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Ouray is a tiny mountain town in Colorado with the world's first ice park. It started with a leaky pipe: water froze down the gorge walls, and local climbers turned it into a park. Today it's where climbers train for Everest and the big Himalayan peaks.
We climb with guides for two days, spend a morning with the ice farmers who build the ice, then ski a day in Telluride. Hot springs every evening. You don't need to have climbed or skied before.
By March the ice has had a whole winter to build up. Days are longer and a bit warmer, which helps on your first climb. We go early in the month: a warm spell can close the park later.
It started with a leaky pipe. Water froze down the walls of the gorge, and local climbers turned it into a park. Now there are 200+ routes in one canyon, a short walk from our lodge.
Climbers come here to get ready for Everest and the big Himalayan peaks. You learn on the same walls, on top-rope, with a guide for every 4 people. First-timers are climbing real ice by the afternoon.
Every cold night, the ice farmers spray water down the gorge walls. That's how the routes grow. We spend a morning with them: how they build a route, and why one warm week is a crisis.
Bridal Veil is Colorado's tallest free-falling waterfall. Jeff Lowe and Mike Weis first climbed it frozen in 1974, one of the hardest ice climbs in the world at the time. Then we ski. A gondola links town and the mountain, and Butch Cassidy robbed his first bank here in 1889.
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Fly into Montrose. We drive to Ouray, check gear and go for a welcome dinner. Then the hot springs.
A full day in the gorge with guides, on top-rope. You learn to kick in and swing the axes, and by the afternoon you're climbing.
Morning with the ice farmers who build the routes. After lunch, back on the ice to try harder lines.
A day on skis or a board. Lessons for beginners. Gondola into town and a look at Bridal Veil Falls.
Breakfast, then back to Montrose for flights home.
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