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Lake City: Off the Beaten Ice

January 19, 2010 Climb 1 Comment
Courtesy of LakeCity.com

Courtesy of LakeCity.com

By Dan Escalante and Dougald MacDonald

If Ouray and its ice park are starting to feel like Boulder West, consider a trip to Lake City and its low-key ice park and superb backcountry climbs. It’s no closer to Front Range cities than Ouray, and there aren’t as many climbs to choose from, but Lake City is uncrowded and the vibe is more Cicely than Sayulita.

The fun climbing in the Lake City Ice Park is just southwest of downtown along Henson Creek. (Follow Bluff Street or 1st Street to Engineer Pass Road, aka County Road 20.) The park has up to 15 routes, with 60- to 100-foot pitches, from WI3 to WI5, plus some mixed routes. The base area is unbeatable—it’s flat and in the sun much of the afternoon (assuming it’s not snowing), making for pleasant belays.

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Four Colorado Ice Fests

December 18, 2009 Climb No Comments
Lake City Ice Festival

Lake City Ice Festival

The famous Ouray Ice Festival is happening January 7-10 this winter, and it should be a blast, highlighted this year by Will Gadd’s Endless Ascent: 24 hours of non-stop ice climbing. But Ouray is not the only ice climbing festival in the Centennial State:

• January 2-3: Durango Ice Demo

• February 5-7: Redstone Winterfest, sponsored in part by Carbondale-based Rock and Ice magazine.

• February 27: Lake City Ice Fest

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  • Pat: Amazing photo, thanks so much!...
  • Mike McClaskey: It's the old St Marys Glacier ski area...
  • Sinjin: That rubble is what the owners left when they walked away from Ski St. Mary's...too bad they weren't responsible enough ...
  • andy wellman: Meadow Mountain, Minturn??...
  • Marc B: Good to see folks scouting and working projects in the much overlooked South Platte. I'll bet there are a few hard 5.13 ...
  • Hamish Gowans: I'm getting a Pikes Peak vibe....
  • Allen Hill: It's the old Sibley/Roos route. We use to climb it from time to time in high school. I always wondered when someone woul...

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Wild

Rarities: Wolf Moon, Arapaho Peaks

February 5, 2010

Rarities: Wolf Moon, Arapaho Peaks

Photographer James Beissel sent us this fantastic dawn-patrol shot of the full moon setting over South and North Arapaho in the Indian Peaks, shot from Flagstaff Mountain. Said Beissel: ”The first full moon of the New Year is often called the Wolf Moon. The name comes from Native American culture, in which it was associated with [...]

New Deal for Great Sand Dunes

January 20, 2010

New Deal for Great Sand Dunes

By Bob Berwyn
Stakeholders in the San Luis Valley have taken a giant step toward protecting Great Sand Dunes National Park from mining, energy development, and water exports. Lexam Explorations has agreed to sell its mineral rights if a $9.7 million deal can be finalized by May.
Great Sand Dunes National Park was created by Congress [...]

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The News

Avy that killed snowboarder near A-Basin snapped 6-inch trees... Coloradans strong in ski mountaineering worlds.... Telluride plan for guided backcountry tours raises controversy.... Local skier killed by avalanche south of Aspen.... Avalanche triggered by rope-ducking skiers partially buries Aspen patroller.... Skier rescued from backcountry west of Eldora.... CO's Vermillion Basin is in leaked list of possible new national monuments.... Avalanche watches and warnings for much of state.... Fatality, injuries in San Juans avalanche.... $30 million to help Colorado clear beetle-killed forests.

Firsts

New Route Likely Platte’s Hardest

February 14, 2010

New Route Likely Platte’s Hardest

Jason Haas, who’s working on a new guidebook to South Platte rock climbs, has just redpointed what’s likely the Platte’s hardest pitch, a roof seam that’s protected with removable pro and might be 5.14a. The new route, Comprometido, took about a year and a half to complete. Here, Haas tells the story.
While researching routes [...]

Fun New Mixed Routes in Vail

February 7, 2010

Fun New Mixed Routes in Vail

Let’s say you’d like to try some sport-mixed routes, but you aren’t into fruit boots and cranking figure-nines. Until recently, your options have been limited at East Vail, the mecca of modern mixed climbing. But this season, several new climbs have been added to the Firehouse West and Spiral Staircase areas, and at M6 to [...]

Wild New Route in RMNP

January 25, 2010

Wild New Route in RMNP

On Saturday, Andy Grauch and Chris Sheridan completed a wild line on the south face of Mt. Otis in Rocky Mountain National Park—almost certainly a new route. Chockstones of Unusual Size (C.O.U.S.) is a three-pitch route (plus snow slogging) that surmounts two stupendous blocks by tricky dry tooling: III M6/7. We asked Andy Grauch to [...]

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Classics

Lake Agnes–Seven Utes Loop

February 19, 2010

Lake Agnes–Seven Utes Loop

Kevin Landolt is a skier/climber/student, based in Fort Collins, who writes the fun Alpine Ambition blog for the Mountain Shop. Here, Kevin describes a favorite midwinter ski tour near Cameron Pass offering a little of everything.
Trailhead: Lake Agnes Road, 2.5 miles west of Cameron Pass
Tour Distance: 7.3 miles
Total Vert: ca. 2,900′
Season: Midwinter to spring; two [...]

Mr. and Mrs. Mesa

January 28, 2010

Mr. and Mrs. Mesa

Two of the wildest and most difficult water-ice pitches in the state are in plain view from Highway 50, en route to Ouray and Telluride from points north, plunging down the sheer face of Grand Mesa. Yet few people notice them, and far fewer have climbed them. The routes are tough, to be sure, but [...]

East Ridge of Mt. Bancroft

December 28, 2009

East Ridge of Mt. Bancroft

Mt. Bancroft’s rocky east ridge is a terrific mountaineering adventure for Front Range climbers, beginning less than an hour from Denver. The 13,250-foot peak is relatively close to the road, and avalanche danger can be easily managed, making this perhaps the most accessible technical winter summit on the entire Front Range. The east ridge offers [...]

The Redline

December 15, 2009

The Redline

Michael Barton of Mountain Goat Ski Guides in Silverton offers up this classic route off Red Mountain Pass. It’s more of an early-spring route than a midwinter tour, but now you can put it on the hit list. How good is this route? Says Barton: It’s out of my permit boundary, so I don’t [...]