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Ouray TR


Barb

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So myself and 7 fun ladies drove down to Ouray for the Ice Festival again this year.

 

My clinic this morning was a total shit show. Our guide was great, has an amputated leg below the knee and had climbed Everest earlier this year. It was a novice class and he wanted to demonstrate some techniques on the wall. He asked who knew how to belay. I know how but always get the double figure 8 knot screwed up so I didn’t jump up to volunteer. The only guy in our class was from Florida. From the way he was talking I could tell he claimed to have much more knowledge than he actually did. He spoke up right away. As soon as he got in the rope I saw how much slack was there. I said to my friend “Look at all that slack, does this guy know what he is doing?” I told her I didn’t want him belaying me at all that day. The guide was only about 15+ feet up; I didn’t see how he fell but he slipped and the belayer did not catch him. He fell hard! My friend was videoing in her phone and he landed weird on his leg and knee and immediately said he was not ok.

 

The asshole that caused this did not apologize and asked the guy if he wanted any weed. The guide was holding his knee and you could tell it was really bad. They had to lift him out of the gorge with ropes and the ambulance took him away.

 

He wasn’t lifted out right away, but for the next 30 min or so our group was kind of like, “Ok we’ll do we get to climb?” Another guide came over and told us to just belay each other, in a fucking novice class! I went over to her and said the guy who dropped the guide should not be belaying at least not without more instruction. So she went over to him and told him to make sure he held he rope tight! WTF?! We finally got a little time on the wall but only about 15 min each. The guide belaying ya was texting and not paying attention at all. Now maybe she was relaying info about the hurt guide, but still.

 

When we climbed out of the gorge we went to the info booth and voiced our displeasure at how the morning was handled. The clinics are $75 so we thought we should get some kind of compensation. They didn’t seem to want to do much for us and finally offered a free clinic next year. I was ok w that since I will be back. But then I asked him how we claim our freebie. He reluctantly gave me his card. The whole thing was not handled well at all.

 

There is a practice wall so we ended up going over there after lunch and getting some climbs in which was nice.

 

Snow tomorrow and heading to Telluride.

 

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Our guide being prepped to lift.

 

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This is the gorge you walk down. Steeper than it looks. Fixed ropes on the sides.

 

 

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There is a women’s group that started in Colorado called Bold Betties. The founder now has 39 chapters across the country. The goal of the group is to get women into the outdoors doing things out of their comfort zone in a supportive environment. Say you have never rock climbed before and want to try. They have meet ups and classes with guides, all women to get you started. They plan a ton of fun trips. I am going to Yellowstone with them next month. 

 

The girls I am with I met through Bold Betties. Most of them do some really cool things (on their own). Lots of cool stories, backpacking trips, rock climbing trips etc. Most of the girls here this weekend are hard core climbers. They climb 4-5 days a week indoors and out.  Very glad I got hooked up with them.  

 

Also so forgot to mention we saw Conrad Anker but we were all too chicken to go ask for a picture with him. 

Edited by Barb
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3 minutes ago, Barb said:

There is a women’s group that started in Colorado called Bold Betties. The founder now has 39 chapters across the country. The goal of the group is to get women into the outdoors doing things out of their comfort zone in a supportive environment. Say you have never rock climbed before and want to try. They have meet ups and classes with guides, all women to get you started. They plan a ton of fun trips. I am going to Yellowstone with them next month. 

 

The girls I am with I met through Bold Betties. Most of them do some really cool things (on their own). Lots of cool stories, backpacking trips, rock climbing trips etc. Most of the girls here this weekend are hard core climbers. They climb 4-5 days a week indoors and out.  Very glad I got hooked up with them.  

 

Also so forgot to mention we saw Conrad Anker but we were all too chicken to go ask for a picture with him. 

Cool are you gonna be in Jackson hole at all??  I'll have to google who Conrad Anker is..sounds like an old legend. 

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6 minutes ago, Shadows said:

Whats the certs behind climbing? Anything like irata/sprat

The AMGA does something called the Single Pitch Instructor which is basically the entry level cert needed for outdoors rock climbing. Beyond that you can become a certified Rock Guide or Climbing Instructor. For ice, they do an ice instructor course, which goes towards an Alpine Guide certification.

That experience at Ouray seems crazy! You would think they would be more professional. Where did the guides come from?

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San Juan Mountain Guides runs the show there. I saw a few guides I knew from this past summer when we did s guided hike on the Via Ferrata. I guess they come from all over.  But yeah, felt like it could have been handled better. I think guides get a bit cocky, I am sure ours never thought he would take a fall from 15’. 

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49 minutes ago, GrilledSteezeSandwich said:

*Waiting for hot tub pictures!!

Haha we all just got out....maybe tomorrow.....

 

and you guys sell yourselves short, you could totally do it!

Edited by Barb
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Telluride was terrible today. Got there about 8:15 and got our lift tickets and hung out. Got in line and we got 4th chair  nobody in line hardly.  The first run we took started off as a nice groomer, then halfway down there were 2 huge brown patches of dirt in the sides with a ribbon of death in between that was super scraped off and boiler plate.  

Next we went to another lift hoping to have better luck.  That run we dodged rocks and tiny pine trees sticking out of the snow 8 or so inches high.  I couldn’t believe this stuff wasn’t roped off.  We asked a local and she told us to go to lift 6.  That one had the best runs and snow but I guess everyone knew that because it quickly filled up.  I think everyone skiing that morning was on the same lift.  We bailed at 11 because it just was not fun.  Out of the 4 places I have skied this season Telluride had the worst coverage.  Eldora is stellar in comparison.  

Storm coming in for Ouray area and Denver tonight into tomorrow.  We had planned to spend all day in Telluride and have an early dinner.  Instead the girls in my car all decided we should drive back tonight in good weather.  No pictures since it wasn’t good  

 

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40 minutes ago, Barb said:

Telluride was terrible today. Got there about 8:15 and got our lift tickets and hung out. Got in line and we got 4th chair  nobody in line hardly.  The first run we took started off as a nice groomer, then halfway down there were 2 huge brown patches of dirt in the sides with a ribbon of death in between that was super scraped off and boiler plate.  

Next we went to another lift hoping to have better luck.  That run we dodged rocks and tiny pine trees sticking out of the snow 8 or so inches high.  I couldn’t believe this stuff wasn’t roped off.  We asked a local and she told us to go to lift 6.  That one had the best runs and snow but I guess everyone knew that because it quickly filled up.  I think everyone skiing that morning was on the same lift.  We bailed at 11 because it just was not fun.  Out of the 4 places I have skied this season Telluride had the worst coverage.  Eldora is stellar in comparison.  

Storm coming in for Ouray area and Denver tonight into tomorrow.  We had planned to spend all day in Telluride and have an early dinner.  Instead the girls in my car all decided we should drive back tonight in good weather.  No pictures since it wasn’t good  

 

Sounds spicy. Way to get after it.  Sounds pretty low tide at T ride 

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