Ice Climbing In The OuraY Ice Park
For over 30 years, Skyward Mountaineering has been offering guided ice climbing on multipitch backcountry routes throughout Ouray and in the world renowned Ouray Ice Park. Under the guidance of famed alpinist and IFMGA Guide, Vince Anderson, Skyward Mountaineering is the longest continuously owned and operated guide service in the San Juan mountains and we continue to be a small team of comprised of highly trained and passionate Ouray ice climbing guides.
Located in the heart of the San Juan mountains in southwest Colorado, the old mining town of Ouray is truly the premier ice climbing destination in North America. The Ouray Ice Park, conveniently located only a 15 minute walk from downtown, extends for a 1 mile span of the Uncompahgre Gorge with a human-made gravity fed sprinkler system that creates over 150 independent ice climbs and another 50+ mixed climbs. With a heavily concentrated selection of ice climbing in a variety of styles and difficulties the Ouray Ice Park is a unique asset for climbers who want to learn how to ice climb for the first time to experienced ice climbers who want to improve their efficiency and movement techniques on steep and challenging routes.
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A full day ice climbing with a guide in the Ouray Ice Park is a perfect opportunity to learn or refresh your ice climbing movement techniques. Skyward Mountaineering ice climbing guides are expert climbers and instructors, trained to be able to provide you nuanced, practical and helpful information to improve with quick strides whether you’re learning to ice climb for the first time or want to improve your efficiency on long and challenging WI5 pitches.
Most of our climbers with a private guide for ice climbing in Ouray are able to climb 5-8 classic independent pitches with some repetition on routes to hone your ice climbing technique, during a single day, ample time to get sufficient forearm pump and maximize learning opportunities.
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In addition to guided ice climbing in Ouray, we instruct several ice climbing courses in the Ouray Ice Park. Our courses are specifically designed to teach climbers to be self-sufficient rather than reliant on a guide, learn the following skills and more:
Equipment selection and details
Top rope anchor construction
Belaying (toprope, lead, and belaying a follower from above)
Movement techniques: introductory through advanced plus efficient mixed climbing
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In town for a longer trip?
Skyward Mountaineering also offers ice climbing guides for backcountry routes in Ouray, Silverton, and Telluride. Honing your ice climbing technique for a couple of days in the Ouray Ice Park and then taking those skills onto a multipitch ice climb in the backcountry routes around Ouray is an awesome well-rounded climbing vacation.
Put your ice climbing skills to the test on a backcountry ice climb!
