DAY Four: New Funtier

Day Five guarantees a splendid day for all as we wake up and lumber into the park later than I ever had and dod not expect to find anything open to climb on when alas, the line next to Captain Godammit was open. I re-met Elias, a San Juan Mountain guide from Espana who was teaching a class. I slung some trees and tossed my rope. Later I discovered that the new anchors for New Funtier and South Park were located at the yellow fiber glass sticks which consisted of 3 bolted anchors embedded in a base of 2000 pounds of concrete.

We had 3 lines set up. I down climbed the heinous roped walk down.....boy howdy did that suck a stack of day old pancakes.

We climbed and climbed and climbed and finally climbed out and I belayed Sir Pasterchek from the top.

Ice Climbing at the New Funtier

Day 3: Shit House Wall

We got an early start on this day anticipating some paralyzing soreness from a full day of skiing at Telluride and walked to the nearest climbing area from the hotel- The shithouse wall. This area is most WI5 with only a few WI4 that we had set up with long static lines to trees and then do a heinous down climb to the bottom.

Day 2: Unexpected REST Day

In Previous years, after 3-4 days of swinging ice tools, we resign to taking a break from climbing ice and go skiing. In the last 30 minutes of climbing the day before we saw a front roll through and snow start to fall. Lee offered to drive to Telluride so we rolled out the next morning at 7am.

Skiing at Telluride is best when there is at least 18" of fresh pow-pow that has been my experience in years gone by, so we settled for 8". Skiing at Telluride is not cheap. The lift ticket was $115 and the ski rental was $64.

Hmmmm Did I also rent boots that I didn't need? Oh well. So our rest day involved skiing in the country's premiere ski area with vistas worth more than money could buy.

photo by Lee Jenkins

Day One : Just off the Couch in Ouray 2016

The 2015-2016 Ouray season finally started and the ice was farmed 3-4 weeks late due the warm temperatures but just in time for the 2016 Ouray Ice Festival and Competition.  Then of course there was the burst penstock during the festival which an over the top incident that was of concern and sht down park of the park. The Ouray Ice Park is under  a new managment style that affects everything from the work force farming the ice to the purchasing of ice park memberships through the Ouray Ice Park Website which now affects the validation process for the 20% lodging discounts from participating local merchants.

This is the School room

The burst penstocks further exascerbates affects the warm weather by the water diverted by the electric company upstream which has a volume of water flowing through the ice park at unprecedented levels which affects where you can belay from. Many of the climbs in South Park have to be belayed from the top.

Fast forward to January 20th first day off the couch. The same song is playing in Ouray, blue bird skies , hero ice and an insane 33 degrees of weather that terribly spoils eastern climbers.

We climbed in the School Room on the first day and met some friendly Aussies who gave us pointers on how to speak Aussie....JACINTA & BRAIDEN, Lee Jenkins, Greg Cristopolus,Cort Zabel, James PAsterchek, Stevie Macay, Marty Comiskey & John Penrose.