2016-17 Colorado ICE Climbing

This season in Colorado the ice formation got off to a slow dry start and many places it has stayed slow and dry. Down south, classics like Bird Braid Boulevard and the Ribbon still hardly exist and Skylight is in spectacularly… fun conditions. The park has seen an exceptionally dry season as well, nothing shy of mix mastery has made a number of the classics go. Don’t get me wrong I love ripping into blue ice but reaching off a thin smear into a sequence of hand jams and then swinging back into a smear is what its all about. But there has still been ice to be found if you know where to look.

Lincoln Falls early this season and the East Vail climbs never seem to run dry and formed up without too much delay—always fun to get on some classic flows in their thin infantile states. Lots of early season laps in East Vail and even a good few November laps up at Lincoln Falls.

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  First lead on the Firehouse Pillar this season.

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  Eric Haskell getting high on Lincoln falls

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  A gargoyle threesome at Lincoln Falls early in the season.

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  The lovely Ariel crushing the Firehouse pillar for her first climb of the season.

I was stoked to finally get the lovely Ariel out on the ice. Who would have thought the key to getting your girlfriend out climbing with you would be no less than four pieces of down clothing. Getting down to the San Juan’s more has also been a blast. New job at San Juan Mountain Guides and an apartment in Ouray has been a treat. It was great to get out with a ton of badass guides for a solid two weeks of training and mentoring and it didn’t hurt to get on some classic routes around town too.