Sierra Blogging Post Archives

Sierra Trading Post's own Multichannel Merchandiser Bryan Vernetson sent me this trip report about a recent ice climbing excursion to Ouray Ice Park in Colorado.

Ice climbers descend on the park in the winter to climb the frozen walls of the Uncompagre Gorge, with some of the best ice climbing in the state happening during the Annual Ouray Ice Climbing Festival in January.

According to the Ouray Ice Park website, "climbing in the park has been exceptional so far this season with light traffic and great ice."

Here's what Bryan had to say about his weekend at Ouray Ice Park...


"We (Mike Brown is in the red helmet, Austin Lorehn is in the white helmet and I'm the one wearing a green jacket) left Fort Collins, Colorado Thursday night and got into Ouray around midnight after a 7-hour drive.

We stayed at the Ouray Riverside Inn and Cabins right outside Ouray, CO (maybe 5 minutes) in one of their KOA certified cabins. We woke up early the next morning and stopped at “Backstreet Bagel” for a quick breakfast. This breakfast place is great! They offer full meals, bagels, pastries, coffee, hot cocoa, pretty much anything you want. The front nook, with couches and a coffee table, always has a good contingency of local guides hanging out waiting for their clients.

After a quick breakfast sandwich we headed out to the park which is another 5 minutes up the start of Red Mountain Pass (Million Dollar Highway), which is usually closed due to weather. We climbed in the Grad School area for our first route, which was a pretty stellar and long (45m) WI 3+.

After this “warm-up” we settled down into the Southpark area, which is a little more mellow with mostly WI 2-WI 3+ with a couple WI 4 climbs. We got on another WI 3 and a couple WI 2s and we had a great time. This area is always packed with people because it has the best concentration of routes at the ice park. The hot tub at the cabins was good to us that night to say the least.

Saturday we spent the day climbing hard in Southpark on WI 3 and WI 4 and watched some hardcore climbing in the Scottish Gullies area North of the Lower Bridge area. We jumped on one more route at Five Fingers (Middle Finger) and called it a day. We grabbed a beer or two at O’Brien’s Pub and ate dinner at Buen Tiempo. We also went into Ouray Mountain Sports to gawk at all the gear we want!

Sunday was a half day and we charged hard into the park and spent most of the (busy) day trying to get on a route or two. A lot of guiding groups were out, so we had to settle for some harder routes in Southpark, Lower bridge and Five Fingers areas. All in all it was a great trip. We should be able to get back at least one more time by the end of the season."

Thanks for the report and the great pics, Bryan!