Day SEVEN in the Ouray Ice Park

The last day finally came.What was suppose to be a last rest day was a determined march into the Scottish Gullies and toward the unknown. This is one of the areas of competition during the festicles and we thought we had no business in this area; what did we know. We followed Peter Smith out early to beat the crush and arrived with plenty of time to set up 2 really nice hard lines. I had come in from a different direction into the park and the warning signs to remind me to put on my crampons and helmet were not apparent, to me at least. After the anchor was set up I clipped into the static line out of habit. I prepared to thread the rope through the lockers and do the big toss. Instead I began to do the big dance and slip and to my horror I did not have my crampons on. I was slipping near the edge and luckily I had the static line in my hand. Holy Shit is right! It got serious real fast without any consequences besides a soil base layer that no one noticed right away; thank goodness for goretex. LOL

Dawn, one of the  delightful San Juan Guides, was setting up next to us for the CHICKS with PICKS gig and she deterred us from throwing a rope over a M7 route; I guess she may have seen what a dumbass I was almost killing myself and thought we belonged on pure ice instead. I rapped into a line that looked steep as shit going down and immediately thought I was going to be embarrassed trying to climb this thing. This day was not about me however and it was the best climbing we had encountered thus far.

The rap in to the Scottish Gullies.

Climbing the steeper ice was very rewarding after a week climbing varied grades of ice throughout the Park. Little did we know that awesome, doable climbing was much closer than hiking into past the school room and beyond. We were climbing just in front of the viewing stands in the Scottish Gullies. Every day we climbed, without fail brought BLUEBIRD skies and sunshine. The trip to the ice park was unbelievably pleasant! We hung out with the Mazamas from the very first day we arrived!

The same	Mazama climber Rob Paasch on M7 as John Looks on	John kickin ass and toppin out
r.Paasch	Hardman Peter Smith gobbles M7	Our belay stance until the weight of the 3 of us broke this alcove in 3
Sunshine, Blue Skies and Chicks with Picks	Visit The Ouray Brewery	John on an interesting start

Sun was just coming out on this steep pilla.	Just Below the green room	A long and steep route; Vincent
John	Vincent	Vincent
	Vincent on a longish line that gets really hard at top

Betty & Ted

We climbed every day of 7 days without a full rest day. No skiing, no dancing no badges and no disco. Just climbing ice. We went out to dinner twice, but for the most part we saved big dollars by getting awesome sandwiches from the Backstreet Bisto early before 5pm daily. The new Ouray Brewery was another great place to get reasonable vittles and of course breakfast being served daily from 7-10am at the Comfort Inn where some of us stayed with our fellow climbing hosts Betty & Ted!

In conclusion, It is a no brainer to come to Ouray to climb Ice. The amount of ice one can climb is limited by your energy and time away from your life that you can spare. We have over 500 images from 7 days of climbing and going through these pictures it is hard to remember what day it was or where we were. We had blue skies and sunshine everyday. A number of us came home with upper respiratory infections maybe due to altitude who knows; Peter left his apple laptop on the plane. No one died or was seriously hurt. The trip to Ouray was a memorable trip and we made lasting friendships and renewed old ties from previous trips to the ice park.

350 days until I return!

Day SIX in the Ouray Ice Park

Saif topping out on FingerBang WI5, day before. Vince and Jason in the riverbed a hundred feet below.

Sinking up to my knee and didn't get wet last night

We ran over to where else: SOUTHPARK, before the chicks with picks descended on the crag to snag chinpokemon WI4. I could have rapped down, but decided for some reason to use the nearby walk down with John. When I got there John was backtracking because the area I am pictured in above was even softer and deeper. I brushed him aside and tried to make it to solid ground and failed. My right foot sank up to my middle thigh soaking my foot and leg. What a PITA. I tried to ignore this wetness in the 10 degree air temps.

I jumped on the route and my hands were cold and my foot was numb, I had to come down, Stephen McCay and Alex Obert threw another rope on an easier line and I was somehow able to climb out. REST DAY.

Stephen Attacks the Pillar

I watched Vinnie prove that my fears of the river had foundation so I climbed back up the walkdown and rapped in over Chinpokomon. After Vince left because of his frozen foot (chuckle) Stephen, Alex (potential PMC member) and I (John) ran laps on Cartman's Mom Pt.2 (WI4) and Chinpokomon (WI4) 'till Alex had to leave. Stephen and I decided to give the free-standing pillar between the two routes a try. I over thought the problem, got on the wrong side, and had to give up for fear of a nasty swing if I came off. Stephen did better, and was only a couple moves from finishing the bastard off when his arms torched and he had to lower. A couple of the CWP ladies had runs on our rope, and we climbed out with packs, met Naz at the top and scooted.All in all a very satisfying day. Rumor has it that Vince saw some mountain goats on his frozen foot hike out of the park. He may have been hallucinating however.

Everywhere a sheep-sheep

more sheep

Sheep

Day FIVE in the Ouray Ice Park

Man, the routine for the past 5 days has been wake up at 0630. Walk down for Breakfast at the COMFORT INN (why stay anywhere else?) and then leave the room for the 15 minute approach to the memorial at the bridge. It was 5 degrees in the parking lot but if you don't wear hardly anything at all you'll just be warm by the time you get there to donn your helmet and crampons which are required to enter the park. And so we are walking to whatever climb by about 0810. At first it is a grind , maybe because we're all still asleep but once you get to the tree or anchor you had in mind, you quickly become focused and your day really begins.
 
We were supposed to meet Lee and Sir Simon at the bridge for a send off since they are leaving today but them slackers were no where in sight at 0800. We hooked up with Saif and the 4 of us went back to, you guessed it SOUTH PARK. We set up Fingerbang WI5, Cartman's Mom WI5 and Cartman's Mom part2 WI4 for a day of hard climbing.

Jason started up Fingerbang and did a fishflop onto a ledge and finished 4/5th of this climb but hey, WI5 on his 5th day of climbing aint too bad. John Smith, not to be out done by anyone, decides become one with the ice and take one in the face. The scarlet indicator on the route marked the mishap in all its crimson gory. I am sure he will post images for everyone to see. He is OK. It looked much worse than it looked...

Saif ran up fingerbang like it was JANS FACE at Carderock and he too left for the airport. Jason's flight has been canceled so he will be climbing with us another day. We were able gather "a" group of us for a picture with the flag. We climbed from about 9am until 230-holy shit. we were tired.

Here is the best secret in Ouray. On Tuesdays The Backstreet Bistro has a dinner special cooked by the chef and owner for you. The 5 of us made reservations and we were treated to an unbelievable dinner and catered to by the Chef/owner. NAZ turned me on to this last year. All I can say is OMG. This place is INSANE!!!!

One last tidbit. The NEW Ouray Brewery  allowed me to affix one of our CLUB Stickers in their establishment. I'll post a picture of this unique, soon to be, Landmark, here in the Town of Ouray!

		john on Fingerbang
River Running	Just before the mishap	fishflop
Motley Crew	Saif running up  the climb like he had a plane to catch	Stephan
Stephan McCay on verglass	Saif

Day FOUR in the Ouray Ice Park

Another day in paradise if you are an ice climber visiting the town of Ouray. The surprise granulated sugar snow falling when I woke was in stark contrast to the heavy giant snowflakes we had the other nite and the fact that nothing was showing up on the local radar to account for the few inches by 9am. Stephan McCay and Alex rolled in sometime yesterday and Naz and Saif took a ski day at Telluride searching for the new surprise pow pow overnight!

The temperature was about 19 when I got to the bridge for the shot of WI5s (pic).

We seem to love the variety of South park and the ability to belay from the base instead of from above. John Smith led Not Without my Anus WI3 with Jason 2nding  when Peter Smithniak, Karl from Alaska and I rolled up (pic). Same picture perfect bluebird day, no wind and the crowd was not there. I especially liked the far left side of Mr. Hanky that was free of the manky ice crust created by the new and improved water delivery system activated over the newly fallen snow.

Peter led Sexual harassment Panda WI4 (pic) and Lee Jenkins led either Chinpokomon WI4 or Toms Rhinoplasty WI3 with Simon Carr following (pic).

The end of the fourth day here in the town of Ouray find most of us very tired at the end of the climbing day.  There is time to reflect what we have here in this ice park destination. This place is fabulous. The amount of different grades of ice, 15min approach, reasonable temps, BLUE SKY and the easy TR access to everything makes this place a likely yearly destination; I haven't finished my 8 day climbing fest and i am already looking forward to seeing the same faces we met last year again in 2012. This place is insane!!!!!

WI5	WI5	John, Pete, Jason
Tom's Rhinoplasty	WI5	Karl from AK
Peter on Lead	Peter on lead	Peter on Lead

Simon 2nding with Lee belaying

Vincent at the top of Mr. Hanky

Day 3 in the Ouray Ice Park

Day after the 10" snow fall, the day began with 5 whole degrees in the parking lot. I was hell bent on beating the weekend crowd like I failed to do  the day before and left at 730 alone up the Million dollar Highway to the bridge/memorial. I bumped into a former PATC MS lurker our listserve  Danny McGee or was it Danny Murphy. At any rate he moved to Denver and was talking about hooking up with the MS to do the Cassein Ridge or whatever it is coming up.  Our club is world wide!

I ran over to South Park again and set up chicken lover and john hooked on monkey phonics WI3. The Mozamas invaded with 30 climbers and soon filled up all the routes. They were very nice and we talked among other things Trip Reimbursement program and their liability insurance. It was much colder today than the whole time I was here...but the sun was out all day with blue skies.

John, Jason Es. and I ran laps all day long. We finally hooked up with NAZ and Saif. The water was left on last night during the snow which made a frozen layer atop the snow and made these huge slabs of death that had to be demoed on the tender masses below. One guy got nailed right in the face and is lucky to be alive. I took a shot in the latts just below my floating rib and it is tender to the touch; another few inches and i am sure I'd have a broken rib with the force i got hit. I digress. images by John Smith

South Park
	Getting crowded