The San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado are simultaneously rugged and welcoming; made up of rough, unpopulated backcountry peaks that both intimidate and attract would-be visitors from around the world.   

    It’s fitting then, that for at least the past 15 years the capital of what may be the most alluring yet daunting of winter sports, ice climbing, is located at the heart of those same peaks in the mountain town of Ouray.

    Ouray is located on the east side of Mount Emma (which separates it from the resort town of Telluride) and is home to less than 1,000 fulltime residents. It’s most famous inhabitant is its man-made ice park, located inside the Uncompahgre Gorge.  Ice climbers were setting out into the frozen wilderness of the San Juans for decades when, in 1994, Bill Whitt and Gary Wild laid out a series of PVC pipes and garden hoses on the top of the town’s gorge and created the Ouray Ice Park.

    Today, the park is considered the best ice climbing facility in the world.  The original pipes and hoses have all been replaced with an entirely new plumbing system increasing the number and scope of ice climbing opportunities available.  More than 200 routes up the icy shoots and crags inside the gorge are now climbable depending on conditions.

    However, if you haven’t scaled a wall of ice before, it doesn’t really matter how many routes there are; this is not the sort of sport you want to learn through trial and error.  Even as a spectator sport, it’s not for the faint of heart. Just watching a climber scale what looks like a giant icicle while holding an ice axe in each hand and kicking out footholds with the crampons strapped to his or her feet is as close as many people think they want to get in their lifetimes.  Unfortunately for them, the satisfaction that comes with pulling over the top of a climb may never be realized.  Call it the black diamond effect; would-be beginners to the sport envision only the sheerest of ice formations much like a neophyte skier only sees the steepest of runs when they clip into their first set of skis.