28th October 2008

The Ice Season Cometh

posted in Colorado Climbing, Ice Climbing |

Or maybe it’s here for those who’d rather chase ephermeral drips than relish in the last beautiful days of sun before winter closes it’s icy claws about us.

Looks like the folks in Crested Butte have found some stuff to play on.

Also, down south it appears things are coming in around Ouray and Silverton.

Not much going on in Rocky Mountain Park at the moment, sounds like it’s just too dry there currently, which is hard to believe, as we have an incredible amount of snow above treeline in the Elks.

In these parts, the Laundry Chutes on Sopris appear to be in good shape, and the right most one is definitely worth checking out if you are in need of an alpine fix close to home. I was up in the area yesterday and the summer trail appears to be relatively snow free still, so have at.

As for me, I’ll be holding onto the rocks as long as possible…

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 at 4:27 pm and is filed under Colorado Climbing, Ice Climbing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

There are currently 3 responses to “The Ice Season Cometh”

Got an opinion? Let us know what you think.

  1. 1 On October 29th, 2008, knockneed man said:

    Here is an update from Jack Roberts courtesy of Mountain Project:

    “I’ll bring my website up to date for this weekend but in the meantime here is what I know.

    A buddy and I did Alexander’s sunday. The first two pitches are ice.
    The third pitch (the chockstone pitch) has two variations. The regular way via the chockstone is a little leaner than usual but the protection is excellent. The left variation rarely comes into shape. This is thin ice that isn’t very wide but with a couple of cams (#.5 & #1 Linkcam) and a couple of long medium LAs you can protect it well. The last pitch going right is what it usually is. Ice for the first half up to the chimney and rock for the last half. An alternative to this pitch is a variation going up left from the belay, up a steep 5.7 corner. Ice/snow/rock. Mixed with good gear.

    Above Alexander’s the ice is pretty anemic and we travered off.
    Dreamweaver also got climbed that day and the people said it was mostly snow but there was some ice.

    Darkstar isn’t IN

    KC Express (northface of Meeker which was climbed 20 years ago by Bob culp and Duncan) is pretty much sublimated out.

    The flying dutchman is still IN and seeing alot of traffic.

    I don’t think Necrophilia is IN nor Deep Freeze.

    ALL-MIXED-Up should be getting into shape.

    Not much around Notchtop as it was pretty lean this weekend.

    That’s all I know that is in RMNP.”

  2. 2 On October 29th, 2008, Ice Climbing Season is Fast Approaching - All Climbing said:

    [...] a preview to the upcoming season, Splitter Choss has a post up on the status of some of the Colorado ice climbing areas including Crested Butte, [...]

  3. 3 On November 1st, 2008, Jim Jones said:

    everything melted down south with the highs in the mid 60’s.

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