Gallery: Ice Climbing in Ouray, 2001
My friends Andy Welter and Dave Ruel do multipitch rock climbs and mountaineering expeditions which scare the heck out of me. So when I sent a trip report about the January, 2000, Ouray Ice Festival, it was a real surprise to hear Andy describe ice climbing as intimidating.
I pointed out that everything we did at Ouray was on a piece of positive-slope, securely-top-anchored, plastic ice. This didn't seem to make much of an impression.
Autumn 2000 rolled around and I again mentioned to Andy and Dave that they should check out the Ice Festival. It offered a really safe introduction to the sport, and would be an opportunity for my friends to hang out with some serious -- and not-so-serious -- mountaineers. Of course, my real reason for pushing the matter was that I wanted to spend time with my friends, in some of the most beautiful country I've ever seen.
Around Thanksgiving Andy called and started asking questions. "How crowded will it be?" "Realistically, how much climbing do you think we could get in?" It didn't take a genius to figure out that Andy was getting serious. The Ice Festival would be too much show for him, and not enough substance.
Sure enough, Andy did some web sleuthing and within a couple of days turned up an ice-climbing guide in Ouray: http://www.towerguides.com. We all signed up. That's how it is with Andy. Once he sets his mind to something, he doesn't fool around.
Andy, his wife Sandy -- we'd have little to show without her photographic skills -- and Dave flew out to Montrose, Colorado on the 9th of February, 2001. I drove up from my home in Santa Fe, NM, and a three-day weekend ensued, with ice climbing in the Schoolroom at Ouray and snowboarding in Telluride.
It was incredible! Amazing views, great fun. And yet again I'm reminded how lucky I am to have friends like these.
The few photos I took on the trip appear below. The Welters have posted their photographs, including some beautiful landscape shots by Sandy, here. And Dave Ruel posted some great close-ups on his website.
Andy Petefish, the proprietor of Tower Guides, proved to be a competent, patient guide. He's famous, too. Okay, maybe not, but Tower Guides and the Ice Park are being featured on the National Geographic Channel in February, 2001. Andy's a geophysicist by training, but what impressed me most about him was that he had the O'Reilly "MySQL and mSQL" book on the desk in his office. If you can't trust a fellow geek, whom can you trust?
Click on a thumbnail to view the full-size image.
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