The Big Kids Playground

We love the Ouray Ice Park.

Once a season, in an effort to change things up, we make a trip down to the San Juans, to the town of Ouray, Colorado and its one-of-a-kind playground for big kids. This trip was a reunion of sorts, Christy and I were meeting Adrian, Lissa, Joe and Larry from our Ama Dablam trip.

Saturday we spent playing around in the South Park area, where it was busy, to say the least (click photo to enlarge). Because the park is free, and ice climbing is increasing in popularity, weekends can be crowded. Add a little nice weather and so-so skiing at the ski resorts and the numbers increase further, so much so that the casual-starting climber can find himself without any ice to play on if too much time is spent at the coffee shop. Aware of this, Adrian and I took our coffee to go and headed in at 7:30, to nab a few routes adjacent to each other so we could all hang out in the same place.

And on Sunday, after a day of reacquainting ourselves with everything, we managed to claim two of the longer lines in the park, near the Upper Bridge area. It’s really cool there. The routes are long, steep and tiring, especially if it’s your first climbing of the season. After you lower down, even though you are tied in, you feel pretty alone. And when the pump sets in, be sure not to drop your new leashless ice tools or they may end up in the river!

After two days in the park and two nights at the Beaumont Hotel, which we recommend highly as a place to stay, we were ready to head back home and settle into the second half of ski season.

Rod and Arlene

February 8, 2009 at 10:52 AM

Hi Ted and Christy, I am forwarding this to Arlene who is at the Ice Park right now and was there for the festival last month. She is a top gun ice rat. Myself, I don;t like the artificiality in the same way I don;t like climbing walls. Always thought those skills should be use for wildeness travel and exploration. But I understand the practice aspect. Just too many people and ropes packed in there. I missed you on my very quick trip to Aspen last month, but did have a fabulous day with Aron R on OZone in Highlands Bowl. And did a sweep with Elliott Larsen. Rock on, Rod Nash

ted

February 8, 2009 at 2:58 PM

Rod- Sorry we missed you when you were in town.
Sure, the park is a bit artificial, but it’s always fun for us, mainly just to get out of town here and do something different. And from a safety perspective, like you said, we can log a lot of time on the ice but more importantly, without a lot of the risk that comes along with leading natural multi-pitch stuff.

Looks like Elliot just won the 24 hours of Sunlight race, as a team of two, with fellow Highlands patroller Brian Johnson. I’m tired just talking about it.

Ted