Ice Climber in Ouray saved moments before plundging to his death.

[goodiepocket]

holy shit.

 

[Lansfield]

That was nerve racking.

 

[skithebert]

ice climbing seems like the worst sport ever. conditions way too variable and dangerous. you have to do it way early in the morning when its fucking freezing and likely need to stay in the shade. no thanks.

 

[iFlip]

Absolutely untrue. Ice is not a constant medium. It takes many, many different forms and has many "moods." One becomes adept at reading the ice. It is not necessary to climb only in the morning or only in the shade. There are very few absolutes. Ice climbing is my sport of choice and I prefer it to skiing. It is an amazing feeling, and requires such discipline and skill to lead Grade V ice safely. Besides, it looks super cool.

 

[Willgum]

When i read the title, i thought op meant that he was saved, and then like a minute later he fell and died. I feel better now

 

[cool_name]

i don't think he would of died im pretty sure he is just lead climbing

 

[theBearJew]

Yea, I thought I was about to watch someone die.

 

[iFlip]

Yes, he is clearly leading, but ice protection has very little in common with rock protection when leading. In that tremendously rotten ice, with the sun beating down on it, his screws will have all rotted out, making them useless. He exercised very bad judgement when choosing to climb this route. There is an excellent chance that if he had fallen he would have died or been badly injured. On the climb he looks to have extremely poor form (axe swings were not at all consistant), poor footwork, and doesn't even make an attempt at drytooling. It is possible that this is because he was so pumped from his terrible situation. He is also using Petzl Aztars, modded for leashless use, but has leashes attached to them. In my personal opinion I believe he had very little clue what he was doing, and subsequently got himself into a terrible situation. He was lucky that a calm, cool, and collected couple were able to help him.

 

[Spinoza]

He must have used Up B

 

[Jahburn]

Jesus those guys are dumb. They are climbing on a thin layer of ice on top of smooth rock that has water running under it, thats a recipe for some shit to happen. Ice climbing is dangerous if you don't know what the fuck you are doing, on top of that most places where people ice climb are avi chutes which compounds the risks.

 

[Backyard.Skier]

best shit ever!

 

[HamFaceGirl]

Hahahaha oh how I have missed that game, ice climbers FTW

 

[yourthemannowdog]

Were they Californians that just moved out to Ouray/Durango?

That's my only question