Week of ice climbing in Ouray

Hey guys, I have an upcoming week long trip to the Ouray area to get some ice climbing in. I just recently got back from Canmore where I did ice for my first time with a guide. Me and a buddy were supposed to go together but he had to bail last minute for work stuff. I already have the time off so I figured I’d continue on. Any advice on how to get the most out of this trip? Just looking for get some more time on ice under my belt. I have all my own gear. 

If you have a top rope solo rig you will be all set for Ouray, as most the ice routes are accessed from the top with beautiful anchor setups.

But good luck on finding partners.

Alex S wrote:

If you have a top rope solo rig you will be all set for Ouray, as most the ice routes are accessed from the top with beautiful anchor setups.

But good luck on finding partners.

Are you implying partners are hard to find in Ouray? I was also curious what the free-floating partner situation is like there. 

Just looking for get some more time on ice under my belt

Good strategy. They say you should have 100 pitches of TR under your belt before you try to lead. ouray ice park (or lake city for that matter) is one of the only places where you can easily get 10 TR laps in a day.

2 years ago I spent a week in ouray basically straight grinding 8 hours a day at the ice TR laps. and I came away with ~90 laps under my belt (~70 of them from that week) and ready to lead.

Optionally you could also throw in a day of non-ice-park following (Camp bird, Dexter, Charmin, etc.) if you can find a rope gun partner. 

Its easy to find partners by posting on the Colorado Partners forum or the "Colorado ice climbing" facebook group.

Personally I find that TRS is a huge pain and results in about the same number of laps in a day as climbing with a partner. But it's a good backup plan, because people think of ice park as low commitment so it's pretty likely that they'll bail, leave early, or want to chill instead of climb, etc. Make sure you have 2 toothed TRS devices that are compatible with your rope diameter (nano/micro trax, spoc, etc). 

Ellen S wrote:

. Make sure you have 2 toothed TRS devices that are compatible with your rope diameter (nano/micro trax, spoc, etc). 

I would specifically disagree with two toothed devices for ice. The teeth can ice over and suddenly you do not have a functioning device. For ice I use a microtrax and a Camp Lift, which is not teeth but a clamp/cam (?) style device and should not be as susceptible to icing over. 

Be careful TRS'ing ice for the above reasons. I am particular about what line I will drop a rope on and the weather. If it is conditions I think would get a rope icy, I typically dont TRS, ie wet, snowing, bad dry treatment, etc. 

Of course, YGD...

Good point. yeah i'm generally quitting TRS if the rope gets iced up. 

Not to be argumentative, but there are devices that work on iced up ropes. It's not made anymore, but the Rock Exoctica Soloist works fine under the most icy conditions. I've used it for many years for TRS on ice, and have never had a problem with it locking up. That includes when the rope gets wet and turns into a long block of ice. 

You can (and probably should) tie back up knots for any device, and that mitigates the risk of climbing on an icy rope to a certain extent. 

Hit the bars and get talkative. Be friendly. Hell, I met some nice people at my level at the airport in Montrose. Go to the area where you feel comfortable, and either setup top rope for solo, or politely ask someone of you can grift. But the bar is also good. 

Ellen S wrote:

2 years ago I spent a week in ouray basically straight grinding 8 hours a day at the ice TR laps. and I came away with ~90 laps under my belt (~70 of them from that week) and ready to lead.

This was pretty much my plan. And I wanted to avoid TRS as much as possible.