Walk west on the Ten Mile trail and look to your left. The first and most obvious ice climb from the road is The Shroud, and it is only about a 10 minute walk. This route is a lot of fun and very popular, so it's hard to miss.
The Shroud is usually rampy at the bottom with the business being a 30-40 foot steep section. Lots of variations are possible, some of which may be burly mixed lines depending on conditions.
Climbed here today. A nice short/steep pillar on the left is in fat. Thinner and steep curatains on the left also lead. The middle curtain probably isn't leadable right now, maybe in another week with good weather. Top rope it, though.
Watch out at the top - not much ice headed to the high anchors, and lots of loose rock.
Climbed The Shroud yesterday... Soft on the left; nice and firm on the right. Use the not so obvious anchor on the far right for a better climb (tr). It was an exceptionally beautiful Colorado day!
Left side is fat and wet. The middle is climbable but deteriorating. The right side offers an easier alternative but currently isn't seeing any re-developement.
Conditions were great on The Shroud on 2/10/03. Sticky, screw eating, blue ice, although starting to get chopped out a little. Just as a note of caution, a 60m rope just gets you to the ground since the anchors are back a bit from the top. A 50m will leave you with a short downclimb...
Climbed 1/18/2004. Left side was fat and wet. The middle curtain touched down and was much fun.
By Leo Paik Administrator From: Westminster, Colorado Feb 27, 2006
FYI: This area & this climb are areas to be particularly cautious. A few years back an experienced ice climber was completely pummeled by a big avalanche on this route, I recall.
Leo, I think you made my point more so than I did. I was trying to point out all the evidence of avalanche below the climb. Bits of trees and broken branches strewn about. The fact that the approach was 6" hard slab over 36" of sugar snow. If anyone has the accident details Leo ref's, please post.
By Leo Paik Administrator From: Westminster, Colorado Feb 28, 2006
As I recall, this was published in a Summit County publication & Rocky Mt News. He was a talented, experienced climber. Sadly, he just was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I think the folks at Bent Gate knew him.
It's not a secret. It is visible from I-70, after all. Fewer people climb this route after mid Nov. due to the danger from the huge snowfields near the top of the peak, which are not visible from the climb. It gets climbed in winter, but it is best to go when avvy danger is low. This past weekend, most of the gullies in Officer's Gulch had lots of wet slide debris in the bottoms of them.
Edit: Oops, didn't see Leo's follow up to the conditions comment.
Shroud's in pretty good as of 12/10/06 Right side better than the left. Both sides however require climbing frozen dirt to webbing. Jack Roberts' book "Colorado Ice" describes this as WI3. I think it's a definite 4.
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