Ouray

So you want to learn to climb frozen waterfalls? Yeah me too!! Maybe you've read in Will Gadd's book about how you should never fall onto an ice screw, or how you should do a least 100 pitches on top rope before you ever lead a pitch of ice. So far i've broken one of those rules and followed the other.

Before i went to Ouray the idea of TRing 100 pitches of ice didn't seem reasonable. Having been there i now realize that it is the place to learn to ice climb. The Ice Park has hundreds of routes, most of which are easy to rig up top ropes on. It was a great experience to get on steeper and more difficult terrain w/o the risk of leading.

Our trip there occurred during the ice festival, but even with thousands of people around we were able to get a good number of climbs in. Regardless of all the people, the Ice Festival was rad. Carolyn won the ice axe throwing comp. and we took a clinic from MArk Miller of the San Juan Mtn. Guides that was awesome. But still, i am looking forward to returning when the festival isn't going on and really getting after it...