Ice Festival 2000

Sweet Axe Swingin'

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The flu. Lack of conditioning. Stuck in Patagonia. Off in Europe for the World Cup Ice Climbing comp. Injuries. These reasons and more reduced the women's field at Ouray to just two. But when those two are Abby Watkins of Australia and Jen Stewart of the US, you know you'll see some outstanding ice climbing.

Watkins and Stewart chose to operate as a team on the Pure Ice and Artistry segment, in contrast to yesterday's men's comp. While the men used dedicated belayers, Watkins and Stewart rappelled into the gorge, set everything up and belayed each other up their respective routes. While a trip to Cabo San Lucas was at stake, the two focused on putting on a great exhibition for the crowd.

	Watkins

Watkins went first and picked a curtain of vertical ice in the middle of the formation. She worked smoothly up it, placing two pieces of protection en route and took time to wave to the crowd. "It was a beautiful line with nice plastic ice," said Watkins afterward.

Stewart chose a steep pillar of blue ice on the left side of the main formation, covered in a thin layer of cauliflowered ice. Moving swiftly and surely, she ascended the WI5 (Water Ice 5 rating) with aplomb. "You know, the climbs always look a little different from the bottom than from the top," declared Stewart, "but you get down there and it was just beautiful wet blue ice. It just had to be climbed."

Next, the duo moved on to the Gymnastics, Power and Vision Sport Mixed route set by Jeff Lowe. Dubbed "Black Widow," it had a rating of M6 (Mixed 6). For this portion of the competition, Watkins and Stewart were separated, so that the second competitor could not see how the first climber worked out the moves.

This time, Stewart went first and put her long reach to use. After some skilled footwork in the overhanging rock start, she soon reached the thin rib of ice that marked the right-hand side of the upper portion of the route. Stewart worked up the rib, occasionally stemming onto the rock and quickly reached the upper rock slab that was coated in a thin layer of ice. After a quick study of the ice, she easily manteled over the top for a clean ascent.

	Stewart

"It was really fun. It just kind of sucked you right along and you were sort of a little grateful when you got to swing into that ice there at the end," explained Stewart. "It was all there but you had to think about it a little bit. Getting out, onto the rock itself was the hardest part because I had to go down a little bit and it was uncomfortable having my tools low and then being able to move down on them. I kind of hesitated there for a while but I figured it out in the end."

Watkins went second. Not having the height of Stewart, she instead used skillful body positioning to work around the rock overhang to the ice rib. Once there, she worked positive tool placements and arm-barring around the ice rib in an impressive display of mixed rock and ice technique. At the finishing slab, she easily high-stepped to the top. "It was hard to find holds in the rock (at the start)," said Watkins, "but the thin ice at the top was more solid than it looked, you just had to be gentle with it."

Stewart had the opportunity to watch Watkins climb and expressed appreciation for her performance. "It was fun to watch Abby because we did it so differently. It's interesting to see someone do a route in a totally different way."

With impressive performances from both climbers, the judges had a hard decision to make. For the mixed route, they declared an unprecedented tie, choosing to reward both climbers for their skillful, yet different interpretations of the route. For the Pure Ice segment, Stewart nudged just ahead, based on her slightly more difficult choice of line. With that performance, she was declared the overall winner, but both competitors got a week in Cabo. Not bad for a day at the ice park.

— Matt Stanley, watching the ice chips fly for MountainZone.com