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Ice Fest Beta
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Hey! I've been hearing great things about the ice fest for years, and I've finally got the time and money to make it over there this year! I'm having a hard time figuring out how some of it works, though. What is demoing gear? Is it tough to find places to stay during the festival? Are there good spots to get a room, or to camp / dig a snow cave nearby? |
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“The ice fest”?!? Gotta be more specific. Can’t swing a dead cat on any winter weekend without hitting an ice fest |
Mark Pilate wrote: LMAO! |
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Ouray is the one I'm heading to. |
Mark Pilate wrote: Alive and kicking  |
rocknice2 wrote: Haha. Don’t show this pic to a good skijouring dog, he’d think WTF?!?! |
Sean Foley wrote: Demoing gear just means renting/borrowing from vendors for a day. You can try out new boots, axes, crampons, whatever. IME Ouray Ice Fest is great if your priority is socializing, not so great if you're trying to climb as much as possible. It'll be crowded, hotels in town often fill up. There are a couple places within 10-15 miles of town that you can park a van and I guess you could go dig a snow cave up on Red Mountain Pass if you wanted to, but as a whole the winter camping options around Ouray are kind of limited. There are like a thousand other trips I would take before Ice Fest if I had the time and money to fly across the country to climb, but that's just me. |
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For a newer climber, or one wanting to affordably try a lot of new gear, demoing is a great deal - for the cost of a demo card (get that set up ahead of time), you can borrow up to a full kit for the day, boots/crampons/tools/harness/etc. There will be a "vendor village" of tents set up, and you'd show up there before ice climbing starts for the day, pick up gear from the vendors there, then check it back in when you're done for the day. It's been a few years since I was there for Ouray Ice Fest, but even then it was hard to find an open anchor during the fest, a LOT of them were taken up by clinics. If you're looking to learn, the clinics are nice. The parties/events are the real reason to go - it's a who's who of ice climbing, and you'll be amazed by who you see/meet. Hotels will be hard to get, and a lot of places in Ridgway are probably already booked up as well. You could always post and see if someone has a spot available for the weekend. Back 8 or so years ago we rolled in to town late on the Friday of ice fest, and got the very last hotel room in town, so definitely don't count on showing up and finding something available these days. |
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I think the "demo a bunch of gear" angle is a bit oversold. You will get ONE set of tools, ONE pair of boots and crampons for the day. I'm a huge advocate of new climbers trying as many different tools (crampons are less "sensitive" IMO) as they can, and I imagine the typical Fest participant gets to use 2 different tools. That's not nearly enough. |
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Just a note on Demoing gear: don't rely on it. We went last year, and my partner had no gear. They paid for the demo thing. When we showed up Saturday morning before our clinic to get said demo gear, they had oversold it and no one brought their gear back from the day before. So we had no boots and crampons for my partner to use, and the outfitter putting on the clinic didn't either. You will be able to demo tools, but not boots. Don't count on it! Also, do not expect to climb very much because it will be massively crowded. A great event to socialize and be a part of something cool. Pretty fun to watch the dry tooling comp. But we only got 2 pitches in. |
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Festival is a great time but not necessarily for the climbing. Clinics can be a great way to learn skills keeping in mind the difficulty getting demo gear as noted above. If you are new to ice climbing a better choice might be to schedule a visit at a less busy time and take a lesson from guide who will supply gear. Hotels will be hard to get but if you have a vehicle to sleep in, parking on the side streets at night has been allowed. We have attended events until late, then crash and head off early to breakfast. Only problem is if you’re trying to climb is that you can’t dry gear. |
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Skip. This assumes you actually want to learn a lot about how to climb ice - or the topic at hand (into to leading, self rescue, etc). Here is why: The clinics are usually 4:1 if not 8:1. If you look at what you are paying and multiply by 4 or 8, and you'll see you are generally overpaying relative to the time you will get if you were to hire a guide 1:1. Even if the clinic has several ropes up in an area like the School Room or South park the guides attention is going to be divided all over the place (watching 3 or 4 people climb at a time) and while you might pick up something - nothing compares to someone studying you, coaching you, fixing your small mistakes, etc - especially if they are good at teaching. If you want to save cost and not be smoked by noon (if you are hiring them you probably cannot climb 20 laps), consider getting one other person to go with you - the guide will be able to give undivided attention to whoever is climbing, while the other is belaying. Pull out your phone and take notes/ video/ photos etc on what idiosyncratic things you do and that you are being coached on to fix or do different. I still refer to these at the start of each season. Similarly with tools - if you can go 2:1 figure out what tools the guide is bringing and you and your buddy each get a different set - now you can climb maybe 3 to 4 laps each with up to 3 different sets of tools and actually decide if you like one of them with a few laps under your belt. The next day go back to the park and reinforce everything you learned (rent said tools you liked from Ouray mountain sports or guide service - or buy if the bug has bit you) - another dozen laps the next day will do more to get you good than multiple clinic days of 2 or 3 laps at most. Another thing with ice fests is that they tend to have celebrity climbers teaching the clinics. Being able to do something really well does not necessarily translate into being able to teach it well. I've done the Ouray ice fest three times, with clinics each time and I have done private 1:1 and 1:2 with all the guide services (Peak - now Mountain Trip, SJMGs) in Ouray. I always learned WAY more and got much better value for my time and money going the private guided route. |
Mark Pilate wrote: Is nomic French for dead cat? |
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Instead of Ouray, try this one out! The climbing is better, less crowded and learning potential is much higher: |
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I went to the Ouray Ice Fest last January and had a blast. I brought my own gear to save money but another option is to rent gear locally where you live or at an outdoor store in Denver (if you are traveling through there). We caught an outstanding film showing with Max Lowe and Conrad Anker on the Friday night of the festival. The next day my friend and I quickly learned that asking to climb on other people’s ropes was an accepted practice since the entire ice park is pretty crowded. It actually turned out great once we figured it out but obviously it depends your comfort level. The Ice Park requires a specific anchor system when rigging topropes so we felt more comfortable on other people’s ropes. I took a half day entry level ice climbing technique class which was fun. The last day of the festival we paid for an all access pass which provided an area of pre-set topropes by guides so you could climb all day on climbs of various difficulties. Several climbing guides were available to ask questions and one worked with me to modify my swing for my specific ice tool. You definitely have to get to the Ice Park super early each day of the festival or it gets way too crowded later on. I rented an Airbnb in Ridgeway which is about 15 minutes away. Orvis Hot Springs is another place to check out if you go. IMO, it was really fun thing to do and gives opportunities to interface with sponsored ice climbers, some that are world famous which can be kinda cool. |
