Day 5 in the Park

The daily grind was bumped up by half an hour, but my alarm wasn't set correctly. I went to breakfast, got the game plan and we left promptly to beat this weekend crowd and got to the Scottish Gullies at 0740. We set up a number of lines and I tried on my new MARMOT XT glove I bought last night from Ouray Mountain Sports. They felt fine in the shop last night but felt more like oven mitts when I put them on at the crag-CRAPTACULAR! I walked all the way back into town to exchange them at the shop when they opened at 9ish. It began to snow!! This was how the day was going!

Popstar
Sunscreen	Aye Laddy

We set up mostly WI4s in and around the competition board (Dizzy Curtain WI4, popStar WI3, Sunscreen WI4,Ach Mon WI4 ) and we ran laps for hours by the time the pretty snow turned to a sleety mix. The ice is spectacular but the snowy precip  made dressing for the occasion a little tricky. First of all it must be in the upper 30s so we are already wearing the bare minimum to balance temperature regulation once we get pumped out. I had switch to a water resistant shell that soon got soaked and then switched to my new Patagonia Nano puff storm jacket which was waterproof but way too warm for the conditions-UGGgggg. It was raining now and everything was getting wet. Many of us wore eye protection that quickly either steams up or gets wet with the wet stuff and rendered useless. Today was an exercise in frustration but the climbing was excellent!

	Mark on Tic-Tac

Mark Elton lead Tic-Tac M6, SeamStress M8  in his fruit boots to a most impressive display of climbing talent. He is a beast! There were a group of Mexican climbers who took turns sending these mixed routes that was unbelievable to watch. Mark shredded a lot of the mixed pieces in the Scottish Gulies. Mixed shit is quite impressive!


It was raining when I finally had enough for one day but I had climbed enough to be satisfied. These same routes that I backed down from last year, I completed with no problem. The steep routes seemed to be a matter of having a solid base in 2 good feet and moving efficiently on the ice with good sticks. At any rate, whatever I am doing,  I am moving through these climbs and feeling foot; I am not spent at the end of the day and worthless for the next. I guess it is because WE are having so much fun shooting the shit and climbing. Today, in the rain, I could tell it was a little subdued but we still believe a day ice climbing in soaking wet conditions sure beats the shit out of not climbing at all. We have 3 more days left here and one may be spent skiing in Telluride but  at $106 + rental gear I think it will have to be lotsa of pow-pow to go; we haven't heard snow reports yet. I think we will head to the Grad School tomorrow.

Day 4 in the Park

The crowd from the Univ. of Utah arrives around 0800 headed upstream.
33 steps of the steepest ladder you ever want to climb in crampons and a climbing pack.	The catwalk

 I ate half a Dramamine and passed some out to my crew so they could get a decent night's rest. We followed the routine got up ate breakky and got a ride to the crag in style thanks to Joe and his Audi. We set up WI4's in the school room and did some warms ups on brittle ice. We started climbing around 8 and climbed hard for 6 hours.....only in the late afternoon did the ice get a little drippy.  The conditions were warm again but began to get cooler towards 1500. This place rocks...

Me	John on the school house pillar
Joe and John
Koko the patron Saint of Ice climbers send this pillar	Ouray Brewery

Day 3 in the Park.

My phone alerts were going off all night about school closures and work delays because of the snow that fell overnight. We came down and had breakfast at the temperature was 25 degrees-tropical ice climbing. We waited and waited for Lee to come by and pick us up but we went ahead and headed for the crag at 0818-the latest we have ever left to go climbing. I saw Peter Kaskan and Eric briefly at the school room and climbed down the ladder. We set up a number of lines in the school room. Camino WI3, Desparado & Flaminco WI4, Verminator WI4; Dunce WI4, Dean's List WI4.  Concerned, we called the hotel to find out our comrade is deeply under the weather. Then, in a surprising turn, we find out that Jason has come down with a bad bug......KEEP AWAY!!

We climb in partly overcast skies in temps that defy WTF we know about ice climbing.

Tropical Ice Erik

This is could only happen in Ouray!

The morning flies by as we climb and have no idea what we are suppose to be wearing. I climbed in my base layer all day long and wore my gardening gloves to climb in and my guide gloves to keep them warm in between climbs. For the most part we climbed in utter comfort. Ryan Shauers said to me that he didn't get the screaming barfies once today and we laughed.

A sight for sore eyes on the down climb come Erik and Hillary. We have quite a crew building here in Ouray. Joe Martinet is not on the ice 3 minutes with his shiny new Nomic tools  when ice finds Joe and draws first blood and he is rewarded with an early badge to remember Ouray by!!!! He is OKAY.

Betty, Ryan, John, Hillary & Erik
	Ryan
	John
John's Tool	Betty

It was a great day in the park and I looked at my watch and it was 4pm......tomorrow will be another day!

Joe Martinet-Joe pulling a hard move and then losing his tool  :-)

Day 2: First full day climbing

I don't think anyone slept very well last night, most of us having come from some where near sea level barely have had time to adjust to operating at nearly 8000 ft. I was sucking air a little on the walk up to the bridge this morning. Rumor of the upper parking lot being filled with cars last night proved to be  baseless as there were only 3 cars in the upper parking lot this morning. As a matter of fact, there was hardly the need to get up at 0630, but if you have your eager heart set on a particular climbing route, it is best to get there by 0800.

Some of us met for breakfast. Jason, Justin and Ryan were off for a day at Dexter Slabs and John, Lee and I were headed to run laps in South park. We really didn't see anyone else besides a few guides and clients until well after  0930 and essentially had the park to ourselves as is usually the case and the reason we come at this particular time of year.

The sky is absolutely BA-LEW...The air temp in the gorge was probably upper 30s but you would think it would be wet and drippy. It was not at all. Everything was dry even the Uncompahgre River was dry and frozen on top. In other words, the farthest thing you could imagine from Northeast Climbing conditions we enjoy while here. I climbed the entire day in my gardening gloves instead of my guide gloves. I was hot wearing what I had on.

We found ourselves in South Park and we started at Super Fun Time WI3 and moved the rope down Sexual Harassment Panda, Canceled and Cartmans Anal Probe Wi4. We climbed until satisfied and pulled out around 1500?

We drove up the million dollar highway to check out horsetail falls. Joe Martinet just arrived and he is i for a treat in the morning!!!

John Smith , Ironman Lee Jenkins's	horsetail falls
Frozen	Dry and frozen solid

Day I 2013

The day after MLK weekend and the Presidential inauguration brought controlled chaos to our travel plans leaving DC Metro. Once in the air all that was an afterthought and we landed in Montrose Colorado at noon. Jason Ryan and Justin were already climbing in the park when we arrived at 130 in Ouray and by 2pm we got our climbing gear on, walked 15 minutes to the crag and tied in for the first ice of the season! This was the first time we climbed on the day of our arrival. It felt good and the few weeks working out in preparation for this week really paid off. We took a couple laps each and returned to our rooms to unpack. This was superb.

Dinner at the Bistro was at 7 and 10 of us were treated to a fine dinner. A Splendid time was had by all.

Hello Ouraynates!!!

It is fine time to be thinking about what rolls around in January every year besides, New Years,  and the Ouray Ice Festival-the yearly migration to Ouray to climb ice!

This year, as every year , the plan is to come to the Ouray Ice Park AFTER the Ice Climbing Festival (ZOO scene 1st weekend in Jan) and AFTER Martin Luther King's weekend (2nd (3 day) weekend) when we seem to have the ICE PARK and the town to call our own! Last year we had around 15 people come and go that weren't necessarily available for this group shot.

The ice park has sponsors that give great discounts on lodging, food and swag!!

This year we have figured out a way to enjoy Chef Rob's cooking at the Backstreet Bistro on Tuesdays by arriving Tuesday January 22nd and leaving Wednesday January 30th. Yes we are planning this around Rob's Tuesday special thanks NAZ's tip one year....

I priced the flight the other day October 6th-ish and they were $510 rt from DCA to MJT. A number of Establishments will pick you up from the aeropuerto if you stay with them. Better to call ahead and shmooze with your hosts before hand.

I usually and have always stayed at the Comfort Inn for the hospitality of Betty and Ted, but I really stay there because Betty bakes us cookies everyday and they are still hot by the time we shlep home when the park closes at 4-4:30... the park doesn't really close, but they turn on the shower heads at the top of the climbs to replenish the ice for the next day!!!  (WHAT??!!!!) that's right!

You don't need a car, but some times I think it would be rather Vince of me to drive the half mile up the road with pastry and coffee and park in the park superintendent's parking space for the day-every day!!!
There are other climbs up camp bird road some have only heard of but easily accessible by autocar. There is also Dexter slabs which could be a nice place to hoof it to climb....see the epic description of this climb somewhere on this site...

Bring your gear, rent the gear, hiring a guide, be the guide! It's all there! The guide service rental place will also give you a break on the rental, look for our club stick pinned to a letter of thanks I wrote them a few years back while in the shop!!!

I will have the spread sheet going to organize this gig soon....I can't wait....it is a totally causal trip...I swear it is like climbing at Carderock because many of us are right there and it is fun! We see the same people year after year and we meet at this time to play, climb and rain chunks of deadly ice on one another!

So there ya have it. Lodging, airfare, vittles.....