The novice ice climber goes to Ouray

The novice ice climber goes to Ouray, Colorado to climb ice. This novice ice climber has read Will Gadd’s article on leading ice and is on a mission to top-rope 150 pitches of ice before considering to lead—he is at 109 pitches. The novice ice climber climbs with another fellow novice ice climber at the Ouray Ice Park. Together, these novice ice climbers decide to top-rope solo together at the park—they wake up early, pack their bags, and arrive at the ice park at 7:30 am sharp.

Once at the park, the novice ice climber realizes that he has forgotten his Avant neck lanyard and must go back to the cabin to retrieve it—a rookie, or should I say, novice mistake. The novice ice climbers return to the parking lot by 8 am. Once again, the same novice ice climber realizes that he has also forgotten one of his progress capture devices. The fellow novice ice climber goes back to the cabin in search of this device while the novice ice climber starts building an anchor so that the novice ice climbers can start ice climbing. Alas, the progress capture device is not found by the fellow novice ice climber.

Eventually forgoing the idea of top-rope soloing, the novice ice climbers start climbing ice. On the first route, the novice ice climber lowers himself onto the thinly frozen sheet of ice covering the river. He immediately falls through the ice and into the river, getting his feet soaked in very cold water. The novice ice climber must climb up before getting the chance to wring out the water in his socks. This novice ice climber does not have a great first day in Ouray.

The next day, the two novice ice climbers return to the ice park with progress capture devices and neck lanyards in hand for a “big” day of top-rope soloing. Temperatures are fair, though slowly warming, throughout the day and week. Towards the end of the day, the novice climber gets the big idea of climbing Mighty Aphrodite (D8+). He spends a long time eyeing the line, spotting the bolts, getting scared, but committing to the climb. The novice ice climber is in a predicament: there is a WI2-3 bulge that must be overcome to start the route. Not wanting to lead on ice—he is only at 117 pitches of ice climbed—he asks some fellow climbers to clip the first bolt of the climb. The novice ice climber has now recruited a human stick clip to avoid leading WI2 in order to lead D8+.

The novice ice climber has discovered that D8+ is rather difficult. Aphrodite is mighty indeed and the novice ice climber strategically hangs at nearly every bolt—this certainly is not because he is getting pumped. There are big moves requiring high feet and some of these big moves involve going to very marginal pick placements where it is bound to pop at any moment. He eventually reaches the top and lowers to let the other fellow novice ice climber top-rope the fun and exciting route.

On the third day, the novice ice climbers take a rest day and go ski touring. They go to McMillan Peak where the views are spectacular and the air is thin. The approach is well-tracked-out, but as the elevation increases, the powder becomes more plentiful and there appear to be plenty of untracked lines. At nearly 13,000 feet with very few clouds in sight, the sun beams down and rapidly softens the snow. After two runs, the novice ice climbers head down to the trailhead with the snow very nearly becoming slush. This was a very productive rest day that could only get better by going to Telluride for an obscenely overpriced burger and shake—the Thin Mint shake was quite good, but still overpriced.

After the rest day, the two novice ice climbers go to Hall of Justice to drytool. Hall of Justice is a steep, overhanging cave that is bolted with drilled pockets allowing for ice picks to slot inside the rock. The approach requires a little bit of bushwacking off of Camp Bird Road; however, the cave is very evident from the road. The novice ice climbers are quickly humbled by the steep, overhung drytooling, but manage to have a stellar day with an even more spectacular view of the mountains.

On the final day, the novice ice climbers return to the Ouray Ice Park for some warm and wet ice. Climbing on the farmed ice flows shaded from the sun, they avoid major ice fall. It turns out that forecasted temperatures are so warm that the ice park will be closing that weekend. 7 more pitches are climbed to round out to a total of 125 pitches of ice climbed.

The trip is now over. The novice ice climbers have graduated and are now slightly less novice ice climbers. Ice was climbed, rocks were scratched, skis were skied, and most importantly, lessons were learned. All in all a very good trip.

A brief epilogue…

This novice ice climber is now in Bozeman, Montana. It’s nearing the end of the ice season as temperatures are reaching well above freezing (even at nearly 7000 feet!). Some ice has been climbed, but efforts are now being put towards drytooling and the start of rock season—I spent the past weekend bouldering in Pipestone at the Trailer Boulders, sport climbing at Natural Bridge, and then did some drytooling at Bingo Cave this past Tuesday.

Looking forward to the next month, I’m planning a couple trips to Utah for some drytooling and then in April, I will be going to Yosemite where I’m looking forward to working on my crack and granite climbing skills.