are invited to enjoy many amenities and features, including:

• Free enhanced continental breakfast with homemade Belgian waffles
• Free wireless high-speed Internet access
• Free local calls
• Year-round outdoor hot tub and sundeck
• Pet-friendly hotel (nightly fee)
• Free Shuttle to and from Montrose airport when available.

After playing on the ice or in the snow, imagine sitting in the hotel's outdoor hot tub and soaking while the snow falls around and the mountains tower above. The hotel also offers jeep rentals, half-price entrance into the Ouray Hot Springs Pool and Park and a 20 percent discount for Ouray Ice Park members.

FYI for the next time -- a vacation rental in downtown Ouray: http://www.alpenglow-properties.com/apo.html

Walkable to eats and drinks (IMHO, the restaurants in town are a bit spendy so bring your own groceries and take advantage of the condo's kitchen). Condos sleep up to 8 or 10 (I forget). I'd get a group together and pro-rate the fees, which makes for a very reasonable weekend.

Peter Hsi

With all the food options available to the visiting ice climber, after while you may grow weary of the restaurant atmosphere, wait and prices. The backstreet deli fills this niche for the frugal and the hungry.Open for breakfast and lunch, the back street deli offers a reasonable and delicious alternative to the limited breakfast options. Bagels and awesome coffee will satisfy the picky pallet's alpine start. On Tuesdays, when many of the restaurants are closed, Rob offers an exciting alternative with a refreshing dinner special for $14. which includes3 courses. The Backstreet will being moving a few blocks to the north and will continue to serve the climbers of Ouray.

If chocolate is your weakness, Mouses's chocolate shop offers a wide selection from a local chocolatiers craft. They specialize in chocolate ice climbing sculptures that impress the eyes and quench your chocolate cravings. A wide variety of chocolate sweets make great gifts and make a wonderful after dinner treat.



AIRLINES:

Continental Airlines has such a NON-Southwest Airlines feel to them. From the stiff armed distance their website feel has to it or the impossibility of speaking to a live person on the phone, and the mechanical demeanor of their flight attendants this airline scores a D minus in my travel raiting. If I could I'd fly South West. The only good thing was the reserved seating on this airline.

Remembering Ouray

SPECIAL THANKS: Lee Jenkins

I want to thank Lee Jenkins for all his support on our trip. Lee took great pleasure in prepping our group with Beta in the form of maps and hard intel months before our trip. He also primed us on the Ouray survival book he is writing which covers everything from from routes to Lee approved and rated restaurants in Ouray and the surrounding area. He has done it all! Thanks for shuttling our tired asses around as well Lee, we owe ya!

Day 8: Climbing at the Lounge

John Smith and I made our way back down to South Park. I quickly wasted no time in QUICKLY setting up an anchor on the first tree I saw, having scoped out a number of routes I wanted to do the day before when I was there by myself.

It turned out the route I set up was nice and steep which could be done a number of ways. It was great!

John's next door neighbor's brother, Bill Liske is a guide in the Ouray area and he met us there. Turns out all the people climbing around us all knew him and we were instantly semi locals all of a sudden. Bill and Jim do great work for the Nepal DZI organization and it was my great pleasure to meet these guys!

This is a shot from the top of our anchor at the western most side of South Park. You can see clear to the middle of this crag where the gorge turns to the right across the top of the image for routes 1 thru 11.

John Smith on this most excellent line.

Day 7: Going Commando

The main contingent of the crew were vying for a photo op on the money shot next to the bridge which included "Berserker and Pic of the Vic and Duncan's deight ". I knew I could scratch my way up these climbs in my dreams any time I wanted.... I really was more interested on this day about a fast set up and max burn on the guns since the next day would be our last here. I walked down to South Park again since it has a wide range of climbs and very easy walk down access to the base of the climbs. He is a photo compilation by John Smith of this awesome photo-op ( no climbers were killed during this photo session).


Laura Mack, with her homespun NOMIC tool tether.

I set up on "super funtime WI4"'s Ice column not really knowing the grade involved . I was alone. I made it to the base and immediately hooked up with odd number of people who could share belays. It was great!

I showed up by myself and climbed my ass off the rest of the day. Kevin and I climbed until he had to leave and I was handed off to Loraborabora and Jessica Fabio from Denver! Lora was a solid dynamo who led " Not without my Anus" WI3 like it was nothing.

I also climbed with Carolyn (C1)and Carolyn (C2) from Ottowa who were participating this weeke in the chicks with picks production. They were a hoot.

Later on in the day John Smith showed up and we climbed until dark. We moved the line over to a line next to the pillar and up a ice gully which was really fun.

Day 6: Organic Chemistry at the Graduate School

I enjoyed the climbing, the day before's climbing reminiscent of climbing in the northeast: windy, snowing, wind chill, butt-ass cold. John and I returned to the Graduate School crag to climb the other WI3, 45 meter route, but instead the anchor issue was a PITA, so built an anchor on a dead tree and climbed what later turned out to be Organic Chemistry WI4.



It was a nice beginning to the day with the sun peeking out sparingly. The park saw about a foot of snow over night and the climbs were a snowy nightmare.

I lowered John into the gorge on a redirected GRI-GRI and he climbed the route with no trouble. I was next and went into the snowy void a little sketched out about the snow and the thought about warming up on a WI4 just out of bed.

When snow covers a route it is impossible to make a good "stick" into the ice because you cannot see where to strike the ice on an optimal point. You spend many many swings of your ice tool clearing away snow and finally letting loose with a stick because your feet are about to blow or your other stick was crap and you are about to fall. Anyway I looked at it, it was a desperate climb and although exciting, and strenuous-very strenuous- it was hard to call it fun, but it was.

During the video I shot at the base of the climb i erroneously called the climb Masters Degree WI3, but I was lowered into the wrong part of the gorge anyway....

Things went bad fast. I spied the 30-40ft section of vertical ice which in this case was rated WI4; a little over my grade for the first climb of the day. The ice at the base was a newly formed curtain of chandelier or candle-wax ice. A nightmare for some, a living nightmare for me on this warm-up climb. lol This ice is new and not really consolidated and filled in solid areas. At any rate, I called on the radio and told John I was climbing.

I got up and soon realized i was climbing on egg shells and about 10 feet up i came off; and I came off unexpectedly. I exploded through the air in a cloud of ice fragments and lightly touched the ground as the rope got tight. I looked at the route and started up again and noticed that the ice was very difficult for me to climb and so I was more careful, but as I put my ice tool into the ice searching for positive placement, the pick would rake the delicate chandelier ice and finally find purchase. This was not fun. I could not get good feet either in this shit. I was about 25-30ft above the crik when I really came off again. This time the rope went "twang" and I hung there in space with one tool still in the ice. I called for John to lower me . I hung there for 5 minutes calling John on the radio. It had turned itself off. I climbed back up to my tool with my remaining tool which with 2 tools is effin hard enough. So i get back up to my tool and john is still belaying me and taking in rope as I ascend. My arms are cooked and my calves are burning as I front point to stay attached to the ice. I come off again but have to hang there to rest...I find a ridiculously small stance for part of my right foot and I cram my left leg into an ice cave behind a thin curtain and grab a big fat ice sickle stalactite to rest.

I call to John on the radio wanting to be lowered so I can reassess the line I took but there was no answer.

Still no answer from the effin radio, so i call out to John to check his radio. Luckily the steep narrow walls of the gorge carry my shrill call to him. His voice crackles again on the radio and fills the walls of the gorge. I explain what is happening.

Again, I strike off to climb the vertical ice above. But this I am about 30 feet or so above the creek and it looks like maybe 35feet of vertical ice to go to the bulge. How the hell am I going to climb this shit as my guns are nearly cooked. I rest and scratch my way up and come off again and have to rest. It is a great thing to be belayed with a GRI-GRI on this climb. The ice quality gradually improves and I get some decent albeit snowy sticks and good feet again. Off I go and make it to the bulge above and to slightly easier terrain.

At the bulge I look up the sea of ice which is snowy. I can see John's helmet about 110ft above me across this snowy ice field to relative safety.

I can' see where i am swinging and you don't want to thrust your tool into snow because when you pull on this it'll rip out and you'll come off....You never ever want to fall on ice while climbing unless it is vertical or you can catch a crampon and hurt your self. The ice is hard and crampons have a nasty way of catching the ice on the way down and snapping an ankle. Nice! So every up ward movement required clearing the snow above to make a good stick that will hold your weight as you climb up....

That's how this climb went. It was fun because i wasn't at work. But the climb required many many more pick swings to get a required stick. I can't wait to return an ddo this gem again because it was so long. Anchor of a tree. 60m rope. All climbs at the graduate school can reach the creek with a 60. belay from the top with a gri-gri.

Vincent

Day 5: Wind Snow and Ice

The weather has moved into the area.The forecast is 30-40mph winds and 2-3 fet of snow up high. I wore full winter regallia to climb today.
John coming up!
John went into the ice park when it opened before anyone else i our party to search for Naz's rope that he left the night before in the school room. The sense of community in the town of Ouray allowed the forgotten rope to make it's way to the The Ouray Mountain Sport Shop's lost and found by "Pierce", an unsung hero who made a very awkward situation have a very happy ending.

John Smith and I made our way to the Graduate School area of the park and set up an anchor on RESEARCH WI3 and 45meters. You can see the water shower system that replenishes the ice every night located strategically along the tops of the climbs. This anchor was really easy to set up.This is a very long climb. You had to be belayed from the top and lowered into the gorge and climb out.

Day 4: Return to School Room

Another picture perfect day of ice climbing in Ouray with a threat of welcomed snow. The crew returned to the moderate routes in the School Room area of the ice park which includes moderate routes Wi3/4 grades. Pictures and accounts of a great day climbing will follow. Lee Jenkins had to retuen to Buena Vista unexpectedly which left John O, Bill Dudley , Steve McCay, myself and John Smith running laps all day long.....Started to snow and we packed up but left Naz's rope at the end of the day. we are headed back at first light to get her rope. No one will steal a fuzzy blue 60m rope just sitting there shivering thoughout the night at the base of the climb next to our PETA poster child:

Tuesday night Dinner

So a few things happen when most of the climbers leave after the weekend, one of them is you get more choices in the park to climb and the other thing is, the few restaurants that are open year-round shut down, with one or two exceptions. Now Backstreet Bagel is a great place for breakfast and lunch but to accommodate the lack of options on Main Street for dining, it stays open for Tuesday dinner, offering a three-course pre fixe dinner ($14 bucks includes soup, salad, and entree). The best thing is that it taste home-cooked as this is not a kitchen that typically serves up entree style meals. The locals who don't want to cook and show up, greeting each other and passing news and catching up across tables. It's a cool scene, and dinner is fantastic. Last night was cream of cauliflower soup, mixed greens with bacon, apricots, and light pepper and oil dressing, and an entree of grilled sirloin over lentil ragu. I remember from last year this place serving one of the stand out dinners we had during the week.

Day 3: Ouray

Well, it's official. It's "YOU-ray" not "OOH-ray." Glad that's settled. Today was a first for me at an ice climbing venue. I'm used to hearing French, German, Czech, Slovenian, etc, being spoken by climbers. Well today, I heard Chinese. Wow.

Had a ball today with John, Lee, Naz, and Steve, in the Schoolroom area of the Ice Park, then when I was warmed up, went down to the Upper Bridge Area and finished up on Whitt's World. Feelin' burley. And no, I didn't lead it. Thanks for the nice belay, Steve.


Naz returns to the "School Room" in Ouray!

Day 2: Dexter Crik Slabs: Alpine-Schwalpine

Okay. Think of hikes or approaches you have done and said later, been there , done that.

Been there-done that.

I am sure everyone is familiar with interpreting the directions in a ^$%#^$%#@^ guide book. Well since neither of us have ever been to the slab visible from the road and Wayne & Jennifer Stone's kitchen window when they lived there, we followed the guide as best we could; we think the guide book meant to say 2.2km instead of miles, since the latter took us well onto some godawful snowy road that threatened to strand us off the side of the mountain......2.2KM....

The hump with all our ***** took us up this snowy mountain logging road up the mountain. At one point we were directly under the slabs in the distance but for some reason we continued up the road thinking we'd reach some obvious sign we were on the right path. When you see this rock follow the immediate gully to the base of the slabs.

We continued up the logging road and saw a snow gully and what appeared to be a broken trail up the @*&^%# steep mountainside with an enormous head wall looming far above.
I said to myself, ok, this is the approach. Higher and higher, steeper and steeper, the snow giving way to scree-frozen scree. How awful is frozen scree on a steep 30-35 degree approach underfoot. It sucked. The snow was good because you could "kick" your way up, but the frozen scree made it increasingly harder to keep from falling back down the 500ft gully.

Not as bad as what was coming up next. I was happy I brought my piolet as I usually do when ice climbing-it is my walking stick.....came in very handy today.

Naz and i followed John Smith, Lee Jenkins and John Oster up this gully to what we all thought was the side of the slabs' amphitheater. We got to the highest point on this gully where we could get off and traverse over to what we thought was the base of the climb we were headed to. There was a stand of pine at the base of a buttress but it too was very steep and frozen. HA!

I heard Lee say, "we've come too high and we have to rap down to the base of the slabs." SHIT!
Coming up this effin gully was one thing but some how descending this was going to be a nightmare.

I walked to what i thought was going to be the edge of the amphitheatre and it was a terrifying traverse across a rib of steep frozen "san juan" rock (shit) on one side to the other north facing side which was equally steep but snowy. Both sides ended abruptly over the edge of a cliff which we had absolutely NO way to keep from going over if we lost out footing.Bill Liske told me later that this drop over this particular cliff was 100-300ft. I was a half step from my life a few times on this fucked up traverse. Every step and every hand hold was carefully placed as if my miserable life depended on it. It was scary beyond what i signed up for. With all the rope gear, crampons, ice screws, ice tools in my pack on my back for protection weighing me down, it all came down to gingerly moving to any place for foothold.


The first image is the first traverse and I didn't think to photograph the end of the cliff but the 2nd picture shows the other side of the rib and the drop off the cliff... I followed the lower band of snow across this expanse following what to me were foot prints. At midpoint I looked down closely to see to my horror that these were actually deer tracks with NO boot marks of any kind. I am really scared at this point since where i thought I was going was even more precarious. the loose scree shit came up and formed a small 3ft sloping wall with nothing solid on it. I back tracked, in tome to look up at Naaz, who was carefully moving on all fours in slow motion. She moved with the graceful precision of a leopard! It is difficult to look at these images...Would have been a pretty place to die.

We made it across to a precarious rap above the base of the slabs but had to rappel about 180 ft. We were at a place where we could see the 3rd pitch of this climb from our rap.

We finally got to the base where you see the climbers below and Lee Jenkins Launched into the lead, followed by Oster and Naz.

We took cover under the 2nd step belay from Ice and rock dislodged by other climbers hundreds of feet above us. John and Naz were tagged by ice shrapnel and escaped with minor injuries. So why are we all smiling? Cuz John Oster is leading the last pitch we decided to do!

Now we all descend down the right gully back to the road! You can see the big rock formation from above in the first image, and John Oster below it in the second.

So, Been to Dexter Crik Slabs, done that. Alpine experience is fabulous! The views are incredible!