2015-16 Colorado Ice Conditions

A little late on this, but should only be better after the warmer day time temps and colder nights... Climbed The Ribbon last Friday, bit rotten in the middle, but otherwise good.

BBB saturday- some ice, some rock, some snow- great climb. Never done before so not sure how the conditions rate comparatively. Pillar on 3rd was think but solid, moss on 6 was solid sticks.

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Careful for avalanches on the camp bird dark side, those climbs are all avy chutes

Anyone get eyes on the ice in Vail recently? I'll be in the neighborhood with a few hours to spare and was hoping to swing some tools.

CCChanceR wrote:Careful for avalanches on the camp bird dark side, those climbs are all avy chutes

Friday we didn't experience any sloughing on the Ribbon, saturday, even though no precip, there were spindrifts coming down while we rapped the ribbon. Likely danger has upped significantly this week with the precip in the area.

James2 wrote:
December 6, thirty five cars in eureka parking lot, place is completely blown out. What a shame.

James2 wrote:
Dec 3, 2015
Don't need bolts on fat ice, and they haven't been there for a decade. They showed up when SJMG thought they owned the mountains, just like you haven't been in T-ride or an ice climber for a decade. Used to simply walk off or rap on trees or v-threads. First set of bolts always disappear in the deep snow any way. Learn how to properly ice climb, leave the crag mentality behind.

James2 wrote:Sorry but it's the same everywhere, too many guides, too many people. SW Colorado has gotten crowded in just three years, thanks to the Internet and all the guide companies. Went to Eureka on a Sunday, 35 cars in the parking lot, for just 7 climbs. Rediculous. I too am selling my gear after 30+ years ice climbing on the western slope. I like the Seychelles.

Haaahaaaaaaaa. Ignore everything this ziphead posts. He used to be logged in as 'Jamie Jones', and back in 2013 he sent me several butthurt private emails, insulting me because I had the 'audacity' to post a single picture depicting Eureka conditions to the CO ice thread.

This guy (based on his comments to route descriptions, and based on his posts to this thread) appears to feel that Eureka/Mineral is just his private ice park. His comments and posts consistently trend toward discouragement and misdirection, with the apparent goal of keeping people away from 'his' ice.

FWIW, I have also, in the past, arrived extremely early in the AM (first!) to the Eureka parking lot, only to see 20+ vehicles. It is dismaying to see at first, but then when you realize all the frosty windshields, they were obviously all guests at the bunkhouse, or were maybe out in the back country overnight. Not daytrip ice climbers. Those days always went well, not crowded out of anything.

I fully expect another butthurt email from JJ regarding this call-out; I'll post it here as soon as it arrives. ;)
XO

If you are willing to hike a few miles in there is plenty of solitude still left.

This thread is supposed to be ice conditions, not the condition of ice climbing. (Except maybe legitimate suggestions to alleviate excess area-specific usage issues).

James2 is just a sad crotchety person. I too have been bitched out by him. His statements of "facts" are far from accurate. Right down to the last comment about there only being 7 climbs in eureka. That is laughable.

If you don't have anything constructive to say, don't say anything at all.

Let's keep things positive on here team!

ozman wrote:This thread is supposed to be ice conditions, not the condition of ice climbing. (Except maybe legitimate suggestions to alleviate excess area-specific usage issues). James2 is just a sad crotchety person. I too have been bitched out by him. His statements of "facts" are far from accurate. Right down to the last comment about there only being 7 climbs in eureka. That is laughable. If you don't have anything constructive to say, don't say anything at all. Let's keep things positive on here team!

This is my fault. I derailed the thread unintentionally. I was just trying to share a funny story about crowded ice crags and nudists. The next thing you know people are talking about "selling their gear after 30 years of ice climbing"



Mea culpa. Mea culpa.

They are one and the same. Yes there were 35 cars parked in eureka, mr. Know it all New Mexican, let me guess you just started ice climbing a couple of years ago and your so bloody stoked. We got there at ten am, and six people were coming down pissed off because the ice was so crowded, not me but people we talked to from Durango. But right now nobody climbing there, Avalanche danger, hey good time to climb mr. New Mexico.

The Blueprint Part Dank wrote: Mea culpa. Mea culpa.

Must have been that Drake song! You used to post conditions on my cell phone..

Bill Kirby wrote: Must have been that Drake song! You used to post conditions on my cell phone..

I know when that ice climb blings...

The last couple pages of this thread suck. I thought I was on 14ers.com for a minute...

Firehouse, west side, 12/22:

James2 wrote:Sorry but it's the same everywhere, too many guides, too many people. SW Colorado has gotten crowded in just three years, thanks to the Internet and all the guide companies. Went to Eureka on a Sunday, 35 cars in the parking lot, for just 7 climbs. Rediculous. I too am selling my gear after 30+ years ice climbing on the western slope. I like the Seychelles.

When we climbed Bridalvail in 1994 we out-hiked at least three other parties in the pre-dawn to get to the start first and make our send. When I first went to Black Lake over New Year's in 1979 we encountered a guided party from Mike Covington's outfit en-route. When I first did the Designator and Fang solo in the 1993-94 season I had to wait for the parties epicing ahead of me to clean their crap, abandoned tools, screws, ropes off the climbs.

So little has changed in CO by my reckoning, there are still gobs of people out there cursing knocking ice down dropping top ropes on your head and behaving in general like utter pea-brains.

However, this is the CO Ice Conditions Thread not the "whining white whanker" thread so start your own discussion elsewhere to lament the fictional passing of an empty ice-climbing landscape that hardly ever existed...

James2 wrote:They are one and the same. Yes there were 35 cars parked in eureka, mr. Know it all New Mexican, let me guess you just started ice climbing a couple of years ago and your so bloody stoked. We got there at ten am, and six people were coming down pissed off because the ice was so crowded, not me but people we talked to from Durango. But right now nobody climbing there, Avalanche danger, hey good time to climb mr. New Mexico.

Offtopic, I know.
But, hmmm. Now he wishes for others' deaths.

Anyone want to hit Moffat tomorrow?

many smears in Yosemite right now

James2 wrote:They are one and the same. Yes there were 35 cars parked in eureka, mr. Know it all New Mexican, let me guess you just started ice climbing a couple of years ago and your so bloody stoked. We got there at ten am, and six people were coming down pissed off because the ice was so crowded, not me but people we talked to from Durango. But right now nobody climbing there, Avalanche danger, hey good time to climb mr. New Mexico.

LOL

Dave Alie, regarding conditions, I drove by Vail yesterday am and it looked ok ( except the Fang...up but skinny). Just a drive by, though, for what it's worth.
Anybody been to Hully Gully recently?

Phil Berggren wrote:Dave Alie, regarding conditions, I drove by Vail yesterday am and it looked ok ( except the Fang...up but skinny). Just a drive by, though, for what it's worth. Anybody been to Hully Gully recently?

A week ago, Hully was a mess. Little ice, no adhesion. The water is still pretty warm. It has been much colder this week, so things have probably changed a bit. Hully is a little fickle. Some years it just never seems to get going, even with good water flow. So far, this seems to be one of those years, potentially. I was planning to give it a look later this week. The other HUGE issue is if it is still going to be legal/accessible. With the Broadmoor stringing zip lines all up and down the canyon, to include the bluff and drainage that makes up Hully's right flank, as is completely visible fron the work site. As of now it is anyone's guess. Currently there are no posted signs, but there is significant fencing very close to the parking spot. The access to the zip line area is about 100 yds past parking. Tread lightly.

Dexter Slabs, Horsetail falls, and many of the Camp Bird routes are in. Bear Creek Falls is very thin. Tons of climbs up 550 are in. All the Ouray crowds are in the ice park, there was literally no one at any of the other popular climbs in the area.