CO Ice & Mixed Climbing

This is a separate section of Colorado, since you, the user of MountainProject.com, have asked for it. To help you find all that your icy heart desires, look here.

Though not organized by town or city, this section is organized geographically. Here, you will find the subset of climbing done with crampons & ice tools on at least some bits of ice.

In this Colorado medium, you will find amazing beauty, ethereal sculptures created by nature, and a different peace than when you don sticky rubber and dab fingers into your chalkbag. You will dig deep, you will find ascents unique to each passage, and you may find a reward for balancing mind, body, and respect for the cold, natural world.

Those of you drawn to this aspect of the sport will search far and wide for some new, undiscovered dribble of the frozen variety. You will tramp all day based upon a narrow set of topographical lines on a map, drive hours based upon a rumor, drag half your weight in gear up miles of unpacked trails just looking for that next line. You'll call friends, call friends of friends, squeeze climbing shop employees for conditions, and scan websites for updates on climbs. Hopefully, here you will find something useful, consider adding routes to the database, update conditions for your fellow ice climber, and contribute to this small but growing database. Please do not take offense to those who seek to share...for we all love this medium...it is a passion.

For those of you out there who long for the day when no one else but you and your partner were out there whacking away, please remember when this was your new found focus. Also, understand by adding to this information, we spread folks out to allow a better experience for all.

So, here find your information on areas like Ouray, Lake City, Rifle, Vail, Mt. Lincoln, Wolf Creek Pass, Telluride, Glenwood Canyon, Clear Creek Canyon, Big Thompson Canyon Ice, St. Vrain ice, Colorado Springs, Durango, Silverton, Redstone, Coal Creek, Officer's Gulch, Parachute, Royal Gorge, Grand Junction, Gunnison, Rocky Mountain National Park and, maybe some day, Willow Lakes (thanks!, George). You will find lines from quick, ice-bouldering sessions to all day affairs, from 12 to 1500 feet, from roadside to backcountry.

For the exploring types, there are still ice climbs to be done out there...even depicted in this database. There are even rumors of Poudre Canyon ice.

There will be climbs that have been done where it is unlikely that someone will post it here due to lack of legal access, promises of secrecy, and fading in aging memory banks. For those, you'll just have to root around a bit or do it the old fashion way, earn it.

In really moist winters, amazing lines will pop up all over the place, even in predominantly rock climbing areas! So, keep the mind open, the eyes on alert, and the imagination in gear.

At the moment, this is a work in progress to reorganize this database for the subset who seek out the cold.... Please be patient.