Day Six , the final day in the Park

We could agree to stay a few more days climbing here in the park; six days have gone by in a flash. We were surprised to see it snowing at a good clip this morning on the last day of our week long trip. We converged on the Grad school area to take advantage of the 45M routes. Lowering into the gorge freaks people out because you have to be able to climb back out. We set up on DISSERTATION WI2 20M; GRE WI2 20 M; RESEARCH WI3 45m, with variations on each depending on how you climbed it from the bottom. The snow was light throughout the day but it was much colder.

We took turns running laps on these routes. The WI2 routes were not cake walks with steep sections of ice followed by ample rests. A 45m ice route seems endless. While dropping in on RESEARCH you go over 2 distinct bulges. The first was an incomplete double curtain connected by a small pillar in the center and a ramp on the right. As you continue down to the next drop off you stand on the edge and look down on to the floor of the gorge which is still another 50-65 feet or more of the steeper section below. The ice on this steeper section was beautiful. This climb was very long and rewarding in that you had to pull 2 awkward bulges to the top. The amount of snow that covered the route made this a pretty demanding climb.

Betty and Kornilia showed up and we had a good crew climbing. They moved back to the ALCOVE area and set up Camino WI3 25m and Jesus Christ Built my Finger Crack M7(WI3+) 30m

We ended the day with the anticipated dinner at The Backstreet Bistro. Our visit to Ouray maximized our time on the ice for a season given the weather we have back home. I sit here writing this when I should be packing and already I am looking towards 2013s Ouray trip.

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Top of Grad School

Bottom of Dissertation	Bottom of Dissertation	Bottom of Dissertation
Bottom of Dissertation	Looking up on Research	On the river floor at the bottom of research
Leah loving her Ouray experience