Colorado Uncharted

Some people's idea of fun is lying on a beach somewhere.

For me, it's scaling this 150-foot ice wall.

Today, were in Ouray, on Colorado Uncharted.

[theme music plays] [gentle music] You're going to have to bundle up at 7,792 feet above sea level.

And that's when we're on the valley floor.

You look around and words aren't to describe the 360 views here.

This place really does something to you.

It gets inside of you and brings something out.

You want to get out and explore, and maybe climb something.

Ouray is known around the world for its ice climbing.

And today, my goal is to test my abilities on the ice wall, with one of the world's best climbers.

It's important to acknowledge that the land we're walking on is originally indigenous territory.

For centuries, the Utes called this place home, and the city is named after Chief Ouray, who, by the way, is in the Colorado Hall of Fame.

And his image is etched in stained glass at the Colorado State Capitol.

Like a lot of Colorado mountain towns, this place was put on the map by the gold rush.

Prospectors found a couple veins just south of here, and in the blink of an eye, the base of the Uncompaghre Valley was filled with dreamers, with dollar signs in their eyes, followed by suppliers, proprietors, gamblers and prostitutes.

150 years later, with a population of just under a thousand, Ouray is fondly known as the Switzerland of America, the ideal location for anyone who loves the outdoors.

Now let's get a little breakfast.

I'm going to need some help in training, getting on the ice wall.

And no better person to show me the ropes than ice climbing legend Anna Pfaff.

It seems like such a tight knit, unique community.

What, in your mind sets it apart?

I think it is a really tight knit community and it's that we all share a passion for the outdoors.

But we also welcome visitors and people who are new to the outdoors.

And a lot of us are guides or climbers or work in the outdoor industry, and we love to share that passion with other people.

Yeah, one thing I have noticed a you know, going around the town is just it's so accessible at all levels.

Yeah, absolutely.

Like even hiking.

If you're going hiking for your first time, there's amazing trails here.

100 mile race, you can do that here as well.

So it's really variable.

And I think it's a welcoming community, which is awesome.

Wow.

Looks amazing.

Thank you so much.

Yeah, that does look really good.

And I'd love to hear a little bit about how you got into ice climbing.

How did that start?

Tell me a little bit about that story.

So I started out as a rock climber and I really only pursued like warm, sunny rock climbing.

And then I went climbing in the mountains.

And in the mountains, I realized that I had a whole skill set that I didn't understand or know.

And someone told me about this wonderful little place called Ouray, and how easy it was to come here to learn how to ice climb.

Because of how the park is set up and you have the ability to hire a guide or top rope, and it's just an easy place to learn something.

So did you find a local guide to teach you?

What was that like?

Yeah, I found that the locals here were really friendly and helpful and I just kind of surrounded myself with people that knew and wanted to share with me their skill set.

And now I tried to do the same.

If someone new comes into the community, I try to help them by finding a guide that they pair with, or I'll take them out myself to come with them.

I feel like a similar story.

I'm now coming in and you'll be hopefully teaching me.

Yeah, later on.

I love ice climbing, you know, it's like a really interesting idea or concept, because you're climbing frozen water, and sometimes I'm up there and I'm, you know, hanging off my ice tool and I'm just like, wow, this is crazy.

I can't believe that.

I'm actually, like, climbing frozen water.

Like, who even came up with this right?

It is a pretty wild thing to see being on these massive ice spires.

What does the ice park and ice climbing mean to this community?

Yeah, the ice pack is extremely important to the community, especially in the winter, because restaurants, hotels, Airbnb, bed and breakfasts.

So the ice park is invaluable to us here in Ouray and the community.

Yeah.

Obviously you've been on a ton of adventures all over the world.

Mountaineering, ice climbing, etc.

Do you have a favorite adventure that you've been on?

So many people ask me this question and it's just really hard to answer because I love each place for a different reason and it can be where I'm at in my myself, in my experience with that place.

A lot of the culture, I really appreciate when I travel.

Yeah.

The different mountains, the different styles of climbing and, you know, the place that I appreciate the most is actually here at home in Ouray.

It's just so awesome.

There's so much adventure to be had in local areas that sometimes gets overlooked by these grandiose trips to the Himalaya or to the Karakoram.

And those trips are awesome too.

But right here, it's kind of where it's at.

[music] Ouray is a cool little town and it's an amazing place to hang out.

All the locals are just so sweet and nice to you and generous and feel like I've made a lot of friends here pretty quickly.

It's just been a place of refuge.

So, I love coming here, every year.

Okay, so we're getting ready to ice climbing.

There's a few important things that we need, though.

The first one is the gear.

My buddy Logan in here will get you all set up.

Okay, perfect.

Cool.

And where are you going?

I got to go up to the ice park because I have to teach a course Okay.

All right.

I'll see you later.

Thanks Anna.

Bye.

Howdy, I'm looking for Logan.

Hey, I'm Logan.

All right.

Good to meet you.

Yeah, you as well.

Anna sent me down here to get the most stylish, safest gear to tackle the wall.

Awesome.

We'll get you set up, all right?

Over here.

All right, Connor.

All right, let's get you set up.

All right, so we've got some boots, we've got a harness, crampons, a helmet, a little helmet liner in there, to keep your head nice and warm.

And of course, last but not least, the ice tools.

Okay, so boots first?

Boots first.

Okay, perfect.

Make sure those are going to fit nice for you, and they're going a little bit tight.

Yeah.

And you can kind of find the sweet spot about how how tight you want them.

Really, like the name of the game with ice boots is circulation.

All right, so next up, we're going to get our harness on.

Okay.

So this is pretty straight forward, and then our crampons.

Okay.

So, if you want to go ahead and sit down, I like to kick out my left foot.

Okay.

Over my knee.

We're going to start with the front, and then we're going to go ahead and lock that in.

It's going to be very similar to like a ski boot.

Right?

You want to be able to lock that in nice and tight.

Yeah.

Okay.

There we go.

That's the spot.

Yeah.

Perfect.

Now, when you're getting out there and you're walking around, you kind of want to walk like a cowboy.

It's very easy to catch yourself So you want to step wide there.

Okay.

And of course, you're going to have these bad boys.

Thank you, sir.

Yeah.

So you can see here we have actually two positions that we can grab the tool.

We have what's called the second position and the first position right here.

Generally, when we're ice climbing, we're going to be using the first position because it has this nice kind of wide pommel here that allows your fingers to sit nicely inside of that.

So it's really like, it's like throwing a dart right?

that tool, and the tool is going to do a lot of the work for you.

[conversation fades] [music] I think I might have to work my way up to scaling that ice wall, but luckily there's plenty to do in this little town.

Visitors of Ouray come here to get away.

It's a six hour drive from Denver over mostly two lane roads.

There are no commercial airports.

One road in from the north via Ridgway and to the south, the million dollar highway.

Not for the faint of heart, even on the best days.

This might be the most anxiety-inducing road in America.

But, man, is it fun to drive.

Here, you still feel the rugged edge of Colorado.

Most of the streets are still unpaved.

But with that ruggedness comes the genuine nature of Coloradans.

Most of the businesses here in Ouray are still locally owned.

And as you step in, you'll be greeted with a smile that makes you feel right at home.

Thank you very much.

Main Street is lined with great restaurants, coffee houses and unique gift shops.

There's even a shop that sells just about every variety of hot sauce imaginable.

Now, that's guaranteed to melt even the coldest of ice climbers.

You get the feeling the people who live here also like to avoid crowds.

But, they're happy to roll out the red carpet for anyone looking for a good meal or a tasty Colorado craft beer.

Its delicious.

And I hear it actually increases your IQ.

15 times 2 is 30.

[laughter] Yup, 30.

There's even a free ski hill right in the center of town, with an old-fashioned tow rope.

You really don't see too many of those anymore.

Ouray is one of the ice climbing capitals of the world, as witnessed by the Ouray Ice Festival, the largest ice climbing festival on the continent.

Yeah, I love it.

I'm having the time of my life.

We're in the middle of a snow globe right now.

Theres a lot of people here who are incredibly skilled at outdoor things.

[cheers] Youre never going to be the strongest, best and fastest, which is amazing.

It's a great opportunity to meet some of the legends.

I'm addicted.

I have the bug.

I have the climbing bug.

Absolutely, 100% But in the summer, this is also a great place to climb with the Via Ferrata or Iron Path, a great accessible way to experience this beautiful canyon.

Ouray is a natural wonder with so many different ways to enjoy this incredible beauty we're surrounded by.

From hiking to biking to climbing to fishing to hunting, to jeeping.

Currently, I'm on the Perimeter Trail, which rings the town of Ouray.

And as I look around at all these incredible rock formations, I'm curious what created all of this.

To help us answer that question, we've brought out local geologist extraordinaire, Steve Crumella.

Steve, how are you?

Great!

Thanks so much for being here to help us learn a little bit.

This rock we're looking at here is called the Uncompaghre Quartzite, and its 1.7 billion, billion with a B, years old.

The oldest rock in Colorado.

Wow.

So these rocks were originally horizontal, were tilted up to vertical in a major mountain-building episode.

Interesting.

Tell me a little bit more about the major mountain-building episode.

Mountains are often built where you have collisions of tectonic plates.

Youve probably heard of plate tectonics?

Yeah, I remember this from fourth grade.

So, a good example is the Himalayas, where India is colliding with Asia.

Okay?

And a long time ago, a similar collision took place, and uplifted these mountains.

We have so many different hot springs in this area.

It's known for those.

Why is there so much geothermal activity?

Igneous activity, where molten rock ascends up through the earth, that's the heat source that provides heat that heats water, but then ascends along faults.

And those faults are the conduits for that hot water to come out in hot springs that are right down there below us.

But let me just stop you real quick.

So we're on the fault right now?

The fault is right there, right below us.

Yes, right below us.

And that fault has about 500 feet of displacement on it.

We, our side of the fault, came up, and the other side of the fault went down.

And that is the conduit for the hot water to come up.

And it's captured here.

And then piped down to the Ouray Hot Springs.

Most of the water in the Hot Springs pool comes from this fault here.

And how high up are we right now?

We're about 150 feet above the stream.

Wow.

Why is this such a good spot for ice climbing?

Well, there's three main things that have allowed the ice park to be what it is, and one of them is the uplift of the Rockies.

You need to then erode these mountains.

And you can do that with rivers and with glaciers.

And glaciers are erosion on steroids.

This solid body of ice moving down and creating these big valleys that we see, theyre glacial valleys.

Yeah, like the one we're in right now.

Yeah.

Okay.

The rock itself, this is some of the hardest rock known, and it forms the sheer cliffs that make for good ice climbling.

Well, thanks so much, Steve.

I feel like I really learned a lot.

Thanks for taking the time and enjoy the rest of your hike.

Well, thanks a lot.

Good talking with you.

Personally, I'm a sucker for small towns, small, cute towns.

It is so cute.

What a cute little town.

We are living the dream here.

We love it here so much.

It's really beautiful.

I love the mountains.

I love the community here.

We have to be aware of the falling ice.

And what's like the kind of prime ice climbing season here in Ouray?

It's changing because of global warming.

Yeah.

Unfortunately.

January through early March is the season.

So if it's a cold December, the ice pack will open earlier.

This season, it opened a bit later.

It was still 50 degrees at Christmastime.

No, the whole thing is opened up to the public, and it's supported through grants, sponsorship and then members.

So people who want to become a member of the ice park can purchase a membership, and you don't have to have a membership to climb in the park.

But that money does go towards supporting the park, and paying the ice farmers and paying ice park rangers.

But it is free and open to the public, and they do also accept donations.

So it's nice if people come for the day and you know, you can donate a few dollars to the park, because it obviously does take money to run something like this, and it is funded solely off of grants and sponsor donations.

So, I mean, people come from all over the world to climb exclusively here in the Ouray Ice Park, which is really cool.

And our little town of Ouray, that it's a world- renowned gorge.

And it actually really is a world-renowned gorge.

Yeah, it's a truly special place with a lot of history.

They also run a lot of adaptive ice climbing here, right?

They do!

Yeah.

There's a lot of adaptive events here.

There's the All In Ice Festival.

There's a Paradox Sports event that takes place here.

So, it's really, you know, ice climbing is a really inclusive activity for a lot of different people.

I mean, how many climbs are there in this park?

Well, there's room for hundreds.

Yeah, right.

Yeah, for sure.

And just the ability to drop a rope in and climb multiple pitches and it's a place where you can experience it, you know, just as a novelty or you can experience it as a way of training as an athlete as well.

You ready to go climb now?

All right, let's do it.

Logan has outfitted me with the best gear.

I've got Anna, who's probably the best ice climbing guide on the planet.

I think I'm ready.

All right, so this is it.

Yeah, this is it.

Here we are.

Harness first?

Yeah, harness and then crampons.

Okay.

Let me know if you need any help with anything.

I got it here.

[music] And then swing.

After you swing out of it, keep your feet up, and then your hips.

I've been lucky to have Colorado as my backyard.

I've been able to experience the outdoors in so many different ways.

But climbing a wall of frozen water, it's truly unique.

There's a sense of unexpected wonder and awe that washes over you.

All right.

Nice job.

Thank you.

That was awesome.

Good climbing there.

Yeah.

Super cool.

Well, now what?

Well, what goes up must come down.

[water splash] Man, that feels so good after a long day on that cold ice wall.

Yeah, you did really good today for your first time.

It is really cold out there.

It was a little chilly.

Yeah, chilly.

Its nice that you can have this, the ice wall and the hot springs in one place.

Ouray Hot Springs is one of many springs up and down this valley.

Even though bathing suit styles have changed over the years, the temperatures of these five pools has not.

Open all year round, these springs range in temperatures from a comfortable 72 to a steamy 106.

Basically, it can be below zero out here, but you're still nice and warm, until you have to get out.

Whats your next big climb?

Well, my next big climbing thing is to head up to Canada in February.

Cool, where are you going?

Going to climb up in the Canadian Rockies.

Is that an area youve climbed in?

Yeah, it is.

Yeah.

I really love it.

And you know, this has been such a great day.

I'm not quite ready to call it quite yet.

Do you want to go over to the Western and have a drink?

Yeah.

Let's do it.

All right.

Sounds great.

[jazz music plays] Welcome to the Western!

The Western Hotel has been a landmark.

When it was built in 1891, it was meant to be a step-up hotel for the surrounding brothels that populated the town.

A hotel for the decent folk.

Like the rest of the town, it's had its ups and downs since then, and was in a state of disrepair, until it was recently renovated.

Today, it's a destination, A boutique hotel with luxury rooms, private suites, and a curious painting in the saloon known only as Juanita.

It's also a great hangout, if you want to hear some local music and take the edge off a long day climbing at the ice park.

Anna, thank you so much for hosting.

This has been such an incredible time in Ouray.

Steve and Logan, it's just such an amazing tight-knit community... so really, really appreciate it.

Cheers!

Gentlemen, take us home!

[jazz music plays] [upbeat music] I drive a million dollar highway I got billlion-dollar view.

I'm flat broke but its okay.

All that's missing here is you.

Im doing fine.

On Colorado time.