Colorado Beginner Ice Course

If you’ve ever dreamed of climb­ing water ice, Ouray, Col­orado is the place to go for instruc­tion. With a world-renowned Ice Park, and incred­i­ble access to back­coun­try ice in the sur­round­ing San Juan Moun­tains, Ouray offers a unique envi­ron­ment that enables an aspir­ing ice climber to progress rapid­ly — the ide­al loca­tion for a course. This is the place to start if you have goals of climb­ing alpine clas­sics like the North Ridge of Mount Bak­er, the incred­i­ble Ama Dablam, the jour­ney in the Khum­bu ice­fall, or just want to progress onto more dif­fi­cult water­fall ice climbs.

Our guides have decades of expe­ri­ence instruct­ing and guid­ing climbers of all abil­i­ty lev­els. We have devel­oped a com­pre­hen­sive cur­ricu­lum that cov­ers every­thing you need to become a con­fi­dent and com­pe­tent ice climber. Our mul­ti-day cours­es cov­er an array of skills such as the fun­da­men­tals of move­ment, route find­ing, tech­ni­cal skills like anchor-build­ing, belays, tran­si­tions, and res­cue tech­niques. And then you’re good to go on some of the area clas­sics.