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!