Ouray Ice Park 2015-16 by Barbara Kondracki

ANNUAL

FESTIVAL

DETAILS

INSIDE

O U R AY I C E PA R K . C O M

C O M P L I M E N TA RY

OURAY ICE PARK GUIDE

21 ICE ST

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Enjoy a Magical Evening in Ouray

- Ultra Clean Nicely Appointed Rooms - On Site Natural Hot Spring Tubs C o m e S o a k - S t a y - E n j o y O u r a y ’s

Great D ining and Shopping

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CONTENTS 57 8-9 8-9

WELCOME

ABOUT OURAY ICE PARK

COVER ARTIST LINDA NADEL I believe we all have an inner desire to express ourselves creatively. When I 16-17 paint, I make an 19 19 intuitive connection with the subject, be 20-22 20-22 it a landscape, flowers, architecture, ani 24-25 24-25 mals, even marbles! In the connection, the study, I move into a peaceful, recep 26 26 tive place where I express the subject, 27 27 using my paints as my voice. In this re 28-29 28-29 ceptive space I give up control, as these paints of mine seem to have a mind of 30-31 28-29 their own. And it’s in that moment when my brush touches the paper that I invite you to stay and enjoy that place, too.

WHAT’S NEW AT THE PARK

12-13 15 15 33 33 34 35 35 36 36 37 37 38 38

ABOUT OURAY

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BEYOND THE FEST

OURAY ICE FEST HOW TO ICE FEST FESTIVAL SCHEDULE CLINIC SCHEDULE ICE PARK MAP COMPETITIONS FEATURED ATHLETE ACTIVITIES SPECIAL EVENTS

PRESENTATIONS ANGELA VAN WIEMEERSCH KITTY CALHOUN ANGELIKA RAINER EMILY HARRINGTON

DZI FOUNDATION PRESENTS MOUNTAINFILM

TECH TALK BEHIND THE ICE

SPONSORS & BUSINESS PARTNERS

IN MEMORIAM PUBLISHER PeakEventPublications.com EDITOR Samantha Tisdel Wright DESIGNER Barbara Kondracki

P HOTO BY JT T H OM A S

ACTIVITIES | EVENTS | PRESENTATION | FEATURE | SPONSORS & BUSINESS PARTNERS

20% DISCOUNT FOR ICE PARK MEMBERS 191 5TH AVE., OURAY, COLORADO • OURAYCOMFORTINN.NET • (970) 325-7203

P HOTO BY DAN D A LTON

W E LCO M E TO T H E O U R AY I C E PA R K of age. The thought of turning 21 has C oming a way of making one contemplate this

phrase. As we planned for the 21st annual Ouray Ice Festival the OIPI board of directors and staff wondered what coming of age means for the Ouray Ice Park. Rerouting leaks in the penstock and thawing frozen garden hoses in the hot tub are the things of legend now. These great stories illustrate the ingenuity of the early developers of the Ouray Ice Park, but our predecessors recognized early on that sustainability of the Park would rely on more than clever tricks to make beautiful blue ice on the steep walls of the Uncompahgre Gorge. Expansion of terrain and advances in the icemaking infrastructure were complemented by legal access agreements, nonprofit incorporation, endless fundraising efforts, paying seasonal staff and commercial use management plans. Turns out that it takes a little more than water and cold temperatures to make an ice park! Let alone a “free” one. Over the last few years OIPI has grown into a complex organization that is important to a number of constituencies, including the City of Ouray, professional guides, local businesses, educational and noncommercial groups, outdoor industry

sponsors and the growing climbing community. Ours is an endless balancing act of structuring an organization that can meet the financial demands of keeping the Park sustainable, and managing one of the world’s most unique outdoor adventure venues. Our priority is to continue to move toward a more professional, staff-run organization comprised of talented and passionate people that is better able to serve the needs of all of these constituencies. The Park has become more than a place to climb. It impacts the lives of countless people from their livelihoods to their emotional well-being. We all have an Ice Park story to tell. Ultimately coming of age for OIPI is all about creating a world-class climbing venue while staying true to the grassroots history of the Park. The Park exists at the nexus of a tremendous amount of passion, dedication and support from the tribe. It is an unlikely product of zany vision, “can-do” attitude and a willingness to endure the day-in/day-out grind of making it all happen. It is pretty much a reflection of what climbing is fundamentally all about. – Mike MacLeod, President, Ouray Ice Park Inc. Board of Directors

ACTIVITIES | EVENTS | PRESENTATION | FEATURE | SPONSORS & BUSINESS PARTNERS

About the

Ouray Ice Park

ow celebrating 21 years of operation, the N Ouray Ice Park is among the world’s premier ice climbing venues and training grounds. For three-

and-a-half magical months each winter, it echoes with the sound of myriad languages and accents, and countless picks swinging into ice, as climbers from around the globe flock here to hone their craft. The Ice Park offers three vertical miles of ice and mixed terrain in about 200 identified routes equipped with dozens of fixed anchors and access points, all concentrated within a one-mile span inside the Uncompahgre Gorge. Shaded cliff faces, a plentiful municipal water supply, sub-zero overnight temperatures and an intrepid gang of “ice farmers” conspire to create the exquisite frothy ribbons of steep blue ice that spill down into the Gorge. Deep within its depths, you would never guess that a highway snakes past just over the lip of the canyon, and that a busy little

town is just a few minutes’ walk away. The Ice Park’s innovative gravity-fed plumbing system has improved considerably since the 1990s, when locals cobbled together a system of hoses along the rim of the Gorge that had to be dismantled and thawed out in a hot tub each morning. Today, using more than 7,500 feet of pipe and 235 spray nozzles, over 270,000 gallons of highly pressurized spring water are sprayed on the canyon walls on a typical winter’s night, creating a wonderland of billowing blue glacial curtains and drippy frozen chandeliers that beckon to ice climbers of all abilities. The Ouray Ice Festival is held every January at the Ouray Ice Park. The eclectic gathering of ice climbers, gear manufacturers, and ice climbing enthusiasts is widely recognized as the premier event of its kind. Each year, familiar faces return

In the heart of Ouray, a short walk to the ice park.

970.325.4938 · MatterhornInnOuray.com · 201 6th Ave, Ouray, CO 81427

1970s

PH O T O BY D A N H O L Z

KEY HISTORICAL MOMENTS AT OURAY ICE PARK

Ouray is on the map as an ice climbing destination.

1995

1991

Informal development of the Ouray Ice Park begins when hoteliers Bill Whitt and Gary Wild string out an odd assortment of garden hoses and shower heads. Eric Jacobson, owner and operator of Ouray Hydroelectric, purchases much of the property in the Uncompahgre Gorge that makes up the current Ice Park. The Ouray Ice Park is officially founded.

1996

Ice climbing pioneer Jeff Lowe organizes the Arctic Wolf Ouray Ice Festival on Martin Luther King weekend in appreciation for the expanding wealth of accessible terrain in the nascent Ouray Ice Park.

• • •

Ouray Ice Park members enjoy numerous benefits, including discounts on clinics at the 2016 Ouray Ice Festival, and a tremendous amount of good climbing karma! For more information about how to become a Ouray Ice Park member please visit: ourayicepark.com/membership/.

1997 2001 2005

Female competitor Ines Papert wins the Ice Festival’s difficulty competition. The Ouray Ice Festival tops attendance records with more than 5,000 visitors and participants.

2009

OIPI signs an operating agreement with the City of Ouray, recognizing the City as the lead government agency at the Park.

2010

Freakishly warm, wet weather in December creates hazardous climbing conditions, forcing a temporary closure of the park.

2011

OIPI hosts the 16th Annual Ouray Ice Festival. Josh Wharton is the first competitor to win the Ouray Ice Festival competition three years in a row. Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) awards a $193,000 grant to help the City of Ouray purchase a key parcel of United States Forest Service land within the Ouray Ice Park. The City of Ouray becomes the proud owner of 24 acres of former USFS land in the heart of the Ouray Ice Park. The deal, which has been 14 years in the making, gives the city greater control over the icy engine of its winter economy.

2012

Membership is available at several levels: Basic membership – $40 That’s less than half the price of a single day ski lift ticket. My psych is high! – $75 Still less than a single day of resort skiing and you get an awesome Ouray Ice Park t-shirt. Ice Ambassador – $150 This level includes a super rad Ouray Ice Park hoody as well as a bonus perk of 10 percent off guided programs with San Juan Mountain Guides ($100 limit per year).

OIPI upgrades the Park’s infrastructure and taps into overflow from the City of Ouray’s water supply tank to significantly increase the ice farming effort. OIPI takes over the Ouray Ice Festival from Jeff Lowe.

A brand-new climbing feature debuts at the 18th Annual Ouray Ice Festival. The 3.5 ton, 25-foot-tall steel climbing wall overhanging the Uncompahgre Gorge near the Lower Bridge enhances the complexity of the Elite Mixed Climbing Competition and makes it a lot more spectator friendly.

2013

A N N UA L M E M B E R S H I P Although, the Ouray Ice Park is free to climb in, it is not free to maintain. Become a member today and support your ice climbing venue!

Ouray Ice Park, Inc. (OIPI) is formed to provide formal organization to what previously had been a loosely organized grassroots effort.

Hundreds of beetle-infested white fir trees are cut down in heavily forested portions of the Ouray Ice Park, and new engineered anchor systems are installed along the rim of the Uncompahgre Gorge.

2015

to climb, socialize, test out the latest equipment, and watch the pros power their way up the latest competition route. The Fest generates about 70 percent of the annual operating capital needed to run the Ouray Ice Park. Despite the high cost of its maintenance, the Park remains free and open for public use. It is jointly owned by the City of Ouray and a mix of other private and public landowners, and managed by Ouray Ice Park, Inc. (OIPI), a non-profit organization that relies solely on memberships, sponsorships, and donations. There’s no other place like this in the world. So take a moment to chillax. Shake out your arms. Enjoy the view. Breathe. Then belly up to a slick wall of ice and begin your climb.

P HO T O B Y S AMAN T HA WR IGHT

W H AT ’ S N E W AT T H E PA R K

Anchor Trees Replaced With Concrete Pads in Wake of Beetle Epidemic BY SAMANTHA WRIGHT

started with a few brown trees dotting the I tforested slopes around Ouray. But over the past

four years, a full-fledged fir engraver beetle epidemic has left thousands of dead white fir trees in its wake – many of them in the heart of the Ouray Ice Park. The first thing that you’ll probably notice when you visit the Park this season is that a whole lot of these trees have been cut down. Last fall, the City of Ouray and the Colorado State Forest Service hired contractors to conduct extensive “sanitation” logging in an effort to conserve the remaining forest and mitigate obvious safety hazards in some of the hardest hit portions of the Park. Not only were the dead and dying trees unstable and unsightly; they also posed a particular threat to Ice Park guests. Trees along the rim of the Uncompahgre Gorge had long been used as top-rope anchors, even as in recent years they were slowly rotting from the inside out. Needless to say, the days of using trees as anchors in the Ouray Ice Park are over. In order to provide continued access to the approximately 30% of climbing terrain in the Ice Park where infected anchor trees have been cut down, the Ouray Ice Park has undertaken a major effort to install replacement anchors. Where possible, expansion bolts and chains have been installed in bedrock. Many climbs, however, have required the construction of a fleet of brand new concrete anchor pads tracing the rim of the Uncompahgre Gorge. “We want to have people using all bolts and no trees,” emphasized Ouray Ice Park Manager Dan Chehayl, who oversaw the anchor replacement 10

project. “It’s a safety thing; we are concerned about people anchoring to these half-rotten trees.” There are 24 new anchor pads in South Park, 13 in New Funtier and one above the School Room. Each pad has three bolts, which means three climbers can anchor off of a single pad, with two climbing directly below the pad and one off to one side or the other. The pads are marked with yellow wands so they’ll be easy to find, even on snowy days. “It’s almost like a zen garden,” said Chehayl. “There’s a whole different aesthetic experience back there now – a lot more open space, better views, and not quite as sheltered.” If you have any questions about how to safely use the new anchoring systems, stop by Ice Park headquarters at Dick’s Chalet, or flag down one of our ice farmers; they patrol the park throughout the day, and will be happy to “show you the ropes”! H O W CA N YO U H E L P ? The construction of the new structural anchors has been costly and labor intensive. The Ouray Ice Park is deeply thankful to Rab USA, Grivel and San Juan Mountain Guides for helping to partially fund the project. An additional $10,000 is needed to help mitigate the cost of the project. OIPI has set up a capital campaign to raise funds. Please visit: coloradogives. org/ourayicparkanchors to make a donation. Contributions in any amount will have a huge impact on providing continued access to much of the very best climbing the Ouray Ice Park has to offer. Please help us provide free access to quality ice climbing terrain by donating now!

K2. EVEREST. JIM WHITTAKER, THE FIRST AMERICAN TO SUMMIT EVEREST. CHO OYU. IXTA.

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About Ouray those seeking respite from the hustle and F orbustle of daily life, you will be astounded by

in all directions, and soothing natural hot springs to greet you when the day is done. Ouray takes its name from a Ute leader whose people frequented the area’s “sacred healing waters.” Settled by miners in the 1870s, the entire town is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, due to its preponderance of well-preserved historic buildings.

W H E R E TO S O A K

W H E R E TO P L AY

Ouray Hot Springs Pool – On a chilly winter’s night, there’s no place like the Ouray Hot Springs Pool and Fitness Center to soak away the thrills and spills of the day. The huge municipal outdoor pool is divided into areas with different temperatures for different activities and comfort levels, including a hot-soak section with water temperatures ranging from 104 to 106 degrees – very popular with the ice-climbing crowd after a big day in the Park! Winter hours are noon - 9 p.m. Monday to Friday, and 11 a.m.- 9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Ouray Ice Park members enjoy a 20 percent discounted admission. Present your membership card at the door. (1230 Main St., Ouray; 970/325-7073; on Facebook)

Backcountry Ice Climbing – There’s much, much more to ice climbing in Ouray than the Ouray Ice Park. The surrounding San Juan mountain range is home to one of the greatest concentrations of water ice climbs in North America. The range’s steep relief and deep gorges provide a superb venue for backcountry ice climbing. Roads carved into the sides of mountains – a legacy of Ouray’s rich mining history – provide access to that terrain today. Ouray’s backcountry climbing scene begins at the Skylight area near the Camp Bird Mine up County Road 361. Quite a few other classics are within walking distance of town, or a short drive up the road – try the Dexter Slab, Bear Creek Falls, Horsetail Falls, Skyrocket and Cascade Falls. Ice farmed in the shadows of the Uncompahgre Gorge within the Ouray Ice Park tends to stay consistently good, but that’s not always the case with climbs out in the wild, where conditions change from year to year, and sometimes day to day.

Ouray’s tranquility, exceptional beauty and world class outdoor recreation! Ouray is a quintessential mountain town in southwestern Colorado. Often called “The Switzerland of America”, it nestles like a little jewel within a bracket of breathtaking peaks, with worldclass outdoor recreation opportunities beckoning

Orvis Hot Springs – This small, clothing-optional facility just south of Ridgway offers private hottubs and a natural outdoor hot springs pond where geothermal spring water bubbles up out of a meadow under the shadow of 14,150 ft. Mt. Sneffels. Overnight guests have 24-hour access to the pools. Everyone else has to leave at 10 p.m. (1585 County Road 3, Ridgway; 970/626-5324; orvishotsprings.com) Wiesbaden Hot Springs Spa – The Historic Wiesbaden Hot Springs Spa, in the heart of Ouray, sits directly over the emanation points of several natural hot springs ranging in temperature from 78128 degrees. Enter the spa’s vapor cave and soaking pool for a strange, dark, steamy underworld soaking experience. Outside, enjoy a small hot springs swimming pool with untreated water so pure you could drink it, and the “Lorelei,” a secluded outdoor spa with its own tranquil soaking pool. Overnight lodging and a full range of spa treatments are offered. (625 5th St., Ouray; 970/325-4347; wiesbadenhotsprings.com)

Backcountry Skiing – The most accessible terrain in Ouray County is found on both sides of US 550 at the top of Red Mountain Pass. For a lift-served taste of extreme backcountry bliss, head on over the pass to Silverton Mountain. Nordic Skiing – Just seven miles south of Ouray on US 550/Red Mountain Pass, Ironton Park beckons with a well-maintained Nordic trail system on relatively flat terrain that winds through a ghost town and old mining ruins. Closer to town, the 2.5 mile Ouray River Trail system is also often groomed for Nordic skiers, conditions permitting. Top of the Pines, near Ridgway, has spectacular vistas of the Sneffels Range and five miles of winter trails groomed for Nordic skating and classic flattrack skiing. ouraynordic.org, topofthepines.org, ouraytrails.org

Winter Hiking – The Ouray Perimeter Trail creates a loop around Ouray, taking in Ouray’s most scenic attractions such as Cascade Falls, the Amphitheater, Ouray Ice Park and Box Canyon Park, while providing beautiful vistas of the town and surrounding peaks. Much of the trail remains boot-packed and accessible throughout the snowy winter season. There are numerous access points along the trail, so the entire five miles does not have to be hiked to return to town. It is easy to take in one or two segments at a time, or if you have the time and energy, do the entire loop! The scenic Ouray Ice Park trail, accessed from Camp Bird Road (County Road 361) just up the hill from the upper bridge across the Uncompahgre Gorge, has been incorporated into the Ouray Perimeter Trail system, and offers an insider’s glimpse of the Ice Park with no crampons required. ouraytrails.org/city-ouraytrails/perimeter-trail

San Juan Hut System – Five backcountry huts dot the northern flanks of the visually stunning 14,000 ft. Sneffels range from Ouray to Ridgway to Telluride, offering access to a network of over 60 miles of backcountry and Nordic trails. Hit one hut at a time, or bop from one to the next in a tour that can cover between four and 11 miles per day. sanjuanhuts.com Alpine & Heli Skiing – About an hour’s drive from Ouray, Telluride Ski Resort offers mountains of fun for skiers, snowboarders and backcountry enthusiasts, with over 2,000 acres of beginner, intermediate and advanced skiing terrain with a vertical drop of 4,000 feet. Revelation Bowl offers lift-served backcountry skiing, while the Surge Air Garden is a snowboarder’s playground of berms, banks, tabletops, pyramids, and a competition-sized halfpipe. Telluride Helitrax provides Heli Skiing and Heli Boarding adventures. tellurideskiresort. com, helitrax.com

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2016 OURAY ICE FESTIVAL PROGRAM & SCHEDULE

16-17 HOW TO ICE FEST 19 FESTIVAL SCHEDULE

20-22 CLINIC SCHEDULE

24-25 ICE PARK MAP

26 COMPETITIONS

27 FEATURED ATHLETES

28 ACTIVITIES

30 EVENTS

15 P HO T O B Y R HY S R O B E RT S

HOW TO ICE FEST gathering of the tribe that has become the W premier event of its kind for people who are hooked elcome to the Ouray Ice Festival – an annual

on ice climbing, or want to learn more about it! Every January, for three magical days and nights, Ouray is transformed into a climbing village as ice climbers, both novice and pro, travel from around the world to celebrate the growing sport of ice climbing. The Fest can be roughly divided into two categories: By day, the action happens at the Ouray Ice Park and includes exciting climbing competitions, an Outdoor Gear Expo, Kids Climbing College and adult walk-up climbing, Interactive Climbing Clinics, and more. In the evening, the action shifts to town. There’s lots going on – multimedia presentations with big-name climbers, music, food, dance parties and a live and silent auction overflowing with screaming deals of the latest outdoor gear! Here’s all the beta you’ll need to make the most of the 2016 Ouray Ice Festival. NEW THIS YEAR We’ve got an all-female lineup of presenters for 2016. These crushing divas will inspire you and blow your mind at evening presentations throughout the weekend. Also new this year, the dZi Foundation is bringing three evenings’ worth of inspiring Mountainfilm programming to the Wright Opera House on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. Skip the crowd scene and get your gear card before the festival gets underway at ourayicepark.com/ passes/.

• • •

PA R K I N G The parking lot across Highway 550 from the Ouray Ice Park entrance is generally reserved for sponsors and festival staff only during Ice Fest weekend. There is also no parking permitted along US Highway 550. So unless you are getting dropped off, it’s best to leave your car in town and walk, or take the shuttle, up to the Ice Park. Please note that overnight parking is prohibited on Main Street in Ouray throughout the winter to facilitate snow removal. Vehicles left there overnight will receive a citation, and may even get towed, which would really suck, so please don’t do it! G E T T I N G TO T H E I C E PA R K On Foot: Starting at the southern terminus of Main Street, turn right (west) on Third Avenue, and walk two blocks or so down the hill toward the Box Canyon Lodge and Victorian Inn. When you get to the bottom of the hill, veer left at the Box Canyon

Falls exit, and follow the road up the hill for a few hundred meters. After a brief hike, you’ll emerge on a path on the west side of the Uncompahgre Gorge that leads straight to the heart of the Ouray Ice Park and Festival Headquarters. Alternatively, starting at the southern terminus of Main Street, you can simply walk up U.S. Highway 550 for about one-fourth mile until you get to the Ice Park entrance, just around the corner from the first switch-back. By Shuttle: Catch a ride up to the Ice Park on one of the free shuttles that will be running continuously along Main Street from 8 a.m.-4 p.m., Friday through Sunday. The shuttle route starts at the Ouray Visitors Center near the Hot Springs Pool, and ends at the Ice Park entrance, and includes a Third Avenue spur. Shuttles are marked with magnetic Ouray Ice Park logos. Designated pickup spots include Citizens State Bank at the corner of Sixth Avenue and Main Street, and the bottom of Third Avenue (near the Victorian Inn and Box Canyon Lodge). Or, you can just flag the shuttle down as you see it coming, and it will stop for you! I N F O B O OT H Got questions? An info booth in the Outdoor Gear Expo area near the Lower Bridge is staffed with friendly and helpful volunteers throughout Ice Fest weekend. Here, you can pick up your gear card (if you didn’t already order it online), maps, programs, schedules and comp order, buy Ouray Ice Festival memorabilia, and check out the custom-made trophies that will be awarded to comp winners at the Asolo Award Ceremony on Sunday. G E A R CA R D S Want to demo the newest, greatest ice climbing gear, or even a new down puffy? Get a Gear Card! An integral part of the Ouray Ice Festival, the Gear Card allows clinic participants and other Festival attendees the opportunity to demo jackets, tools, boots, crampons, harnesses, gloves, etc. from Ice Festival sponsors throughout the weekend. Purchase a Gear Card online ahead of time at ourayicepark.com/passes/ and pay $5 or stand in line at the Festival (at the Thursday night Kickoff Party, or at the Info Booth at the Ice Park starting on Friday morning) and pay $10. Ouray Ice Park members and All Access Pass holders get a complimentary Gear Card with their membership. The gear card works like a library card; provide your credit card number as collateral, then check out gear and return it at the end of the weekend. Simple! Gear card holders agree to the

authorization of the credit card number provided to be charged retail value of item(s) demoed and NOT returned to the specific vendor by 2 p.m. on the last day of the Festival. A L L- A CC E S S PA S S P R O G R A M Make it easy on yourself this year and pick up a $60 All-Access Pass that gets you into all of our awesome evening events for one cool price. Pass holders receive the following benefits: Admission to evening events (please arrive early as passes do not guarantee entrance once venue capacity is reached); Shorter admission lines at evening events; Complimentary Gear Card; Three free issues of Rock & Ice Magazine. Festival attendees who do not purchase an All-Access Pass will still have the opportunity to purchase individual tickets (subject to availability) at the door for each evening event.

• • • •

S P E C TAT I N G A N D P H OTO G R A P H Y Two bridges (known simply as the Upper Bridge and the Lower Bridge) span the Uncompahgre Gorge in the central part of the Ouray Ice Park. Both bridges offer spectacular viewing and photography opportunities of the climbing action in the icy depths of the gorge. There are also several strategically placed spectator stands along the rim of the gorge. Direct sunlight into the gorge is limited to midday. If you are not equipped with proper climbing equipment (helmet, crampons, etc.), please stick to the roads, bridges, and viewing stands, as outcroppings over the gorge are slippery and perilous. R E C YC L I N G Help us reduce our eco-footprint through recycling and other forms of waste reduction. We hope that all festival participants will join in our mission to responsibly recreate! Look for recycling stations located at the Ice Park and the Ouray Community Center. While at the Festival, please sort your waste stream and get it into the right container, and bring your own water bottle. FOOD & DRINK Food and drinks (both hot and cold) are available for purchase at vendor booths near the Ice Park entrance, featuring a nice mix of tasty fare from local restaurants and nonprofits. The food vendor area is a great place to take a break from all the action, sit down for a spell at a picnic table, or warm your hands over a fire ring. Camp Chef is back by popular demand again this year with donated grills and outdoor ovens, stepping up the quality of concessions that can be offered. Artisan pizza, anyone?

WIFI, CELL PHONE RECEPTION Cell phone reception is available for major cellphone carriers in Ouray and – believe it or not – throughout most of the Ice Park! There’s even WiFi at Dick’s Chalet near the Upper Bridge. In town, free WiFi can be found at the Ouray Community Center, Ouray Public Library, and other select locations including Mouse’s Chocolates, Roast & Toast and the Backstreet Bistro. Insider’s tip: keep your cell phone in an inner pocket; it might not work if it gets too cold! CO M M E M O R AT I V E P I N T G L A S S E S Like to drink beer? This year you can swill it from our 21st anniversary commemorative pint glass. It’s included with the price of admission at our Thursday, Friday and Saturday night events. F I N A L B E TA Check the whiteboard at the Outdoor Gear Expo, or the San Juan Mountain Guides tent, for up-to-theminute information about which clinics still have openings (or visit mtnguide.net). The Info Booth has extra lists of the final comp order for the Elite Mixed Climbing Comp and Hari Berger Speed Comp, as well as up-to-date information about who’s winning. We’ll be live-tweeting and posting updates on Facebook throughout the weekend PA R K R U L E S 1. Crampons and a helmet are required for all persons in “Climber Only” areas. 2. You must clearly occupy a top anchor prior to climbing any route in the Ouray Ice Park. 3. No rope and/or anchor shall remain established for more than 3 hours. 4. Do not anchor to any man made structure without a clearly labeled anchor tag or yellow wand. 5. Dogs must be leashed at all times and not left unattended. 6. Absolutely no dogs allowed below the top of the gorge. 7. Please read all “Area Specific Rules” prior to entering a given area. 8. Be courteous and respect your fellow climbers. USEFUL NUMBERS & WEBSITES Ouray Ice Park: 970/325-4288 ourayicepark.com San Juan Mountain Guides: 800/642-5389 mtnguide.net Ouray Chamber Resort Association: 970/325-4746 ouraycolorado.com Avalanche info: avalanche.state.co.us Road Conditions: 877/315-7623 cotrip.org Ice Conditions: mtnguide.net/resources/ouray-ice-conditions

OURAY

ICE

FESTIVAL

T H U R S DAY, JA N UA R Y 1 4 2016 OURAY ICE FESTIVAL KICK OFF PARTY SPONSORED BY RAB, AMERICAN ALPINE CLUB AND UPSLOPE BREWING COMPANY Location: Community Center (340 6th Ave) Time: 7:00pm - 9:30pm Price: $10.00 Presentation: Angela Van Wiemeersch “Zion Ice” 8:00pm - 9:00pm

AT THE ICE PARK

F R I DAY, JA N UA R Y 1 5 OUTDOOR GEAR EXPO Location: Ouray Ice Park Time: 8:00am-3:00pm OURAY ICE FESTIVAL CLINICS Location: Ouray Ice Park Time: 9:30am & 12:30pm DINNER, SILENT AUCTION, PRESENTATIONS, MUSIC DINNER PROVIDED BY THE OURAY VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT, BEER PROVIDED BY UPSLOPE BREWING COMPANY Location: Community Center (340 6th Ave) Time: 5:00pm - 9:30pm Price: $30.00 Dinner: 5:00pm - 7:00pm Silent Auction: 5:00pm - 7:00pm Angelika Rainer 7:30pm - 8:30pm Kitty Calhoun 8:30pm - 9:30pm DZI FOUNDATION PRESENTS MOUNTAINFILM “TRANSFORMING NEPAL’S REMOTE COMMUNITIES SINCE 1998.” BEER WILL BE PROVIDED. Location: Wright Opera House (472 Main St.) Films: TBA Time: 7:00pm-10:00pm Price: $20.00

S AT U R DAY, JA N UA R Y 1 6 OUTDOOR GEAR EXPO Location: Ouray Ice Park Time: 8:00am-3:00pm OURAY ICE FESTIVAL CLINICS Location: Ouray Ice Park Time: 9:30am & 12:30pm

AT THE ICE PARK

OURAY ICE FESTIVAL ELITE MIXED CLIMBING COMPETITION Location: Ouray Ice Park Time: 9:00am-3:00pm LIVE AUCTION, PRESENTATION, JEFF LOWE AWARD, MUSIC BEER PROVIDED BY UPSLOPE BREWING COMPANY Location: Community Center (340 6th Ave) Time: 6:00pm - 8:00pm Price: $20.00 Presentation: Emily Harrington 7:00pm - 8:00pm DZI FOUNDATION PRESENTS MOUNTAINFILM. “TRANSFORMING NEPAL’S REMOTE COMMUNITIES SINCE 1998.” BEER WILL BE PROVIDED. Location: Wright Opera House (472 Main St.) Films: TBA Time: 7:00pm-10:00pm Price: $20.00 PETZL PARTY! BEER PROVIDED BY UPSLOPE BREWING COMPANY Location: Community Center (340 6th Ave) Time: 9:30pm - 1:00am Price: $20.00 S U N DAY, JA N UA R Y 1 7 OUTDOOR GEAR EXPO Location: Ouray Ice Park Time: 8:00am-2:00pm OURAY ICE FESTIVAL CLINICS Location: Ouray Ice Park Time: 9:30am & 12:30pm

AT THE ICE PARK

SCHEDULE

HARI BERGER SPEED COMPETITION SPONSORED BY LOWA Location: Ouray Ice Park Time: 9:00am CLOSING PARTY: DZI FOUNDATION PRESENTS MOUNTAINFILM “TRANSFORMING NEPAL’S REMOTE COMMUNITIES SINCE 1998.” BEER WILL BE PROVIDED. Location: Wright Opera House (472 Main St.) Film: TBA Time: 6:00pm - 7:30pm Price: $10.00

ACTIVITIES | EVENTS | PRESENTATION | FEATURE | SPONSORS & BUSINESS PARTNERS

SEMINARS & CLINICS FRIDAY, JANUARY 15 TIME

SPONSOR

ATHLETE

THEME

DIFFICULTY LOCATION

SEMINARS

0930-1500 RAB ELI HELMUTH INTERMEDIATE ICE WI 3-4 SOUTHPARK CARTMAN’S RIGHT 0930-1500 LOWA CARLOS BUHLER NOVICE ICE WI 3-4 SOUTHPARK CHEF’S SLABS 0930-1500 OUTDOOR RESEARCH MARK ALLEN INTERMEDIATE ICE WI 3-5 SH!THOUSE WALL 0930-1500 CAMP TBD LEARNING TO LEAD SOUTH PARK CARTMAN’S LEFT 0930-1500 GORE/AMGA ANGELA HAWSE LEARNING TO LEAD FOR WOMEN 0930-1500 GORE/AMGA DALE REMSBERG BC ICE INTERMEDIATE SKYLIGHT AREA 0930-1500 LA SPORTIVA KARSTEN DELAP BC ICE INTRO WI 4 SKYLIGHT AREA 0930-1500 BLACK DIAMOND TBD SELF-RESCUE ICE N/A SOUTH PARK 0930-1500 ADIDAS JEFF WITT INTRO TO ICE CLIMBING SOUTH PARK CLINICS 1230-1500 SCARPA KITTY CALHOUN INTERMEDIATE ICE WI 3-4 FOCUS ON YOUR FOOTWORK 1230-1500 GRIVEL/BEAL ANGELICA REINER INTERMEDIATE ICE WI 3-4 FOR WOMEN 1230-1500 BLACK DIAMOND SAM ELIAS STEEP ICE WI 3-4 1230-1500 GRIVEL SHINGO OHKAWA NOVICE ICE WI 3 1230-1500 RAB AARON MULKEY SKILLS FOR THE ICE LEADER WI 2-3 1230-1500 ADIDAS MARCUS GARCIA INTERMEDIATE ICE WI 3-4 1230-1500 HYPERLITE RYAN VACHON HARD ICE WI 4-5 1230-1500 MILLET ANDRES MARIN MODERATE MIXED M 4-7 WI4+ 1230-1500 ARC’TERYX JESSE HUEY NOVICE ICE WI 3 1230-1500 OUTDOOR RESEARCH MARGO TALBOT INTRO TO ICE FOR WOMEN WI 2-3 1230-1500 OSPREY BEN CLARK INTRO TO ICE WI 2-3 1230-1500 OUTDOOR RESEARCH JEWELL LUND INTRO TO ICE WI 2-3 1230-1500 PETZL WILL MAYO ADVANCED ICE WI 4-5 1230-1500 MAMMUT ANDREA CHAREST BELAYS & TRANSITIONS NA FOR MULTI-PITCH 1230-1500 ASOLO KAREN BOCKEL ANCHORS WI 2-3 1230-1500 MAXIM ANNA PFAFF WI 3-4 1230-1500 LA SPORTIVA DAWN GLANC INTRO TO MIXED CLIMBING M4-7 1230-1500 BLACK DIAMOND VINCE ANDERSON LEARN TO LEAD ICE

SCHOOL ROOM 1 - 3 SCHOOL ROOM 4, 5 FINGERS SCHOOL ROOM 8, 9 SCHOOL ROOM 10 - 12 TRESTLE RIGHT POPSICLE - SLUSHY SCOTTISH GULLIES RIGHT SCOTTISH GULLIES SLAB HAPPY KIDS WALL KIDS WALL TRESTLE LEFT FLAMENCO JESUS RIGHT OMR BARN HEN HOUSE KIDS WALL TBD

SATURDAY, JANUARY 16 SEMINARS & CLINICS TIME

SPONSOR

ATHLETE

THEME

DIFFICULTY LOCATION

SEMINARS 0930-1500 PETZL MATT WADE INTRO TO ICE WI 2-3 0930-1500 OUTDOOR RESEARCH SHELDON KERR NOVICE ICE WI 3-4 0930-1500 SCARPA MARKUS BECK INTERMEDIATE ICE WI 3-5 0930-1500 MAMMUT DOUG SHEPHERD LEARNING TO LEAD 0930-1500 CAMP NATHAN SMITH BACKCOUNTRY ICE CLINIC INTRO 0930-1500 ADIDAS JEFF WITT BACKCOUNTRY ICE CLINIC INTERMEDIATE 0930-1500 BLACK DIAMOND TBD PAT ORMOND’S TOTAL BODY WORKOUT 0930-1500 GRIVEL SHINGO OHKAWA FULL DAY - INTERMEDIATE ICE

SOUTHPARK LEO’S LOUNGE SOUTHPARK CHEF’S SLABS SH!THOUSE WALL SOUTH PARK CARTMAN’S SKYLIGHT OURAY AREA SOUTH PARK RED MOUNTAIN PASS

CLINICS 1230-1500 SCARPA ANGELA HAWSE 1230-1500 MAMMUT ANDREA CHAREST 1230-1500 PATAGONIA KITTY CALHOUN 1230-1500 HYPERLITE JANETTE HUENG 1230-1500 OUTDOOR RESEARCH MARGO TALBOT 1230-1500 LA SPORTIVA WILL MAYO 1230-1500 ARC’TERYX DALE REMSBERG 1230-1500 LA SPORTIVA ANNA PFAFF 1230-1500 LOWA CARLOS BUHLER 1230-1500 ADIDAS MARCUS GARCIA 1230-1500 OUTDOOR RESEARCH EMILIE DRINKWATER 1230-1500 OSPREY BEN CLARK 1230-1500 RAB ELI HELMUTH

ICE SCREWS AND WI 3-4 ANCHORS CLINIC INTERMEDIATE ICE WI 3-4 INTERMEDIATE ICE BALANCE & EFFICIENCY WI 3-4 LEASHLESS CLIMBING WI 3 FOR THE CHICKENHEARTED INTERMEDIATE ICE WI 3-4 ADVANCED ICE WI 4-5 LEADING STEEP ICE WI 4-5 MODERATE MIXED M 4-7 WI4+ FOR WOMEN INTRO TO LEADING WI 3-4 WATER ICE ADVANCED ICE WI 4-5 NOVICE ICE WI 2-3 NOVICE ICE - FOOTWORK FUNDAMENTALS BELAYS & TRANSITIONS NA FOR MULTI-PITCH ICE

SCHOOL ROOM 1 - 3 SCHOOL ROOM 4, 5 SCHOOL ROOM 6, 7 SCHOOL ROOM 8, 9 TRESTLE LEFT FINGERS POPSICLE - SLUSHY SCOTTISH GULLIES RIGHT SCHOOL ROOM 10-12 FLAMENCO - JESUS RIGHT FINGERS HEN HOUSE

P HO T O B Y DAN HO LZ

ACTIVITIES | EVENTS | PRESENTATION | FEATURE | SPONSORS & BUSINESS PARTNERS

SEMINARS & CLINICS SUNDAY, JANUARY 17 TIME

SPONSOR

ATHLETE

THEME

DIFFICULTY LOCATION

CLINICS 0900-1130 THE NORTH FACE EMILY HARRINGTON 0900-1130 OSPRAY MARCUS GARCIA 0900-1130 GRIVEL ANGELICA REINER 0900-1130 SCARPA MARKUS BECK 0900-1130 PETZL/MILLET ANDRES MARIN 0900-1130 LOWA CARLOS BUHLER 0900-1130 GRIVEL/BEAL SCOTT ADAMSON 0900-1130 MAMMUT DOUG SHEPHERD 0900-1130 PETZL MARK ALLEN 0900-1130 RAB RYAN VACHON 0900-1130 OUTDOOR RESEARCH KYLE DEMPSTER 0900-1130 ASOLO KAREN BOCKEL 0900-1130 PATAGONIA VINCE ANDERSON 0900-1130 ARC’TERYX KATIO BONO 0900-1130 GORE/AMGA ANGELA HAWSE 0900-1130 RED FOX NA JAYSON S. JONES 0900-1130 LA SPORTIVA DALE REMSBERG 0900-1130 CAMP ANNA PFAFF 0900-1130 ADIDAS JEFF WITT HYPERLITE

INTERMEDIATE ICE WI 3-4 SCHOOL ROOM 1 - 3 INTERMEDIATE ICE - WI 3-4 SCHOOL ROOM 4, 5 MOVING WITH EFFICIENCY ICE FOOTWORK FUNDAMENTALS WI 3-4 SCHOOL ROOM 6, 7 NOVICE ICE WI 3 SCHOOL ROOM 8, 9 INTRO TO ICE WI 2-3 SCHOOL ROOM 10 - 12 INTERMEDIATE ICE WI 3-4 TRESTLE RIGHT STEEP ICE WI 4-5 POPSICLE - SLUSHY LEASHLESS CLIMBING TECHNIQUES WI 3 TRESTLE LEFT SELF RESCUE CLINIC - WI 2-3 HEN HOUSE RESCUING THE SECOND INTERMEDIATE M 4-7 WI4+ SCOTTISH GULLIES RIGHT MIXED CLIMBING INTRO TO MIXED CLIMBING M 4 - 6 FLAMENCO - JESUS RIGHT INTRO TO ICE WI 2-3 KIDS WALL STEEP ICE SKILLS WI 4-5 FINGERS INTRO TO MIXED CLIMBING WI 4-5 STUMP WALL INTERMEDIATE ICE - WI 3-4 WOMEN’S SPECIFIC BELAYS & TRANSITIONS N/A OMR BARN FOR MULTIPITCH SKILLS FOR THE ICE LEADER ADVANCED ICE NOVICE ICE LEARN TO LEAD ICE

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ACTIVITIES | EVENTS | PRESENTATION | FEATURE | SPONSORS & BUSINESS PARTNERS

Canyon Access

Ladder over Penstock

Winter Toilet

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Canyon Access

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Canyon Access

NEW FUNTIER

Winter Toilet

Canyon Access

GRAD SCHOOL SCHOOL ROOM

THE OURAY ICE PARK IS 100% DONOR FUNDED Visit online to become a member and help us keep the Ouray Ice Park free! OurayIcePark.com

School Room Emergency Ladder

Ice Park Office

TRESTLE & MIXED ALCOVE PIC O’ THE VIC LEAD AREA

KIDS’ WALL

Upper Bridge

Lower Bridge

361 Camp Bird Rd. Canyon Access

LOWER BRIDGE

SCOTTISH GULLIES STUMP WALL

Canyon Access

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N Canyon Access

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HWY

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ACTIVITIES | EVENTS | PRESENTATION | FEATURE | SPONSORS & BUSINESS PARTNERS

The

Competitions E L I T E M I X E D C L I M B I N G CO M P Saturday, Jan. 16, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Ouray Ice Park, Lower Bridge/Outdoor Gear Expo area many fans, the Elite Mixed Climbing F orCompetition is the highlight of the whole Ice

Fest weekend. The competition showcases 25 of the finest alpinists and sport climbers in the world exhibiting jaw-dropping, head-scratching feats of strength and agility as they pit themselves against a uniquely challenging route in the heart of the Ouray Ice Park. Men and women climb the same mixed route that blends natural and artificial features including vertical rock and ice inside the Uncompahgre Gorge, and a 25-foot steel climbing tower overhanging the gorge. The tower made its debut in 2013, with the aim of spicing up the competition and making it more spectator friendly. Looming over a popular climb called Aphrodite in the Lower Bridge area of the Ouray Ice Park, it can be embellished with infinite variables of artificial rock climbing holds for dry tooling, and is mounted in such a way that it can overhang the Uncompahgre Gorge by 15 degrees to 45 degrees, depending on the route setter’s desired level of difficulty. Competitors have a set amount of time to complete their climb. Place is determined based upon the highest controlled point reached. If more than one climber makes the full pull, the one with the fastest time wins. Last year’s route, dubbed “Krampus” by its maker (longtime Ouray Ice Festival route setter Vince Anderson), featured three artificial cracks which proved virtually impossible to scale. European phenom Angelika Rainer and Canadian badass Will Gadd topping the podium although neither was able to send the route. France’s Simon Duverney placed an impressive second, while the Colombian naturalized American Andres Marin placed third. In the women’s event Canada’s Sarah Hueniken placed second and America’s Katie Bono placed third. Spectators can take in the action from viewing platforms and bleachers along the rim of the Uncompahgre Gorge in the vicinity of the Lower Bridge and Outdoor Gear Expo. Applications for the Elite Mixed Climbing 26

Competition are due Dec. 25 and competitors are notified soon afterward whether they got in. The names of competitors are made available to the public in early January, shortly before the Ice Fest gets underway. Check our website and social media at that time to get an up-to-date list of who’s climbing. As they ascend the cold, hard ice, climbers will be competing for cold, hard cash; $9,000 will be divvied among the top three male and female competitors in the Elite Mixed Climbing Competition this year. H A R I B E R G E R S P E E D CO M P SPONSORED BY LOWA BOOTS Sunday, Jan. 17, 9 a.m.-noon Ouray Ice Park, Lower Bridge/Outdoor Gear Expo area fourth year running, Lowa Boots F orwillthesponsor the Hari Berger Speed Climbing

Competition at the Ouray Ice Festival to honor the legendary fallen athlete who won three Ice Climbing World Championships while wearing Lowa boots. Berger’s legacy lives on each year at the Ouray Ice Festival, when competitors race each other up pillars of ice in the depths of the Uncompahgre Gorge. Speed climbing is hugely popular on the World Cup scene in Europe. Judging from its reception at the Ouray Ice Fest over the past three years, it’s a hit here, too! The competition is fast and furious, with $5,500 in prize money up for grabs. Unlike the Elite Mixed Climbing Competition, this is an open comp; anyone can sign up to compete. The event attracts a nice mix of big names and local heroes – some of whom may even be pitted against each other. The action takes place in the same vicinity as the Elite Mixed Climbing Competition, on routes consisting solely of ice. Berger died in 2006 at age 34 near his home town of Salzburg, Austria when an ice pillar he was climbing collapsed, crushing him. He left behind his pregnant girlfriend Kristen Buchman, who gave birth to a daughter, Zoe, the day after he died. Berger was a regular at the Ouray Ice Festival, known for his expansive smile and virtually effortless ascents of difficult comp routes. “The wheel of living and dying turns with such savage cruelty sometimes,” wrote climber Will Gadd of Berger’s death. “Hari was a good man – a good climber, a moral human and, as he often demonstrated while staying at our house, a good cook. I’m sure he would have been a fantastic father to his daughter.”

F E AT U R E D AT H L E T E

Lucie Hrozová, Iron Lady hile Italian dominatrix Angelika Rainer is W coming back to Ouray to defend her title, it’ll be worth keeping an eye on her friend, the

Czech climber Lucie Hrozová, at this year’s Elite Mixed Climbing Comp and Lowa Speed Comp. Hrozová is a rising star in the dry tooling and ice climbing world. She rocketed onto the mixed climbing scene in 2013 with the second ascent of the world’s hardest dry tool route, Iron Man (D14+). This makes her the world’s first female to climb a route that hard. After this amazing achievement, Hrozová went on to win her first victory in the Ice Climbing World Cup in Busteni, Romania, where she climbed outstandingly and sprinted to the top in the final. Born in 1988, Hrozová has been climbing since she was eight years old. Today, she is a Singing Rock Climbing Team member. This is her first time competing in Ouray. We caught up with Hrozová while she was recovering from a tonsillectomy before the Ice Festival, to learn a little bit more about what motivates and inspires her. You were the first woman to climb Ironman, the hardest dry-tooling route in the world. How did you prepare for the climb? What was going through your mind while you were climbing it? Mostly I prepared on a home bouldering wall. I tried to build the difficult steps far apart. Also, I did a lot of climbing with ice axes on the rocks outside. When I did the climb, I was very nervous and I was afraid that I would make a mistake. Jonas Allemann encouraged me, and it was very good for me. What are some of your recent climbing achievements? Illuminati M11+WI6+; Jedi Master-OS M11,WI5; Ironman M14; Pray for Power M14 (-). I also did some mountaineering ascents, including Nordwand Orler (the highest mountain in Italy) and Nordwand of Monch, near Eiger, but this is a completely different kind of climbing. Not so hard, but hard for me because it’s so different than sport climbing.

Who are your climbing mentors/ idols? Why? My dad, who is a great mountaineer. He has climbed the hardest routes on the North Face of the Eiger. He taught me to climb, and showed me the beauty of wonderful verticals and the adventure that climbing offers. Is your dad still climbing and encouraging you today? Dad is still climbing – of course not on the level like in the past, but he’s still an excellent climber. He’s always out ahead of me when we’re doing classic winter mountaineering routes with heavy packs. But when we go on sportier routes, he has to use a jumar to follow me. Tell us something about the climbing scene/ climbing culture in the Czech Republic. In the Czech Republic, we have the most beautiful sandstone cliffs. It is a world rarity and we are very proud of them. You can’t use magnesium there, and protection is very sparse. Regarding the climbing culture, we’ve got a oneman show called Adam Ondra! What are some of your current climbing objectives and plans for the future? I would like to climb as much as possible at the highest level, but still find the joy and adventure in it. If I have to stop climbing competitively for financial reasons, it won’t be the end of the world for me. I will be glad just to climb for fun. What are your thoughts about competing at the Ouray Ice Festival? I have never been to the United States before. Judging from the pictures that I’ve seen, the nature around Ouray looks incredibly beautiful, so I can’t wait for the festival!

ACTIVITIES | EVENTS | PRESENTATION | FEATURE | SPONSORS & BUSINESS PARTNERS

OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES OUTDOOR GEAR EXPO Friday, Jan. 15, 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 16, 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 17, 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Near the Lower Bridge at the Ouray Ice Park Every year, the outdoor gear manufacturers that sponsor the Ouray Ice Festival travel to the Fest to let participants demo their latest and greatest products. Used to be, it was just boots, tools and crampons. But now, you can pretty much demo anything but base layers. So if you’re in the market for a new puffy belay jacket, for example, a handful of sponsors have a fleet of them for you to demo. The Outdoor Gear Expo is a hive of activity during Ice Festival weekend – a colorful tent village perched alongside the rim of the Uncompahgre Gorge, with hundreds of ice climbers and onlookers strolling around, trying on gear and just hangin’ out. The Gore-Tex tent provides couches, heaters and a live video feed of action down in the gorge during the competitions. It’s a great place to warm up and get out of the weather. The Outdoor Gear Expo is not a gear swap; you will find little for sale, but there’s plenty of swag. So go ahead, feel the sponsors’ love.

P HO T O B Y R HY S R O B E RT S

F R E E K I D S C L I M B I N G CO L L E G E Saturday, Jan. 16, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 17, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. At the Kids Wall near the Upper Bridge Sponsored by San Juan Mountain Guides, the popular Kids Climbing College offers free ice climbing instruction to kids ages 8-17. The KCC is staged at the Kids Wall – a beginners climbing area located near the Upper Bridge and Memorial Kiosk, right off of County Road 361 (Camp Bird Road). Four to five ropes will be going full-time both days. Participants receive 15 minutes of instruction each, with a professional guide, on a first-come, first-served basis. It’s easy to sign up your kids, and San Juan Mountain Guides provides all the technical gear they’ll need. F R E E A D U LT WA L K- U P C L I M B I N G AT T H E L A S P O R T I VA ZO N E Friday, Jan. 15, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 16, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 17, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Want to try ice climbing but not quite ready to take a clinic? La Sportiva’s free adult walkup clinics are taught by high-level athletes, no registration required. All technical gear is provided. They will be set up next door to the Kids Climbing College at the Kids Wall, near the Upper Bridge and County Road 361. There’s never been a better time to grab some tools and give ice climbing a try!

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INTERACTIVE CLINICS Friday, Jan. 15, 9:30 a.m. & 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 16, 9:30 a.m. & 12:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 17, 9:30 a.m. & 12:30 p.m. Sign up online at mtnguide.net/ouray-ice-climbing/ ouray-ice-festival-clinics/ The Ouray Ice Park is pleased again to partner with San Juan Mountain Guides to provide interactive climbing clinics and seminars for the 2016 Ouray Ice Festival. Throughout the weekend, over 80 unique, informative, cutting-edge ice and mixed climbing clinics and seminars will be offered. Most clinics take place inside the Ice Park. A great lineup of all-day backcountry skiing and ice climbing seminars are also available this year. If you have always wanted to learn how to backcountry ski on Red Mountain Pass or climb the Whorehouse Hose, here’s your chance! Clinics and seminars are taught by professional athletes and guides with the most knowledge and the best instructional techniques in their fields, with sponsors including Black Diamond, Outdoor Research, La Sportiva, The North Face, Patagonia, Mammut, Scarpa, Gore-Tex, and many more. Each clinic offers a unique opportunity to pair vendors and their sponsored athletes with a passionate audience of amateur climbers. Clinics are offered twice a day on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with offerings for beginner, intermediate and advanced ice climbers. Full-day seminars are offered on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Clinics and seminars fill up fast – typically, a couple of months before the Ice Fest even gets underway – but some slots always open up at the last minute, due to cancellations. Check the white board near the San Juan Mountain Guides booth at the Outdoor Gear Expo for last-minute openings, or visit mtnguide.net/ouray-iceclimbing/ouray-ice-festival-clinics/. The clinics and seminars are a screaming deal at $59 and $119 respectively. Backcountry Full Day Seminars are $179. Ouray Ice Park Members receive $10 off each registration. Questions? Call 800/642-5389. If that line is busy leave a message or call 970/946-3973. You can also send an email to icefestclinics@mtnguide.net.

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ACTIVITIES | EVENTS | PRESENTATION | FEATURE | SPONSORS & BUSINESS PARTNERS

SPECIAL EVENTS P R E S E N TAT I O N S Thursday/Friday/Saturday/Sunday nights Ouray Community Center/ Wright Opera House We’ve got a stellar lineup of all-female presenters this year, showcasing four crushing divas in the world of ice climbing! Angela Van Wiemeersch gets the party started on Thursday night with her presentation about “Zion Ice”. Angelika Rainer and Kitty Calhoun share the spotlight on Friday night with inspiring stories of their climbing adventures around the world. And we’re superstoked to feature Emily Harrington as our keynote speaker on Saturday night. Looking for even more ways to get inspired? The dZi Foundation is bringing three nights’ worth of MountainFilm programming to the Wright Opera House on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights! Come immerse yourself in stories and ideas celebrating indomitable spirit and solutions for a livable world. (For more information about the full lineup of presentations, see Pages 33-38.) K I C K O F F PA R T Y A N G E L A VA N W I E M E E R S C H Thursday, Jan. 14, 7-9:30 p.m. | $10 Ouray Community Center (340 6th Ave.) Join us at the Ouray Community Center for the Ouray Ice Festival Kick-off Party sponsored by the American Alpine Club and Rab USA. There will be beer from Upslope Brewing Company, prizes, and opportunities to hang with local and 30

P HO T O B Y R HY S R O B E RT S

visiting climbing royalty. Plus, a presentation on “Zion Ice” by Angela Van Wiemeersch from 8-9 p.m. (see Page 34 for more info). The party brings in a “Who’s Who” from the climbing world, highlighting the Ouray Ice Park’s unique, ongoing partnership with the AAC. This is a great, grassroots gathering that tends to attract a huge turnout. $10 gets you in the door. Let’s kick this party off right! S PA G H E T T I D I N N E R , M U S I C S I L E N T AU C T I O N , A N G E L I KA R A I N E R K I T T Y CA L H O U N Friday, Jan. 15, 5-9:30 p.m. | $30 Ouray Community Center (340 6th Ave.) The annual Friday Night Spaghetti Dinner, served up by the Ouray Volunteer Fire Department, is a Ouray Ice Festival tradition that attracts a boisterous crowd eager for plates of pasta, pints of beer and opportunities to mingle with sponsored athletes. A portion of the cover charge goes to support the OVFD, which has provided critical volunteer support to the Ice Fest over the years. Don’t forget to bid on silent auction items donated by the Ice Fest’s corporate sponsors. All auction proceeds go directly to support the Ouray Ice Park, keeping it free and open for all of our enjoyment, so bid high, folks! The evening wraps up with a double-dose of diva-liciousness with inspiring presentations by Kitty Calhoun and Angelika Rainer (see Pages 35-36 for more info).

P E T Z L PA R T Y – I C E P I R AT E S Saturday, Jan. 16, 9:30 p.m.-1 a.m. | $20 Ouray Community Center, 340 6th Ave. The annual late-night Petzl party is a raucous affair, and definitely one of most heavily attended events of the whole Ice Festival weekend. Part rave, part costume party, it’s a racy evening that pulls in Ice Fest regulars and Petzl Party groupies from throughout the region. The party always has a theme; this year it’s “Ice Pirates” – arrrrrrr. $20 cover charge includes beer!

L I V E AU C T I O N E M I LY H A R R I N GTO N J E F F LO W E A WA R D Saturday, Jan. 16, 6-8 p.m. | $20 Ouray Community Center (340 6th Ave.) On Saturday night, dinner is on the town. Ouray’s restaurants are poised to feed the masses and turn over tables quickly, so you can hustle back to the Ouray Community Center by 6 p.m. for our keynote presentation by ice climbing queen bee Emily Harrington; see Page 37 for more info) plus the presentation of the fourth annual Jeff Lowe Award. The $20 cover charge includes beer from Upslope Brewing Company and a fantastic live auction with goods ranging from the latest climbing gear to signed photographs and ice axes once wielded by climbing greats.

A S O LO A WA R D S C E R E M O N Y Sunday, Jan. 17, 1 p.m. Outdoor Gear Expo area at the Ice Park The Asolo Awards Ceremony is like something right out of the Olympics as the winning athletes from the Elite Mixed Climbing Comp and Hari Berger Speed Comp take their places on a podium carved from ice to receive custom trophies made by Ouray glass and metal artists Sam Rushing and Jeff Skoloda. Before you point your camera toward the podium, take a look around you – there’s likely to be a “Who’s Who” of climbing royalty in the crowd.

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PRESENTATIONS 34 ANGELA 34

VAN WIEMEERSCH

35 KITTY CALHOUN 35

36 ANGELIKA RAINER 36 37 EMILY HARRINGTON 37 38 DZI FOUNDATION 38 PRESENTS MOUNTAINFILM

33 P HO T O B Y DAN DALT O N

M U LT I M E D I A P R E S E N TAT I O N ZION ICE Thursday, Jan. 14, 8-9 p.m. Ouray Community Center

Angela Van Wiemeersch Angela Van Wiemeersch is an all-or-nothing kind of girl. “I feel like I’ve had three different lives in my lifetime,” she said. Each one has been marked by obsession. She was a highly driven, goal-oriented kid growing up in suburban Detroit who got into competitive figure skating “very late,” at the age of 9. She trained like a fiend and was on track to compete in nationals. But when she was 15, her ice skating career skidded to an abrupt halt. “Financially it got to be unbearable,” Van Wiemeersch said. Her parents supported her in every way they could, until they could no longer. With figure skating now in the past, Van Wiemeersch had so much extra creative energy that she needed to channel. She taught herself how to sew and started making dresses. She did it with the same drive and passion with which she’d attacked the ice rink, sewing nonstop. After designing a couple of amateur collections, she headed off to art school where she majored in fashion design. “What I did in fashion was off the wall – big gowns, big collars , think avant-garde meets old world. Pretty unique,” she said. Then the recession of 2008 hit, and bam! Van Wiemeersch skidded into another financial wall. She couldn’t get another student loan to continue financing her art school education, so she transferred to a community college that left her feeling stagnant, uninspired and without adventure. Her self-administered cure came in the form of a solo bicycle ride. A really long one, as it

turns out, that took her all the way from Detroit to Nova Scotia and beyond. “Initially I was only going to go to Maine,” she said, “but I had so much fun that I couldn’t stop.” It was a lifechanging experience that recalibrated her life. When she was finally done, she sold all her belongings and headed off to see even more of the world. For the next four or five years, she hitchhiked all over North America, from the Arctic Ocean all the way to the Panama Canal, picking up odd jobs along the way, and even making enough money to pay off some of her student loans. Eventually, three years or so ago, she had a date with destiny when she found her way to Ouray, and started swinging tools with the local climbers. She was hooked from the first swing, and it’s pretty much all she’s been doing ever since – living on the road as a climber and planning her next big mountain adventure. One of Van Weimeersch’s favorite adventures to date happened in January and February 2014, when she and her boyfriend/climbing partner Scott Adamson went to Zion in search of the ephemeral icefalls that sometimes form there after a winter storm. They got lucky, climbing for 18 days straight without a rest. It was a race against nature, as the ice literally melted out around them in their final climb. “It was the most sustained, most wild, craziest climbing I’ve ever done in my life,” Van Weimeersch said. Photographer Andrew Burr captured the action, which will be on full display at Thursday’s slideshow presentation during the opening night party. Life #3 appears to be a good fit for Van Weimeersh. “My dad always jokes that I got mad enough at the serious sport of figure skating that I want to beat up the ice now,” Van Weimeersch laughs. “But I think it’s really just that creative outlet; everyone has their passion.” Some more so than others.

M U LT I M E D I A P R E S E N TAT I O N LAST ASCENTS Friday, Jan. 15, 8:30-9:30 p.m. Ouray Community Center

Kitty Calhoun “Until I found God, climbing was my only religion,” Patagonia Alpine Climbing Ambassador Kitty Calhoun once told Alpinist magazine. “Initially, I was drawn to climbing because I knew nothing about it. Although I was afraid of heights, I wanted to challenge myself, and alpine climbing, especially in the winter in the Rockies, became my passion.” Since Calhoun first roped up in South Carolina at age 18, that passion has taken her to dozens of peaks in the Rockies to Alaska to the Andes and the Himalaya. She was the first woman to climb Makalu, the world’s fifth-highest mountain, leading an expedition up the highly technical West Pillar route. She also put up a new route on the west face of Middle Triple Peak in Alaska. During her 35-plus year guiding and climbing career, Calhoun has instructed the Navy Seals, been an instructor for Outward Bound, starred in a climbing documentary called Fire on Ice, received the prestigious Underhill Award for outstanding mountaineering achievement from the American Alpine Club, and created the Mugs Stump Award which grants funds to expeditions that most exemplify a fast and light climbing style. She was also a founding partner of Exum Utah Mountain Adventures. But around Ouray, she’s better known as one of the original infamous Girly Guides at Chicks with Picks, a series of women’s-only ice climbing clinics founded 17 years ago by Kim Reynolds that has since evolved to encompass other forms of outdoor adventure. Earlier this year, Calhoun and a gang of four other Girly Guides bought the business from Reynolds, and started taking it to a new level, adding backcountry skiing as well as a number of international trips. It’s been a ton of work, but “We’re pretty

excited!” she said. As impressive as her career has been, it might be surprising to learn that her work with Chicks with Picks, right here in the Ouray Ice Park, has been the most rewarding. The reason is simple. “Chicks clinics are empowering,” she explained. “Participants walk away with an increased level of proficiency and confidence, which translates to their work life, and their family life. That’s real gratifying. There’s no other job like that.” When she is not out on the road, Calhoun lives in Ouray and Castle Valley, Utah. But lately, she’s been on the road a lot. Last fall, for example, she embarked on a seven-week expedition to an unnamed, unclimbed peak in Northern India with her husband Jay Smith and two other seasoned climbing buddies. “We figured among the four of us we had over 109 years experience in alpine climbing and expedition experience,” Calhoun laughed. It was the first big expedition Calhoun’s gone on in over 10 years (her son just went off to college, leaving her with a newfound sense of freedom), and she was out of cell phone and internet contact for seven blissful weeks. “It’s my very favorite kind of climbing,” she said. But what really drives Calhoun these days is waking people up to the threat of climate change. She’s developed a presentation called “Last Ascents” that delivers this message with a powerful wallop. (You can check it out on TEDx Talks, or at the Ouray Ice Festival on Friday night, Jan. 15.) “I think it’s a timely message,” she said. “You hear stories of polar bears not having anywhere to go, and the North Pole is disappearing, and it’s just so far away. You are like, ‘How does that relate to me?’ But we see evidence in the Teton, in Europe where permanent ice fields on the north face of the Eiger have disappeared, and in New Zealand, where the top 30 feet of Mt. Cook fell off. Climbers see it.” Calhoun struggles with whether she, as one person, can make a difference. “But I’ve started to recognize how the decisions I make have an impact on other people, and how that can spread,” she said. “I can do things that will add up. It’s the ripple effect.”

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PH OT O BY JENS EN WA L K ER

M U LT I M E D I A P R E S E N TAT I O N MY UPSIDE DOWN WORLD Friday, Jan. 15, 7:30-8:30 p.m. Ouray Community Center

Angelika Rainer It’s been a good year for Italian climber Angelika Rainer. First she won the women’s title at the 2015 Ouray Ice Festival’s Elite Mixed Climbing Comp. Then, in spite of having missed a crucial stage of the World Cup circuit in South Korea that happened on the same weekend as the Ouray Ice Fest, she went on to win the overall title at the UIAA Ice Climbing World Cup for the second time in her career. After a summer devoted to sport climbing projects near her home in Bergamo and kooky “street boulder” events throughout northern Italy where participants are allowed to climb on old houses, elegant palazzi, stone walls and municipal buildings, Rainer competed – and won – at the Red Bull White Cliffs at the Isle of Wight last October. This unique contest pitted some of the best ice climbers from all around the world against each other to climb the 100 meter chalk cliffs from the beach to the top of the hill as fast as possible. Rainer beat out the likes of Canadian strongwoman Sarah Hueniken and South Korean Hanarai Song to take the women’s title. Rainer is now headed back to Colorado to defend her Ouray Ice Festival title, and to take the stage at the Ouray Community Center as a featured presenter on Friday night. She’ll be talking about all of the kinds of climbing that she likes – the Ice Climbing World Cup, sport climbing, alpine climbing (especially at home in the Dolomites), ice climbing in Canada (where in 2014 she famously made the first female ascent of Clash of the Titans WI10+, in Helmcken Falls). And she may even have some video from her

latest winter climbing project on Senja Island in the far northern reaches of Norway. Born and raised in South Tyrol, Italy, Rainer has been a dominatrix on the World Cup stage for close to a decade. “I am quite an ambitious person and measuring myself with others in competitions has been fascinating and motivating me since I was a child,” she explained. It’s paid off. Rainer may be one of the winningest competitive climbers of all time. Her list of titles goes on for a long time. She’s a three-time World Champion, two-time Overall World Cup Winner, three-time Italian Champion, and she also has a European Championship under her belt. While she has been crushing it for years, last year was the first time that she finally made it to Ouray to compete at the Ouray Ice Festival. Will Gadd was the only climber – male or female – who climbed higher than her in the Elite Mixed Climbing Comp. The difficult, spartan course called Krampus featured three wicked cracks coated in rubber. Although in the end it thwarted every climber, Rainer got to the second crack and managed two moves on it before she fell. It was enough to win first place in the women’s division and second overall. “It was a very special route, and a great idea,” Rainer said. “There were lots of strong people so (routesetter) Vince (Anderson) wanted to invent something special. I really liked it.” This winter, after competing in Ouray, Rainer plans to shift her focus to spend less time competing, and more time climbing in new places. “I like the competitions, but now I feel in some of the places I have been so many times,” she explained. “The competition in Switzerland I have done already nine times and won five of them. I am feeling a little bit – not tired – but I always like to see new places. I am feeling like I would like to do more outside. There are so many places around home and around the world that I haven’t climbed yet.”

K E Y N OT E P R E S E N TAT I O N T H E PA S S I O N S P E C T R U M Saturday, Jan. 16, 7-8 p.m. Ouray Community Center

Emily Harrington It’s tempting to sling around a bunch of superlatives when you’re talking about Emily Harrington and her climbing career. After all, she has been a prominent and leading figure in the climbing community since she was a teenager, with her early years of climbing defined by successes on the USA Climbing Team on the national and world competition circuit – including five US National Sport Climbing Championships and two North American Championships. Although ice climbing has never been a huge focus for her, she even has a Ouray Ice Festival title under her belt, and plans to compete again this year. But Harrington prefers to sum up what she does in simpler terms: “I like to play on rocks and in the mountains.” Lately, she’s been doing a lot of that. Since shifting her focus from competition, the 29-yearold Boulder native who currently resides in Squaw Valley has completed numerous first female ascents of 5.14 sport routes, summited Everest, and has been on expeditions all over the world attempting big wall free climbs and high altitude peaks in Nepal, China, Myanmar, Crimea, and Morocco. Over the past year, Harrington came up with an idea to try and excel in different disciplines of climbing that she loves. She called her project “The Passion Spectrum.” “I had these four goals that I wanted to accomplish,” she explained. “Two of them were from my roots – competition and sport climbing. The other two were these two goals I cultivated based on the new skills I’ve learned in the last few years. One of them was to free climb El Capitan, and the other one was to try to climb an 8,000 meter peak without oxygen.” When we caught up with Harrington, she had already tried three of her objectives, and succeeded

in achieving one. First, she aspired to make finals at sport climbing nationals. It’s an event she won five times back in the day when she was at the peak of her competition climbing. The sport has evolved a lot since then, with a much stronger and larger field of mostly teenaged competitors. When Harrington competed in Nationals this past March, she missed finals by one spot. “It’s kind of disappointing,” she said. “But that’s okay.” She quickly moved on to her next objective – to free climb El Cap. And she nailed that one. “It’s one of my most proud achievements in climbing,” she said. Last fall, she departed for Nepal with a team of fellow sponsored athletes to pursue her third objective. “We tried to climb Makalu, the fifth tallest peak in the world. And we made it to 7,400 meters. But we turned around because the avalanche danger was just too high,” she said. “One of our Sherpa got caught in a slide. It just didn’t make sense. But I climbed really high without oxygen – higher than I ever have. I had an amazing experience.” In mid-November (as this publication was going to press), Harrington was getting read to go to Spain to take on her fourth goal: to climb try to climb 5.14. “I’ve climbed 5.14 a bunch of times before, but back when I was super-focused on it,” she said “This year has been really varied and diverse. I guess it’s been more of an experiment with training strategies, just to see what I can do, and push myself in different realms of climbing. I know I’m not going to be at the top at any of them – they’re too spread out and too varied – but I like the idea of being more diverse.” In the process of pursuing these goals (a process she’ll be talking about at the Ouray Ice Festival during her keynote presentation), she’s learned a lot about risk management. “And I’m sort of learning the value of failure,” she said. “Failure is okay, as long as you try hard and you make good decisions. Really, the only thing you are in control of is the decisions that you make.”

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S T ILL FROM “RI N POCH E SP E A KS” C OU RTE SY OF MO U N TA I N F I L M

DZ I F O U N DAT I O N P R E S E N T S M O U N TA I N F I L M Films TBA Wright Opera House, 462 Main St., Ouray | $20 on Friday & Saturday, $10 on Sunday. Beer provided. Friday, Jan. 15, 7-10 p.m.; Saturday, Jan. 16, 7-10 p.m.; Sunday, Jan. 17, 6-7:30 p.m.

ready to get inspired! Through a G etserendipitous confluence of events, the dZi

Foundation is pleased to bring three evenings’ worth of Mountainfilm programming to the 2016 Ouray Ice Festival. It would be hard to bring three more impassioned organizations together in a single room, or sentence! The dZi Foundation and Mountainfilm are natural allies that have long moved in the same orbit. In their own ways, each organization is committed to celebrating indomitable spirit. While Mountainfilm is a documentary film festival based in Telluride that is dedicated to educating, inspiring and motivating audiences in the realms of environment, culture and mountain adventure, dZi (pronounced ZEE) is a nonprofit Ridgway-based organization that works with underserved communities in remote Himalayan areas of Nepal to improve quality of life through infrastructure and education projects. After years of supporting one another in informal ways, the neighboring San Juan Mountain nonprofits made it official last February, announcing a new nonprofit partnership aimed at getting audiences and supporters to become even more engaged, inspired and galvanized to take effective actions. The dZi Foundation and the Ouray Ice Park also go way back; dZi Foundation co-founder and president Jim Nowak sat on the Ouray Ice Park board for many years and is part of the “old guard” of the Ice Park tribe. At the 2011 Ouray Ice Festival, dZi partnered with world-renown multi-sport mountain athlete WIll Gadd in a fundraising project called the Endless Ascent. Gadd’s goal was to climb 11,429 feet of ice – the equivalent of base camp to the summit of Mt. Everest – by running laps on Pick o’ the Vic, one of 38

the Ouray Ice Park’s longest and most vertical climbs. When all was said and done, Gadd had climbed an astounding 194 laps—a total of 25,414 feet – in a single 24-hour span! His herculean effort raised $20,000 for the dZi Foundation’s “Revitalize a Village” program – enough to build a brand new school that has since served hundreds of Nepali kids in dZi’s project area. The 77 settlements and 29,000 residents served by dZi were hard-hit by the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Nepal last spring. With dozens of schools in dZi’s working areas damaged or destroyed, the organization quickly constructed over 40 temporary learning centers so school children could safely continue their education during the rainy season. Looking forward, dZi is staying true to its mission and its ongoing comprehensive Deep Development approach to community-led work, with a focus on rebuilding 31 schools with earthquake-resistant engineering. While there are hundreds of non-governmental organizations doing good things in Nepal, the thing that sets dZi apart is its focus on community-led development and the concept of unnati, a Nepali term for holistic community prosperity. It’s a concept that could be applied equally well to Mountainfilm, and the Ouray Ice Festival. Films to be screened over the Ice Fest weekend have been hand-selected from the finalists at Telluride’s 2015 Mountainfilm festival with themes of adventure, mountaineering, remarkable personalities, and important environmental and social messages. There will be a different selection of films each night. (At press time, the full line-up was still TBA.) For more information, visit dzifoundation.org and mountainfilm.org.

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BEYOND THE ICE FEST D E M O DAY S Ice Fest weekend is awesome, but why let the fun stop there? If you’ve caught the ice-climbing bug, check out our Demo Days throughout the ice-climbing season! Interested in ice climbing? Interested in checking the latest in ice-climbing new gear? Either way the Ouray Ice Park is the place to be this season, which will host weekend Demo Days throughout the season. Ouray Ice Park Demo Days feature top brands in the outdoor industry, offering participants the opportunity to test-drive great gear. Black Diamond hosts a Demo Days event at the Ouray Ice Park on Presidents’ Day Weekend, Feb. 13-15, 2016. Look for Black Diamond at the upper bridge near the Kids Wall from 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, Sunday and Monday, with the newest ice climbing gear and apparel on hand for trying out in the Park. For more Demo Days, visit www.ourayicepark. com and the Ouray Ice Park Facebook page for updated information from top brands throughout the season. K I D S C L I M B I N G CO L L E G E Held at the Ouray Ice Park several times throughout the winter season, the Kids Climbing College (KCC) is a super fun, free way for children ages 8-17 to try their hand at ice climbing. The 2016 KCC will be set up during the 2016 Ouray Ice Festival from Jan. 14-17, with additional dates on Jan. 2, Feb. 6 and March 5 from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. The action happens at the Kids Wall, a specially developed 40-foot high, 140-foot wide slab of ice located above the Uncompahgre Gorge near the upper bridge with easy walk-in access. It features a dozen different routes with various levels of difficulty. The KCC is free, and climbing happens on a first-come-first-served basis. San Juan Mountain Guides provides all of the technical gear, including harnesses, helmets, boots, crampons and ice tools. Participants should bring: an adult to sign paperwork, warm clothes, gloves, winter boots/ ski boots and a warm hat (ski clothes work well for climbing). Participants’ families should park in the designated parking area near the Ice Park entrance along US 550. For more information please visit San Juan Mountain Guides at mtnguide.net.

#OURAYICEPARKVIRGIN We all have a story to tell about our first time in the Ouray Ice Park, no matter how long ago it was.

Old guard ice climber Bill MacTiernan was here in the old days, when “you could go to the Upper Bridge, and you would stand there and wait for days for someone to climb it with. If you met another ice climber at that point, you invited them home, you bought ‘em beer – anything to have company.” Logan Tyler, who grew up in Ouray, was just 11 years old when his stepdad took him to the Ouray Ice Park to experience ice climbing for the first time. “I was cold, miserable and scared,” he recalled. “But the feeling it left me with was that there was this undiscovered world of Ouray that I had never even seen. For me, the first impression was, how can people create so much ice in this area. How can that be done? How is that possible?” Today, as an ice farmer at the Ouray Ice Park, he knows exactly how it’s done.

Fellow ice farmer Elias Jordan came here with some friends from Arizona to climb. “We dropped some top rope lines, and once we rappelled down into the gorge, we were really really impressed with all the ice that was around,” he recalled. “So we dropped our packs, pulled our ropes and started walking down the canyon trying to find out where all the climbs were, and the next thing you know, it was like three hours later, and it was getting dark. So we ended up not even climbing our first day. The next day we came out, and it was like hero ice. Every stick was amazing.” Ouray Ice Park board member Rachel Mueller’s first time was “a glimpse of my life-to-be, and the beginning of a tectonic shift in who I am,” she said. “As we basked in the sun atop the gorge after our third day of climbing, our guide told me, ‘When you’re ready, you should come out for a season. We’ll climb.’”

Six months later, she awoke to a simple idea: “‘The only thing standing between me and the life I want to live is me.’ It was that simple. Thankless job, dead-end relationship, sedentary lifestyle – it was all in my power to change.” And she did. Mueller is still here in Ouray County – climbing, living a life of her own choosing, and learning life lessons every day. Everyone has a first time. We want to hear about yours in our fun Instagram Challenge!

H O W TO P L AY Create a video telling your story about what it was like to climb in the Ouray Ice Park for the first time. Share your video on Instagram and tag it with #ourayiceparkvirgin. Get your friends to “Like” your post.

The 10 most liked posts will be entered into a drawing. Three winners will be selected on Monday, Feb. 1, 2016. 41

TECH TALK

Dial

Your Ice

Technique BY MATT WADE PEAK MOUNTAIN GUIDES

sound emanated from POW! Antheexplosive ice as I fell back on the rope

and meteor-like chunks of blue ice rocketed into the air around me. Dodging the chaos as the rope came tight, I could barely hang onto my tools from the debilitating pump that was consuming my forearms. Was I on a testpiece alpine route in Alaska, putting up a first ascent in Iceland, or en route to the completion of a cutting edge mixed line at the apex of the sport? Well, not exactly. I was learning to ice climb on a short, WI4 route about 15 minutes from the trailhead and 30 minutes from the nearest town. Considering the relative nonchalance of the locale, my partner and I could hardly believe how pumped, tired, and beaten up we were. Wasn’t ice climbing supposed to be easier than this? Wasn’t it supposed to be fun? Ice climbing can be the hardest form of climbing you have ever undertaken – or the easiest – depending primarily on one thing: your technique. Good ice climbing technique is a matter of executing a series of well-defined movements over and over again, much like a dance. And like a choreographed dance, if you follow the steps correctly, you’ll be rewarded with fluidity and confidence that feels like harmony in motion. The following photos illustrate a few of the key components of smooth and efficient ice climbing. Take a few of these tips home and you will be climbing harder grades with less effort in no time. And with a little luck, it might even be fun.

Begin with the hips close to the ice, both feet at the same height, and the body centered on one ice tool. This position, commonly called the “triangle,” is stable and balanced, and enables a good swing. Place the high foot at full reach, then move the hips away from the ice to facilitate good footwork.

By leaning the hips outward, more space is created between the body and the ice, making it easy to identify crampon placements and advance the feet.

When advancing the feet, take small steps to stay balanced. Climb toward the upper ice tool.

After climbing up 6-10 inches, center the body on the upper ice tool and position the feet at the same height.

Using the power of both legs, stand up and push the hips back into the ice.

Having regained the triangle position, you are now stable and balanced, and ready to remove the lower ice tool and swing again.

additional tips • When placing your tools and crampons,

aim for depressions in the ice surface. Small pockets, broad concavities, and defined ledges will all do. These areas will accept your points with less fracturing of the ice. Avoid convexities at all costs.

• Stagger your tool placements for maximum

efficiency. To do this, swing your first tool at full reach, climb up to it, and get stable in a triangle position. Once established in a triangle on the first tool, remove your second tool, swing it high, and repeat.

• Keep your heels low – at the same height as your toes or a bit lower – to minimize calf fatigue and maintain nimble footwork.

• When swinging the ice tool, keep your elbow

in line with your shoulder and wrist to ensure pin-point accuracy and one-swing sticks.

• Periodically relax your grip on the ice tool, and even shake out as in rock climbing, to keep blood flowing to your hands. This will keep any pump at bay and your fingers will stay warmer too.

Matt Wade has been teaching ice climbing and guiding all forms of mountain pursuits for 17 years. He is an AMGA Certified Rock and Ski Guide and the owner of Peak Mountain Guides.

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Faces The

Behind the

Ice

P H O T O B Y DAN HOLZ

the vast walls of ice, behind each and B ehind every route, stands an incredible team that

makes the Ouray Ice Park what it is. This team, comprised of professional staff and dedicated volunteer board members, is collectively known as Ouray Ice Park, Inc. – a nonprofit corporation formed in 1997 to provide formal organization to what previously had been a loose grassroots effort to maintain and promote the Park. While the Park is entirely free to climb, it exists thanks to the hard work of OIPI and its supporters. M E E T T H E O U R AY I C E PA R K S TA F F STEPHANIE GRIEBE, ADMINISTRATIVE DIRECTOR Stephanie joined the Ice Park team in 2014 as its first and only full-time, year-round employee, She has a degree in Business Administration from Colorado State University accompanied by fifteen years of for-profit and non-profit experience. Stephanie feels fortunate to call the San Juan Mountains home, and embraces the opportunity to work for the Ouray Ice Park – an amazing organization that provides incredible outdoor recreation for the novice, the pro and everyone in between. Her favorite part of her job is the tranquility and contagiously positive energy that pervades the Ice Park in the winter. 44

DAN CHEHAYL, ICE PARK MANAGER Ice Park Manager Dan Chehayl is no stranger to the Ouray Ice Park. This is his fifth season working here, and his second season as Park Manager. Chehayl first came to Ouray as a college sophomore with a group of friends from Sterling College in Vermont. He came back as often as he could over the next couple of years and eventually moved to Ouray in 2007. That first winter, he worked at Mouses Chocolates and ice climbed obsessively. Then, after a year in Telluride and a brief stint back east, he came back to Ouray for good, landing work as an ice farmer with former Ice Park Manager Kevin Koprek. Now, Chehayl’s main job is tending to the ingenious plumbing system that provides the water to make the climbing routes in the Ouray Ice Park. Besides climbing the ice he farms, one of Dan’s favorite things about working for the Ouray Ice Park is watching the ice grow and take shape throughout the winter. “It’s like the cliffs in the canyon come to life; every day is magical out here in the park!” he said. NICOLE CHEHAYL, ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Nicole (Dan’s other half) has worked as the Administrative Assistant at the Ouray Ice Park for the past three years. She graduated from the University of Vermont with a degree in Environmental Studies and a concentration in Sustainable Business. Over the past few years, Nicole has split her time between Colorado and Northern Vermont working for the Ouray Ice Park, Inc. in the winter and the Craftsbury Outdoor Center during the summer. Nicole enjoys working with the small but committed staff and board at the Ouray Ice Park. She loves watching the organization continue to grow and the impact it has on individuals, Ouray, and the greater climbing community.

ELIAS JORDAN, ICE FARMER Elias cut his climbing teeth in southern Arizona. There he read books like Annapurna, Beyond the Mountain and Freedom of the Hills which propelled his desire to climb in the greater ranges. After getting a dose of humility in Nepal and Ecuador, Elias returned home to improve his skills. He learned to climb ice in the backcountry around Ouray and fell in love with the town and its people. After planning a one-week trip to the Ice Park that ended up being a two month stay, Elias decided to make Ouray his new home. LOGAN TYLER, ICE FARMER Born and raised in Ouray, Logan began climbing at a young age, experiencing all that the San Juans and their surrounding environs have to offer while developing himself into a gifted climber. He has competed in the Ouray Ice Festival’s Elite Mixed Climbing Comp and at Vail’s Teva Mountain Games, often as the youngest competitor in the league. Logan has transferred his climbing skills to other aspects of his life as well, most notably as a climbing coach for the Ridgway/Ouray climbing team, and as a foreman of a Midwest tower crew. Recently he founded Red Mountain Riders, a company manufacturing highquality handcrafted longboards. XANDER BIANCHI, ICE FARMER Born and raised in northern Indiana, Xander first explored Ouray in 2010 while on a school break. The seed was planted for many more road trips west. After graduating with a degree in mechanical engineering from CU Boulder in 2012, he landed a job at a small geophysical company and spent the next two-and-ahalf years surveying the world as a gravity specialist. His free time was spent mostly tethered to a rope on the sides of mountains, conducting ‘personal gravity research’. Xander hopes to fuse his passions for climbing, traveling, photography and science into a way of inspiring others to experience the great outdoors.

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The Hydro Guy Who Holds the Keys to the Ouray Ice Park BY SAMANTHA WRIGHT

great climbing venue has a fascinating E very access story behind it. The Ouray Ice Park’s

starts with a six-pack of beer shared at an unlikely place – the Ouray Hydroelectric Plant. The plant was built in the 1880s, when power baron Charles Nix funded the Ouray Electric Light and Power Company and turned Ouray into one of the first electrified towns in the nation. Today, it’s the stomping grounds of modern-day hydroelectric baron Eric Jacobson, who acquired the plant and its assets at auction in 1991 when the utility company that owned it went bankrupt. For a $10 bid, Jacobson ended up with a century-old 830kW hydro plant hunkered on the banks of the Uncompahgre River in downtown Ouray, 50 acres of land flanking the Uncompahgre Gorge, and a 6,130-foot-long penstock (a pressure pipeline) whose purpose was to deliver water from an upstream reservoir to the powerhouse’s turbinegenerating units. At about the same time, a California windsurfing bum turned ice climber named Bill Whitt and local trial attorney turned real estate developer Gary Wild bought a motel together in Ouray called the Victorian Inn. It happened to be right across the river from the Ouray Hydroelectric Plant. Things were plenty busy at the motel in the summer, but in the winter there was no point in even staying open. So, the story goes, they started thinking about how to attract more winter visitors to Ouray. The answer that popped into their heads was ice climbing. Whitt and other local climbers were already poaching a handful of routes in the Uncompahgre Gorge, on formations fed by a drippy pipe connected to an old city reservoir. Their idea was simply to divert that water to more places in the canyon, to make more ice. But first, they had to solve the access issue; much of the terrain they wanted to develop belonged to Jacobson. So, Wild showed up at the hydro plant one day with a six-pack of beer and a friendly proposition to install taps along the penstock’s length, allowing water to drip down the steep north-facing walls of the gorge at regular intervals. 46

Jacobson said, “Why not?” The only problem was, the water in the penstock came straight out of the Uncompahgre River, and formed icicles that were neon orange, not sparkling blue. “They looked disgusting, so we gave that up almost immediately,” Whitt said. Instead, they returned to the old city reservoir and its leaky pipe as the Park’s primary water source. But Jacobson remained a crucial partner in the new Ice Park venture. He was uniquely sympathetic to ice climbers and their desire to climb on his property, both in Ouray and in Telluride, where he owned another power plant atop Bridal Veil Falls, which had become an iconic ice climb thanks to Jeff Lowe. Jacobson’s only condition was to have adequate liability insurance coverage provided for himself and his company. Together he and Wild helped pioneer the Colorado Recreational Users Statute which shields landowners like Jacobson from potential law suits filed by adventurers who injure themselves while recreating on private property. Today, under a unique land-use arrangement, the City of Ouray insures Jacobson and the Ouray Hydroelectric Plant under its umbrella. Jacobson in turn leases recreational use of the land to the city for $1 per year. Even as the Ice Park has become the engine that drives Ouray’s winter economy, the historic hydroelectric facility that runs right through the middle of it keeps on refining the raw power of the Uncompahgre River into a steady stream of clean green energy. That’s just the way Jacobson likes it.

M E E T T H E O U R AY I C E PA R K B O A R D O F D I R E C TO R S board of directors is comprised of T heeightOIPIvolunteer members who devote well

over a thousand hours throughout the year to fulfill OIPI’s mission. Although the ice climbing season runs from roughly mid-December to late March, OIPI is hard at work planning the next season shortly after the Park closes. MIKE MACLEOD, PRESIDENT Mike has served on the OIPI board since 2008, the last four years as president. He now spends his time contemplating the apparent randomness of asynchronous event firing. JARED COBURN, VICE-PRESIDENT Jared’s climbing resume includes ascents in North and South America and the Himalaya. His interests include developing and expanding OIPI’s administrative functions and organizational capacity.

CLINT ESTES Clint’s passion for climbing and adventure has taken him around the world. His job today as the owner of On-Sight Construction demands the majority of his time but he still does his best to get out to climb when he can. NICOLE GREENE With the business savvy obtained from starting, running and ultimately selling the San Juan Outdoor School of Telluride, Nicole now operates Sprout Design Studio, a boutique marketing and design firm based in Ridgway.

his wife Monica.

BRAD MCMILLON Brad has climbed for over 30 years and enjoys the physiological and spiritual benefits that the climbing lifestyle offers. He lives and works in Ridgway, Colo. with

SANDI MACLEOD, TREASURER Sandi volunteered at the Ouray Ice Festival for seven years before joining the OIPI Board of Directors in 2013. She works at the Ouray Public Library (when she’s not climbing). RACHEL MUELLER, SECRETARY Six months after taking a beginners clinic at the Ouray Ice Park, Rachel quit her job in Chicago and moved to Ouray to climb full-time. She now works as a financial planner, helping others to make similar dramatic changes. RALPH TINGEY Ralph has worked as a climbing ranger for the National Park Service in many of Alaska’s parks, including Denali, and served as Associate Regional Director from 1994 to 2006 prior to his retirement. He has served on the Board of Directors of the American Alpine Club, and as Chairman of the Alaska Section of the AAC. ACTIVITIES | EVENTS | PRESENTATION | FEATURE | SPONSORS & BUSINESS PARTNERS

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IN MEMORIAM

Mark Miller BY SAMANTHA WRIGHT

The Ouray Ice Park lost a beloved member of its tribe in January 2015 with the untimely passing of Mark Miller. Miller was highly respected in the ice climbing and mountain rescue community for his professionalism, guiding skills, technical rigging skills, and development of kids climbing and adaptive climbing programs. The Miller Machine, as he was fondly known to friends, grew up on a Minnesota dairy farm and spent six years in the U.S. Navy on the USS Long Beach, a nuclear submarine. He was first exposed to climbing during his naval training. When he came to Ouray 20 years ago, the Ouray Ice Park was in still in its infancy. Miller got plugged in right away, finding work as a guide and ice farmer. To this resume, Miller later added the title of route setter for the Ice Fest competition, a position he held for four years in the mid-2000s. His tenure was marked by some of the most memorable finishes in the history of the comp – from Ines Papert’s historic overall win in 2005 to Evgeny Kryvosheytsev’s infamous bat hang. A master tinkerer, Miller was an integral part of the “backyard engineering crew” that worked on perfecting the plumbing system at the Ice Park, getting the pipes and flow rates dialed in to make perfect ribbons and sheets of ice. “He had a very nimble mind,” said longtime friend and employer Mike Gibbs. When guiding, he was meticulous in his instruction, and had a style of instructing all his own – an intense combination of assessment, encouragement and unique drills that could take just about anyone and turn them into an efficient climber. In recent years, Miller had really come into his own working for Gibbs as a Rigging for Rescue instructor. He spent three months a year climbing and guiding for San Juan Mountain Guides at the Ouray Ice Park, and the other nine teaching rope rescue. “He was revered as a subject matter expert in both,” Gibbs said. In an interview on local public radio station

KVNF just a few weeks before he died, Miller described what he loved about ice climbing. “When you first walk up to ice it’s got to be the most aesthetic medium you’ll ever see,” he said. “You just see these big blue sheets of all these interesting shapes. And, they change by the day, week, or even sometimes by the hour as the temperature changes.” Ironically, changing ice conditions were likely a factor in Miller’s death. He was guiding two clients in the Eureka area near Silverton on a moderate, multi-pitch route known simply as Gully 1. Each client led two pitches, and Miller, as he was prone to do when teaching ice climbing, was free soloing alongside them as he instructed. The weather had been unseasonably warm for weeks, but a cold front was moving in that day, and ice conditions were rapidly changing. Toward the top of the climb, a piece of ice that Miller’s tool was in spontaneously delaminated, and calved off. Miller’s center of gravity went backwards, he lost his balance point, and he went the distance – the equivalent of four pitches – all the way to the bottom of the climb. A few days after Miller’s death, members of the local climbing community gathered in the frigid, late afternoon shadows at the Memorial Gazebo near the Upper Bridge at the Ouray Ice Park, wearing Hawaiian shirts and bright clothes in celebration of Miller’s vivid life and questionable fashion choices – he was famous around the Ice Park for his awesome blue tights, leather cowboy hat and killer mountain man mullet. Miller’s passing leaves a void as deep and raw as the Uncompahgre Gorge, where the lead-only area of the Ouray Ice Park has been rechristened to bear his name. Miller is survived by his wife Collette. He was 50 years old.

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