Back in High Camp Elias called to report that he and his two clients successfully summited Alpamayo and were back at high camp, preparing for the rest of their descent back towards basecamp. Elias will write up a full accounting of the summit day in the days to come. Congratulations everyone!
Established at Alpamayo High Camp Elias just called in with an update for their Alpamayo team. After 3 days hunkered down at Moraine Camp due to weather and plenty of fresh snow, the team finally made their climb to high camp and are now established and ready to push for the summit tomorrow. The weather…
Progress Towards High Camp [image_frame style=”framed_shadow” align=”right” alt=”Alpamayo Expedition” title=”French Direct Route” height=”320″ width=”263″]https://dev.mtnguide.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/alpamayo-1.jpg[/image_frame] Elias and his team are making good progress on Alpamayo. On the 4th of July they checked in from basecamp, and were planning to do a carry to moraine camp the following day. Everyone was doing well and in good spirits.…
Alpamayo Expedition #1 Begins [image_frame style=”framed_shadow” align=”right” alt=”SJMG Guide Elias and Team” title=”Alpamayo Expedition” height=”263″ width=”320″]https://dev.mtnguide.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/elias_peru.jpg[/image_frame] The team is finaly in the capital of Peruvian Andinismo! After a late arrival into Lima due to a flight cancellation out of Houston, we made it to Lima just on time to grab some rest and be headed…
As you can imagine at San Juan Mountain Guides we can never get enough steep frozen water. So as we watch the ice here in the San Juans melt and the trees begin to bud, we book our plane tickets to the Alaska range where winter is far from over. Some call it an addiction…
Lisa, Dale and I headed out to Eureaka yesterday and climbed the uber classic Whorehouse Hoses. Lisa lead the first half of pitch one. (To be fair pitch one is a massive pitch at about 215′ long.) Dale led the second pitch and we finished on the left hand option third pitch. It was a…
Check out this video that was recently posted about the Ice Park on Mountain Project. Now that the season is winding down the video brings a nostalgic tear to my eye!
Every year Denver University’s Alpine Club takes a trip down to southwest Colorado to ice climb in Ouray and ski in Telluride. This year the weather ended up working out great for them. The skiers got some fresh powder and the ice climbers got to climb super fat ice in warm temps. As always it…
Mike just came out for a few days of ice climbing in Ouray. We started out in the Ouray Ice Park and then headed out to the backcountry for the next two days. Our first backcountry route was Dexter Creek Slabs just north of Ouray. Right now we have a winning combination; Dexter is in…
I recently had the opportunity to climb with three great guys – Kevin, Brant, and David – all of whom were long time friends prior to the trip, and had previously had some mountaineering experience on Mt. Rainier and Denali (Mt. McKinley). Their mountaineering experience led them to become curious about gaining more technical climbing…
Scott and Mark came out to Ouray for and intro to winter mountaineering. A day of learning to ice climb in the Ouray Ice Park. A day to snowshoe into camp, and set up camp. A day to learn skills necessary for climbing and traveling in the winter backcountry. And finally a day to summit…
For many people the Ouray Ice Park and front country ice climbing is the extent of their ice climbing horizons. However, for the first time this year among the many terrific seminars offered at the Ouray Ice Festival, participants had the chance to hone their skills on backcountry ice in a seminar run by athlete and…
It is like the town is holding its breath tonight. We are anticipating tons of ice climbers from all over the country to come revel in their shared affection for vertical frozen water, a wicked forearm pump, and beers with friends! We are really excited here at SJMG for this year Ouray Ice Festival. Our…
Get it while it is hot, or cold as the case may be! Cold enough for Kennedy’s Gully to come in. This is one of the coolest pitches in the San Juans. 50m of ice at a dream angle so you can see the air beneath your heels but you aren’t quite hanging off your…
Every few years the weather provides us with enough cold and overcast days in a row for a few finicky San Juan classics to form. At a New Years party, Mark “Coach” Miller and I were discussing the weather and ice conditions when we both realized Gravity’s Rainbow might be perfect the next day. After…
Happy Holidays from the crew at San Juan Mountain Guides. May your new year be full of hero-ice, blower-powder, and splitter hand cracks!
Ice Park opening day is always has a festive feel to it. There isn’t really any official fanfare but climbers from all over the state show up and bring with them a distinct enthusiasm. They are excited for another season with miles of farmed ice climbs dripping down from the western rim of the Uncompahgre…
I spent the last four days climbing with Rob from NY. Despite some difficulties from the weather and high avalanche danger in many places, we managed to cover a fair amount of ground and climb some terrific pitches. It seems that this is good year for our high flow backcountry waterfall climbs as opposed to…
Recently, I took great pleasure in climbing “Out of the Mainline,” a unique flow that forms in the Fall Creek drainage. This ice climb rarely gets traffic due to its grossly humongous basin lurking above. Most years, the Fall Creek climbs have far too much risk of avalanche danger to go anywhere near them. I…
San Juan Ice Conditions Report November 16, 2012 It’s that time of year – ice season in the San Juans has arrived. A few of us have been climbing in the high country, and getting a sense for the early season ice conditions in Ouray and Silverton. Generally speaking, it has been a dry fall…