OURAY
Once again, Ouray is booming.
In its 19th year, the Ouray Ice Climbing Festival is more popular than ever, and a crowd of thousands has descended upon the tiny mountain village in Colorado’s San Juan Mountains this weekend to stake a claim to the goods.
But unlike the prospectors of 120 years ago, these new mountain folks aren’t here for what lies beneath these mountains, they are here for what covers them – the ice.
Nearly 30 years ago, adventurous climbers began ascending the frozen walls of the Umcompahgre Gorge just south of the town of Ouray, after dripping water from aging waterlines froze in winter to form perfect ribbons of sheer ice. What began as a lucky circumstance now has morphed into one of the largest ice parks and ice climbing festivals in the world.
About 30 vendors squeeze into the limited exhibit space where they offer free equipment demos to anyone wanting to try it out. Their tents parallel the deep frozen canyon where the fun takes place.
The city, Ouray County and Ouray Ice Park, Inc., work together to host the world-class event that is highlighted with climbing competitions, instructional clinics, slideshows and a “Saturday Night Freezer” party sponsored by Petzl.
Almost 500 people signed up for clinics that teach skills ranging from the basics to the most advanced methods of climbing, and 26 athletes stepped up to enter the competition.
The contests draw some of the planet’s most talented climbers, testing their strength, endurance and ability to route-find, also called “on-sight.”
This year marked the sixth competition for Durangoan Marcus Garcia, who trains year-round for the event. He is all too familiar with the challenges of the sport. As the new owner of Durango Rock Lounge, who also coaches a youth climbing team in Durango, he said he competes for the adventure and the camaraderie.
“We’re all really close friends,” he said. “We share a fun passion together, and that’s a hard bond to break.”
As a competitive athlete, making time to train while still being a good husband and a good father to his 10-year-old daughter can be difficult, he said.
“It’s balancing that and still being passionate about it,” he said.
Garcia fell from some of the most difficult maneuvers on the 120-plus-foot competition route, where climbers had 12 minutes to ascend a mix of ice, rock and man-made challenges.
In order to increase the difficulty, organizers erected a 30-degree overhanging panel to add to the intensity. Portions of telephone poles hung from chains and had to be negotiated to get to the top, just as fatigue set in.
Renowned alpinist and Ouray climbing guide Vince Anderson designed the route and said it was no simple task to make the route demanding enough for the elite competitors.
“The challenge for me was creating a route this length that’s going to challenge people this good,” he said.
The roster included climbers from Colorado, Canada and Japan, whom Anderson called “super-high-caliber athletes.”
The higher the competitors climbed, the more exhausted they became. To save the best for last, the final few moves were well above protection, setting climbers up for an exciting and crowd-pleasing fall, aka a “whipper.”
“It’s a clean fall,” Anderson said, “but there’s a mental fear factor involved. Not a lot of people want to take that big air.”
But the festival is more than just the competition. People from across the country arrive in Ouray to see the mountains, breathe the air and try a sport they have only read about.
Dominique Freckmann traveled from San Francisco to get some expert advice and improve her ice technique.
William Nash, who came from Chicago, called it beautiful.
“It’s like carpentry,” he said, “but here you get to build your own route.”
Paul Jones of Gunnison watched in amazement as his son, Brendon, 13, climbed a wall of ice for his first time. He said his son, who was visiting Ouray with Boy Scout troop 417, was afraid of heights, but on Saturday, he overcame that fear.
Former Durango resident and Fort Lewis College graduate Chris Parker, who now is online editor for Rock and Ice magazine, a title sponsor of the event, said the festival is a good connection between Durango and Ouray.
“Durango is this sunny, rock-climbing town,” he said, “and Ouray has a different scene going on – it’s more alpine and more ice oriented, but they are related because the both are in the San Juans, and that just shows the diversity of this mountain range.”
Kelsy Woodsman, social media coordinator for Osprey Packs, said many companies use the festival and its location in the Southwest to inspire new products.
“This is the best place for product testing and outdoor adventure,” she said. “With the mountain and deserts, this is some of the most rugged terrain you can encounter.”
Bruce Franks, general manager of event sponsor and outdoor footwear manufacturer Asolo, said the festival and the experience are born from the spirit of the climbing community.
“It’s a long time that people have been coming here,” he said. “The community is quite founded in this. It’s a wonderful thing.”
He said it is far more about sharing the enjoyment of a passion than making a profit.
“People come from all over the world to get here, see old friends. It’s not about commercialism. It starts with a community,” he said.
First-time climber Alicia McArtor of Grand Junction said ice climbing was like nothing she has ever done before.
“It makes me feel really powerful, like an alien or a monkey or something,” she said. “It just feels really great.”
Ice park manager Kevin Koprek said the single best factor is that the event breeds new climbers.
“This brings tons of people in to town for the weekend,” he said, “but the even bigger thing is that it’s an opportunity for people to get introduced to ice climbing. And many of these folks are going to come back.”
bmathis@durangoherald.com