Ouray Ice Festival, Ouray, CO

Lafayette, CO - Has everyone finished their taxes? Do you have time to sit down and casually flip through a ton of photos? Great, because I just posted a ton of them!

This set comes from the 15th Annual Ouray Ice Climbing Festival held the first weekend in January in the south eastern corner of Colorado. This event is one of the largest ice climbing festivals in the world and is a major fundraiser for the Ouray Ice Climbing Park. Not only that, but it's a hell of a lot of fun.

This was my third year coming to the event. And although I hardly climb during the course of the weekend, I do love taking photos, hanging out with friends, watching the competitions, hot springing, eating cheap lasagna, and drinking lots of Fat Tire beer.

As usual the climbing competition was incredible.  Only two climbers made it to the top within the 20 minute cut off time.  The first guy, Sam Elias, made it with only 2 seconds to spare.  However, it was Colorado-based Josh Wharton, who took the number one position again this year by  topping out with the speedy time of 14:42.  Here is a link to the results:  http://ourayicefestival.com/competition/competition-results.  And here is a link to a video of the winning climb:  http://tinyurl.com/y2k7jge.

Sam Elias starts up the Competition Route 

Ice Climbing Competition

A few more photos

                

 

As far as the photos go, my main challenge each year is getting a different perspective. There are only a few view points where you can take photos from and it is sometime difficult to do something original. I think I did alright this year. You be the judge.

Here is the link to the slideshow (72 photo in there this time):

Ouray Ice Festival, Ouray, CO