“The journey is often better than the destination” – Zach
I organized this trip mostly on a whim and after a lot of convincing by my coworker John. John has ice climbed here a handful of time and swore by it and I decided it would be a good way to start getting some ice climbing mileage to build up to some of the more ambitious peaks I had in mind.
John in classic John fashion went a bit too hard skiing and bumped his head to a moderate concussion which basically put him out of this trip. So it was just me and I was a little nervous but also pretty excited. I was a little bummed about this whole situation because it was mainly John who convinced me for this trip, while I had never even heard of Ouray before this. But I think the first pitch of climbing in Ouray changed my mind about it all.
Day 1:
Zach, my guide for the duration of the trip, rightly decided that the first day we stay in the park so that I get a refresher and he can gauge what sort of routes we could go on. We chose to go to the southern tip of the park away from the crowds to get a more backcountry type of feel and it was us almost the entire time. The first few pitches, on some easy routes, Zach had me climb with a single tool - which is something I have not done before but it was a great exercise and really got me into the flow. The next route that I attempted was also fairly straightforward with a little more steepness, 2 tools this time :) Eventually we worked our way to some WI4+ routes and another route that had some mixed climbing. The sketchiness of mixed climbing is quite something and it was interesting going through that especially with that fact that I would like to graduate to some mixed climbing in the future. But all in all it was a great day. I tried not to push too hard because tomorrow is along day of climbing a route called the ‘Second Gully’.
Day 2:
We started at 7 am today so that we could drive to the Eureka climbing area near Silverton. These towns in the San Juans are all mining towns with some actually active at this moment. But there are a very large number of abandoned mines which have this spooky and apocalyptic feel at times. In any case we drove for about an hour to Eureka and then hiked another 30 mins to get to Second Gully. Unfortunately we got scooped and there was a party just starting on that route. Fortunately that area is littered with some cool ice climbs and Zach went to his standard - ‘Tempered by fire’. This route was fantastic and had a huge frozen water fall that fell into this narrow alley. We started inside this valley and worked our way around some fairly overhung WI4 that sort of eased into a more moderate slope to a hanging belay point that Zach set up. From there the regular second pitch looked a bit sketchy to lead because it was unnaturally thin. However the side route had some fat ice with some mixed climbing near the top. Zach set up an anchor to top rope belay me into the regular 2nd pitch which was incredibly sketchy and really overhung. Awesome climbing. We then rappelled back to the base of the climb.
We took another look at Second Gully but the weather was turning and appeared that the party above us was still climbing. We bailed quickly and headed back to the car. On the way back I felt I still had a couple of pitches in me so Zach took me to a climb called ‘Portland’ which was hidden in plain sight, a short 10 mins walk from Ouray. I really enjoyed this climb because you could make a bit mixed, it was a narrow line up a scenic canyon and just overall a cool setting. That wrapped up our fairly long day out. Pretty committing day but very rewarding.
Day 3:
We started out even earlier than yesterday to ensure that we dont get scooped on ‘Horsetail’ which is about a 10 mins drive from Ouray. It has a fairly sketchy approach down some steep snow/ice. It had snowed overnight which made our drive and approach a bit more sketchy than it should have been. In any case, the setting of this climb was unreal. Before climbing it was already my favorite spot. ‘Horsetail’ at this time was a WI5- with 5 pitches which already put it significantly harder than the other routes that we did. The first pitch was a 140ft WI5 which took me to my limit and then some. I had to rest twice near the end of the pitch to complete it was but it was super rewarding. The rest of the climb was fairly moderate but I suffered from being pumped out on the first pitch. The view got progressively more beautiful and I was happy to finally be done at pitch 5 - both to appreciate the view and to give my calves and forearms some rest.
It was a fantastic climb that I absolutely loved from start to finish. Really committing but the most rewarding climb this weekend. Also my first backcountry WI5 (barely, but still)! Also a perfect finish to the trip to leave me completely done.
One of my goals is to be able to become self sufficient on these climbs in diverse terrain and enough that I could climb with someone else who is not necessarily a guide. For me, trips like these are my journey towards this nebulous sounding destination which seems pretty epic by itself but the journey is also awesome - learning and meeting cool people! If you enjoy the journey the destination will be a cherry on top. However, caring only about the destination can make you reckless - leading to bad decisions in the worst case, or could lead to burn out because the process may be longer than you anticipate. Having a watchful eye on how you approach your destination is crucial and may be the difference between reaching it and not. I know this is pretty vague but I think thats the point. Life is subjective and you figure out what is your journey and what is your destination :)
– G