{"id":42515,"date":"2022-01-26T20:50:34","date_gmt":"2022-01-27T03:50:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/in-ouray-a-world-famous-festival-draws-thousands-to-climb-chandeliers-of-ice\/"},"modified":"2022-01-27T03:50:34","modified_gmt":"2022-01-27T03:50:34","slug":"in-ouray-a-world-famous-festival-draws-thousands-to-climb-chandeliers-of-ice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/in-ouray-a-world-famous-festival-draws-thousands-to-climb-chandeliers-of-ice\/","title":{"rendered":"In Ouray, a world-famous festival draws thousands to climb chandeliers of ice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A climber moved into a sunny spot as he scales one of more than 100 routes in the Uncompahgre Gorge, created artificially by \u201cice farmers\u201d who spray water down the canyon walls starting in November at Ouray Ice Park. (Hart Van Denburg\/CPR News)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A crowd dressed in bright, puffy jackets whooped and clapped from the edge of a gut-twistingly deep gorge.<\/p>\n

Below them, a young guy with pink hair and an ax in each hand raced against a clock, propelling himself up what looked like plunging chandeliers of ice \u2013 the world-famous ice of the Ouray Ice Park, just a short hike up from the tiny town in southwestern Colorado.<\/p>\n

\"Suspended
Suspended by his harness and a rope, a course worker uses a hooked pole to try and dislodge a competitor\u2019s climbing tool after she fell Saturday Jan. 22, at the Ouray Ice Park. (Hart Van Denburg\/CPR News)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The clock ran out, but the climber still got second place, not to mention huge cheers. The 27th Ouray Ice Festival \u2013 held last weekend \u2013 was both a chance for elite climbers to show off their moves and for beginners to learn the ropes.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the kind of low-key event you could bring your baby to, which Rizlie Etcobanez and his wife, Rochelle, did. They were hiking farther up the gorge.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re definitely trying to get her into it,\u201d said Etcobanez, as he stopped for air. \u201cIt\u2019s just that it\u2019s tiring to get her up here.\u201d<\/p>\n

He started to laugh, but 1-year-old Lyanna, looking like a puffy starfish in her carrier, stayed fast asleep. The couple from Aurora had never ice climbed when they first came to the festival a few years ago. But they\u2019ve kept improving, with the help of people here.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe community\u2019s just so well-knit,\u201d Etcobanez said. \u201cIt\u2019s awesome. Everyone just looks after each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Climbers
Climbers taking lessons at Ouray Ice Park in Ouray on Saturday Jan. 22. (Hart Van Denburg\/CPR News)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Peter
Peter O\u2019Neil, executive director of the Ouray Ice Park, on Saturday Jan. 22. (Hart Van Denburg\/CPR News)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

This year, the festival drew about 2,000 attendees. Not bad for an event hosted by a community about half that size. Peter O\u2019Neil, the ice park\u2019s executive director, calls this spot the \u201cgravitational epicenter of ice climbing in North America.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also knows just how humble its beginnings were back in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the dream of a couple of local ice climbers,\u201d O\u2019Neil said. \u201cI mean, literally they ran garden hoses over, you know, a couple of the cliffs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now the park is key to Ouray\u2019s winter economy, which was almost nonexistent before the park opened. The park still makes every bit of its own ice, thanks to what it calls its \u201cice farmers,\u201d who\u2019ve had to deal with warming temperatures and a growing park. These days, it has 150 routes spread across a mile and a half.<\/p>\n

But the festival almost didn\u2019t happen \u2013 not just this year \u2013 but ever again.<\/p>\n

Last spring, a rockfall dropped an estimated 12,000 pounds of debris on the park. Some wondered if it would be able to reopen \u2013 the park needed extensive repairs.<\/p>\n

\"A
A climber high up a route coming out of the Uncompahgre River Gorge at the Ouray Ice Park in Ouray on Saturday Jan. 22, 2022. The routes at the park are created by \u201cice farmers\u201d who use overflow water from the city to spray through more than 200 hoses in freezing temperature to create walls of ice that attract climbers in growing numbers to the area in winter. (Hart Van Denburg\/CPR News)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Use of the park is free, just as it\u2019s always been. The nonprofit survives off donations and fundraisers, and it even stayed free after the rockfall caused more than $100,0000 of damage. But, the community rallied, and with the support of ice climbers from across the country, the park was able to crowdfund the money needed to reopen the attraction.<\/p>\n

So, the climbing went on, and while it definitely remains a niche sport, this place aims to bring more people into the fold, to get them hooked on ice climbing.<\/p>\n

\"A
A climber scales one of more than 100 routes in the Uncompahgre Gorge, created artificially by \u201cice farmers\u201d who spray water down the canyon walls starting in November of every year at Ouray Ice Park in Ouray. (Hart Van Denburg\/CPR News)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A bit away from the gorge, newbies in harnesses and helmets picked their way up what\u2019s called the \u201ckids wall,\u201d though it still looked pretty imposing to this reporter. Colorado Springs resident Y Mason was volunteering, belaying beginner after beginner.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s something special about conquering a wall full of ice and getting to the top and saying to yourself \u2018I did that,\u2019\u201d said Mason, who\u2019s been climbing ice for seven years.<\/p>\n

\"In
In the Elite Mixed Climbing Competition at the Ouray Ice Festival, competitors scale a route against the clock that starts on ice, moves to rock, and ends on a specially built climbing wall. Every time they clip their rope into an anchor, they score a point at the Ouray Ice Park on Saturday, Jan. 22. (Hart Van Denburg\/CPR News)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

It even helped her get over her fear of heights. She remembers the moment she was no longer afraid, after scaling a 100-foot wall at this park.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019m here: to empower people, especially people of color,\u201d said Mason, whose family comes from Cape Verde, off the coast of Africa.<\/p>\n

There was a long line of people waiting to try the ice climbing. And so often, after someone conquered their very first climb, they had a big smile and shining eyes.<\/p>\n

\"In
In the Elite Mixed Climbing Competition at the Ouray Ice Festival, competitors scale a route against the clock that starts on ice, moves to rock, and ends on a specially built climbing wall. Every time they clip their rope into an anchor, they score a point at the Ouray Ice Park on Saturday, Jan. 22. (Hart Van Denburg\/CPR News)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Moriah Bell, from Denver, didn\u2019t need convincing. She was already hooked.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fun kicking a wall of ice!\u201d she exclaimed.<\/p>\n

Cecelia Routzahn, an 8-year-old from Montrose, offered this advice: \u201cHit it in there hard with your boots and your ax!\u201d<\/p>\n

So I decided to try it, though it took me a second to learn to walk with crampons on \u2013 those imposing ice spikes strapped to your feet. And by \u201ca second,\u201d I mean I only fell twice.<\/p>\n

\"Judges
Judges only. Ouray Ice Festival on Saturday, Jan. 22. (Hart Van Denburg\/CPR News)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

But finally, with the help of a few kind volunteers and a lot of instruction, I did make it onto that ice wall \u2013 swinging my axes and digging in my boots with all the precision of a newborn horse learning to walk.<\/p>\n

I went about 8, hard-earned feet. I didn\u2019t feel any catharsis yet, but I did feel myself wanting to get better.<\/p>\n

And hey, there\u2019s always next year\u2019s ice festival.<\/p>\n

To read more stories from Colorado Public Radio, visit www.cpr.org<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

year\u2019s event drew about 2,000 attendees<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,1488,1489,3363,976],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-42515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-ice-climbing","tag-ouray","tag-ouray-ice-festival","tag-outdoor-recreation"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42515"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=42515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}