At some point my Mother started calling me Danger Boy. I can't remember when it was exactly but it may have been around the time that I started juggling chain saws. Somehow that title stuck and I now wear it with pride (and named my blog after it). For me danger is not about risking one's life or a quick adrenaline rush but rather the heightened experience that comes from doing things that society in general may label as "dangerous". It is not that I intentionally seek out dangerous things and then go and do them. Rather I am somehow naturally attracted to that realm. I was attracted to black powder like a fly to S#!T. Ice climbing and scuba diving just made a lot of sense to me as sports activities and for a period of time one of my biggest goals was to do full body burn stunts. For work I get to rig off high buildings and blow stuff up (in a pyrotechnic way - in case CSIS / CIA is reading). I am constantly on the look out for other "dangerous deeds" to provide me with portals to new experience, entertainment, fitness, and wonder and fun. Here is where I will share those experiences with whoever comes along. Welcome...

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Ice Climbing in Ouray Colorado















So I just returned from a 10 day trip to Ouray CO where I had an amazing time ice climbing. We started ice climbing at the very tail end of the season last year and by the time we figured out how to put all the gear on and get up something all the ice melted. Bummer! This year we figured that we would start things off right and go to the ice capital of the US. This little town of 800 had a leak in their water system 17 or so years ago and this created a small ice pitch. Some locals got savvy and they, started climbing it AND went to the hardware store, bought some plumbing and industrial shower heads and farmed some ice. Now today there are 183 ice pitches within a 10 - 20 minute walk from town and this town is at the forefront of the ice climbing scene in the US.

It was a 4:00am start New year’s Day which was tough. Particularly so because of the stupid underwear bomber and the heightened security. It took a full 3 hours to get through all the security to the gate. Whatever! They do what they do and I don’t let it stop me from having a good time... I slept pretty much the whole way to Montrose where it was a 45 minute shuttle to Ouray. Jonah and Sabrina were already there so they showed me around. The ice was spectacular! Never seen so much in one place and I couldn’t wait to get out there and climb it.

Spent the next 10 days re aquatinting myself with the water ice reality. Had some spectacular climbs and probably learned more there than I would in 2-3 years of Ontario ice climbing. Another aspect to the Ouray trip was that from January 7-10th was the 15th annual Ouray Ice Festival. During this time we climbed less but probably learned even more. Took some fantastic clinics with folks like Will Gadd and Clint Cook and had a fantastic time watching the competition.

During the festival I had the good opportunity to hook up with Will Gadd. Will had won the competition in years previous and was challenging himself in a different way this time around with an epic charity fund raiser he entitled Endless Ascent. This was a spectacularly crazy idea where he proposed to climb one pitch of ice over and over for 24 hours straight to raise money and awareness for the DZI foundation. We ran into him on the Wednesday previous to his Saturday event while he was training on a pitch of ice adjacent to where were were climbing. We were actually set up that day on the pitch that he was going to climb for his event and I can still remember how I felt climbing it just once. Obviously Will is in a whole different place with regards to experience, skill and training but I still can’t for the life of me wrap my head around how he managed to to keep climbing that near vertical pitch for 24 hours. I had to see it for myself so I volunteered to be one of his belayers. He had 23 of these over the 24 hour run. I was 1-2am and since he started at noon the previous day I really just got to see him a little over half way.

It was truly surreal up there that night. A beautiful walk through the empty ice park up to the Pick of the VIc (Will’s pitch) where the lights were up and a few folks were gathered to heckle and hoot from the bridge as Will continued to yo-yo up and down the ice. I had watched him that afternoon and his pace had barely changed after 13 hours. Amazing! As for belaying him, I assumed that he would want a nice slow lower to rest and eat up some time but no, as soon as he arrived at the top it was all business. A quick hello and then he wanted a fast drop to do it again. From 1-2 am Will progressed from lap 109 to lap 120.

I was scheduled to fly out Sunday morning before Will’s noon finish. At 7:00am waiting for the shuttle I had a few minutes so I ran back up the hill to see how he was doing. There he was, still sailing up and down that ice pitch. He had been there the whole time while I packed, slept, ate breakfast and did all that normal stuff. I tracked his progress throughout the day via my iphone and was very happy to get the twitter update that told me he succeeded in reaching his goal of climbing for 24 hours straight. The final tally was 194 pitches for a total elevation gain of something like 29,000 vertical feet. They are not sure of the actual total as they are still working it out but... who cares! It is a hell of a lot of vertical ice in a short period of time. More than many climb in a lifetime. Congratulations Will!

So Ouray Colorado was an amazing trip and a spectacular way to start off the new year. I hope to go back there again really soon!

For more pictures from this trip go HERE.
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