Ice Climbing
in Ouray, Colorado

In March, John traveled to Ouray, Colorado for a trip that combined ice climbing and skiing. He was joined by Miles from the High Country team, John's brother James, Miles' brother Joe, and their friend Ben. We had to get the full trip recap!

High Country: What made you choose Ouray?

John: Ouray is one of the top and most-accessible ice climbing locations in the world. You can go from your hotel room to the ice in a quarter mile. Ouray is an ice park - most of it is manmade ice. There is a pipe that runs across the top and it drips water all winter - there's already ice there, but the town of Ouray decided that they wanted to be an ice climbing destination, so they built pipes that leak water that make the ice "fatter" and more desirable to climb.

In the ice park, you're in a canyon - a creek bed essentially. It's kind of funny because we were there in the spring, the creek is not frozen anymore, it's running. So when someone is climbing, and you're belaying, they're constantly knocking ice off the wall. And when the big blocks of ice (sometimes the size of basketballs) fall and hit the creek, it completely splashes you head to toe, and you can't do anything because you're belaying someone and you can't move. So you'll be belaying someone and "WOOSH!" a big wave of water covers you. It's horrible. It's the dumbest thing ever. But it's the most fun thing in the world.  

High Country: What else did you do besides climbing?

John: After climbing, we went to the hot springs - Ouray is surrounded by thermal hot springs, so we jumped in after we got done climbing. We also went skiing. There were eight inches of fresh snow in Telluride so we ditched the climbing tools for some skis and got up at six in morning to hit the slopes. What was nice is we hiked up Palmyra Peak and skiied down. So we took the lift up, and thenhiked up to the top of the peak and got fresh tracks down. 

High Country: What would you do differently if you did the trip again?

John: Absolutely nothing. We're going back again next year - there is years' worth of climbing to do in Ouray. That's why it's such a great destination. Because of how many routes there are to climb and because of how accessible it is. So we will be going back!