Ice Festival 2000

Ouray Ice Festival History

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This month, the Ouray Ice Festival enters its fifth year as the premier gathering of its kind. Where else can you see signs in store windows proclaiming "Ice Climbers Welcome"? Familiar faces, including some of the best ice climbers in the world, will return to climb, socialize, test out the latest equipment or watch the pros try to scratch their way up exhibition routes.

Over the weekend of January 14-16, 2000, adventurers from around the world will converge on this charming little Victorian gold mining village, a mecca for hot springs lovers and ice climbers alike. They'll come to tiny Ouray, Colorado to party and play at the MountainZone.com/Land Rover Ouray Ice Festival 2000. Over the long Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend, the miles of ice in the Ouray Ice Park will be threaded with climbers, the cliffs outside town will sport axe-wielding ascentionists, and festival headquarters will glow with good cheer.

	Fat ice in the gorge photo: James Martin

In just a quarter century, ice climbing in southwestern Colorado has clearly come a long way, so the new millennium might be a good time to look back at how the Ice Festival came to be.

Mike Weis and I began exploring the waterfalls of southwestern Colorado more than 25 years ago. In 1974, we made the now-famous first ascent of one of the world's most spectacular ice climbs, Bridalveil Falls (WI 6-). Way back then, wood-shafted ice axes, flexible crampons, leather boots, wool stocking caps and gloves, not to mention and a considerable amount of skill and moxie, were the tools of the day. The early 1970s saw climbers plying their crafts on the steep ice of Colorado's San Juan Mountains, including ice pioneers such as David Breashears, Michael Covington, Lyle Dean, Kevin, Donald, and Duncan Ferguson, Charlie Fowler, Michael Kennedy, Mike Weis and Dave Wright.

The sheer walls of Ouray's Uncompahgre Gorge are home to traditional classic ice routes such as Tangled Up In Blue (WI 4-5) and Stone Free (WI 5), but the area may be best known for The Schoolroom, where the short approach and low-angle terrain creates a perfect beginners' area. However, the ice-climbing scene in tiny Ouray was changed completely when three local visionaries hit upon the idea of tapping into the penstock waterpipe running along the gorge's mile-long rim and spraying it over the edge to create completely new icefalls, a lot of them.

The idea proved feasible. The land and the penstock are leased to the town of Ouray, Colorado, (population: 700) for $1 a year by Eric Jacobsen, a climber/sympathetic landowner who makes his home at the hydroelectric-plant-turned-elegant-residence situated atop Bridalveil Falls. Through the efforts of Gary Wild and Bill Whitt, co-owners of the Ouray Victorian Inn, and Mike O'Donnell, owner of San Juan Mountain Guides, and with the cooperation of the city and county of Ouray, the Ouray Ice Park was born. But the story of how the existence of the Ice Park grew into an ice climbing festival of major proportions is one told in increments.

Starting in 1994, I used the Ouray Ice Park's spectacular climbs to create Waterfall Ice, a video of climbing techniques that showcased the rapid learning curve of Bird Lew on ice. The scenes of bird climbing the golden chandeliers of Le Pissoir, a frozen geyser that accidentally formed that year, are among the most beautiful ice climbing segments I've ever seen on video. As an ice connoisseur, as well as frequent commercial user of the Ouray Ice Park, I wanted to find a way show my appreciation of, and support for, the efforts Gary, the Bills, and Eric had made to create such accessible, relatively safe ice climbing terrain.

To that end, on the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend in 1996, my wife Teri Ebel and I organized the first annual Arctic Wolf Ouray Ice Festival. It was a free event that was host to between 300 and 400 ice climbers. A gear auction raised over $1100 for the Ouray Ice Park and the Access Fund and Climbing magazine cooperated to provide $1,000 worth of sanitary facilities for the entire 1996 ice season. That year saw free seminars, equipment demos, and demonstration climbs by Bird, Duncan Ferguson, Malcolm Daly, Mark Wilford and me. Mark and I also presented free slide shows in the evenings.

The second annual Arctic Wolf Ouray Ice Festival in 1997 drew nearly 500 climbers, in addition to around 500 non-climbing spectators. Jared Ogden and Stevie Haston presented slide shows; my brother Greg and I premiered our video, The Ice Game. Free avalanche, first aid, safety and technique seminars were punctuated by a catered evening reception, a pancake breakfast and a fundraising dinner for the Ouray Mountain Rescue Team. But the festival was clearly becoming bigger: several ESPN Winter X Games ice climbing competitors were on hand to perform climbing demonstrations, including Barry Blanchard (Canada), Helgi Christensen (Iceland), Malcolm Daly (USA), Will Gadd (Canada), Stevie and Laurence Haston (France), Guy Lacelle (Canada), Jeff Lowe (USA), Jared Ogden (USA), Travis Spitzer (USA), Margo Talbot (Canada), and Mark Wilford (USA).

That year, Salomon North America stepped up to provide a $5,000 endowment for the Ice Park's 1996-97 ice season to help cover maintenance costs, new signs, an information kiosk, and even the Ice Park manager's wages.

By 1998, the third annual Arctic Wolf Ouray Ice Festival demonstrated how the festival had reached maturity. The 1998 Festival drew nearly 800 climbers over the course of the weekend, in addition to more than 400 non-climbing spectators. Ouray Mountain Rescue reported that the weekend's worst injury occurred when a climbing harness accidentally ripped a navel ring out.

Receptions welcomed climbers to Ouray and, in the ongoing tradition of the Festival, sponsors generously donated products for the annual fundraising auction, which raised almost $6,000 for the Ice Park. I worked with Salomon USA to once again complement my company's donation to support the park and the event. That year's slide shows were presented by Gary Ryan, Pete Takeda, Will Gadd, Bernard Mailhot, Philippe Pibarot, and Bruno Sourzac. Also showing slides were my partners from our abortive 1978 attempt on Latok I: Jim Donini, Michael Kennedy and my cousin, George Lowe.

A major change in 1998 was the restructuring of the Ice Festival's traditional climbing demonstrations into the Ice Craft Invitational Exhibition, with 13 of the world's top ice climbers taking part in a pair of judged demonstrations. Ice Craft Exhibition climbers were: Helgi Christensen (Iceland); Mike Dahlberg (USA); Naomi Guy (England); Alenka Jerala (Slovenia); Ezio Marlier (Italy); Kim Reynolds (USA); Gary Ryan (England); Dave Sheldon (USA); Bruno Sourzac (France); Jennifer Stewart (USA); Pete Takeda (USA); Amanda Tarr (USA); and Jean-Philippe Villemaire (Canada). Judges were Bob Culp (Head Judge), Jim Donini and Mike O'Donnell. On-site commentator Malcolm Daly provided spectators with in-depth insight into each climber's individual style, skill and personal motivation. The combined scores from "The Extreme Dream" and "Gymnastics, Power and Vision" exhibitions resulted in overall rankings. First place in the men's division went to Bruno Sourzac. Jen Stewart placed first in the women's division. Second place winners were Helgi Christensen and Alenka Jerala and Pete Takeda and Kim Reynolds took third place.

Last year, the fourth consecutive year of the Ouray Ice Festival, featured demo gear from 40 companies, mini-seminars, parties and receptions, as well as three evenings of slide shows by John Roskelley, Carlos Buhler, Kim Csizmazia and Will Gadd.

The second Annual Ice Craft Invitational Exhibition™ brought 10 women and 14 men from 10 countries to participate in a pair of judged demonstrations of their climbing prowess. Judges were: Bill Whitt, Anne Smith, Stevie Haston, John Roskelley, Mike O'Donnell and Dougald MacDonald.

For the second year in a row, the clear combined winner in the men's field was Frenchman Bruno Sourzac. Raphael Slawinski followed up his excellent second-place finish in the Winter X Games with a second-place-combined finish in the Ice Craft Exhibition. The excellent Korean climber Seung Kwon Chung placed third. The men's mixed route was Titanic, M8+. Kim Csizmazia, as predicted, walked away with first place in both the pure and mixed events, thrilling the crowd on Gender Bender (M7+). New Zealander Karen McNeill earned second place in the combined scoring and Lizz Grenard took third place.

— Jeff Lowe, MountainZone.com correspondent