Annual ice climbing trip to Ouray CO

This year Kelly got to climb a few mixed routes, that means climbing on ice and rock using the same ice tools and crampons. It is pretty fun since the metal tools and crampons don't stick to rock like they do to ice. As you can see this is a pretty steep line that Kelly have worked on previous years. This year he make it perfectly.
Kelly and I at the bottom of the canyon after I had just climbed a route. The bottom of this canyon is actually the frozen river, so you have to be careful where you step. There is open water in some places.
Here is Kelly on a M7 rated route. He had climbed about 50 feet of ice to get to this section of rock. Then he will top out on the ice at the top of the rock.

I forgot to mention that Ouray has a public swimming pool that is heated by geothermal water. A large section gets the hot water, and some cool to bring it down to about 105 degrees, but the hot is coming in at 150. So it is a giant hot tub. Then there are cooler sections for swimming laps and the like. After a cold day of working the ice about an hour in the "hot tub" felt pretty good.

We are already looking forward to next year.l