Ice Climbing Lesson In Telluride Review

Ice climbing has long intrigued us. How can you not wonder what it’s like to climb a frozen waterfall?! While on vacation in Telluride, Colorado we found a local outfitter to give us a lesson. It was well worth it!

If you’ve ever considered going ice climbing, we can highly recommend getting a guide to take you out for a day to learn the ropes! Here’s what you can expect on a guided ice climbing tour.

DISCLAIMER: This post may contain links to affiliate websites. When you click on and/or make a purchase through an affiliate link placed on our website, we may receive a small commission or other form of compensation at no additional cost to you. Please read our disclaimer for more info.

Ice Climbing In Telluride

A woman as seen from above, is ice climbing on a frozen waterfall near Telluride. She is attached to a rope and swinging an ice axe toward the ice.

We personally chose ice climbing in Telluride over other possible locations in Colorado mostly because we were already heading there and were looking for fun things to do in the area.

But Telluride is actually known for its ice climbing and has some of the best ice climbing in the west. Well-known climbing areas include Ames Valley, Ames Falls, Bridal Veil Falls, and Cornet Falls.

You can’t go wrong if you’re in the area and choose to give ice climbing in Telluride a try. Among the many other things to do in Telluride, ice climbing will let you enjoy the beautiful outdoors of this region and challenge yourself at the same time!

The Basics

Who: If you have an interest, find an outfitter and give it a try! We liked it so much that this is something we’d recommend taking a class on to anyone who feels up to it.
What: Ice climbing comes in a few different flavors. There’s alpine ice climbing (difficulty is rated on the AI scale) and water ice climbing (difficulty is rated on the WI scale). Alpine ice is typically at higher elevation as on mountains or glaciers, caused by precipitation. Water ice comes and goes seasonally like frozen waterfalls. Additionally, there is mixed climbing which is a combination of climbing on ice and rock (difficulty is rated on the M scale).
Where: Just doing quick internet searches there were lots of areas mentioned as being great for ice climbing: no-brainers like the northeast, Colorado, Alaska, Yosemite National Park, and so on. The possibilities seem endless of locations where the altitude or weather conditions would make this possible.
When: As long as the weather conditions provide for enough solid ice to make it possible!
Why: Whether you’re adventurous like this all the time or if ice climbing challenges you to step outside your comfort zone, it is a fun and unique experience.
How: Find a class that you can take that will teach you the basics and let you give ice climbing a try in a safe and controlled environment after which you can continue with classes and/or buy gear as is appropriate for your interest level.

Ice Climbing Outfitter

Our ice climbing class was through the San Juan Outdoor Adventures. It was just our guide and the two of us for a private lesson. We got lucky and had the owner as our instructor. In addition to everything he knows and was able to show us, he was just a fun guy to hang out with.

Although guided climbs are typically more expensive, we felt it was a worthwhile investment to be able to not only have the experience, but get to pick the brain of our extremely knowledgeable guide with tons of questions. We did a guided rock climb in Custer State Park, South Dakota in the past and it’s another one of our favorite outdoor adventure memories as well.

Our guide was great, and even though we had a little mix up about the class day & time, we were given a few extra hours to make up for it – sweet!

Climbing Location

We were picked up directly from out hotel that morning. We didn’t have to drive far from the town of Telluride to get to a nice valley in the San Juan Mountains, in which there were several shaded waterfalls.

Ice Climbing Gear

We put on double plastic boots and ice climbing crampons at the car and hiked a little ways in to the bottom of some of the falls.

At the frozen falls we put on the rest of the gear, helmets and harnesses, and began our lesson. First we got a run down on all of the gear. Being rock climbers and me having climbed Mount Rainier, we already knew a bit, but the crampons and ice axes are made and shaped specifically for ice climbing and it was neat to learn the differences.

First our guide explained and demonstrated the techniques and then let us loose at the base of the ice to start getting a feel for swinging the axes ourselves.

1st Climbing Spot – Introduction to Ice Climbing

Our guide climbed to the top of the falls and set up anchors for a top rope so that we could give it a try. It is a bit awkward for the first few times, but at the same time we felt like it was more intuitive than we would have expected.

You’re totally secure on the rope so once you get going get a few swings and steps in you become much more comfortable with it. It was tiring and definitely challenging but oh so fun!

The movement basically goes like this:

swing one arm to hit ice axe into the ice above your head,
swing other arm to do the same with the other ice axe,
kick one leg to plant front of crampon into ice (aiming slightly up with your toe so as to get the spikes in horizontally and not angling downward),
standing up on leg,
then doing the same with the other leg,
and so on all the way up the falls.

It was pretty impressive how little of the axe or crampon spikes you actually had to get into the ice for it to have a solid hold.

We did two routes on that area a few times each before exiting at the top of the frozen falls.

2nd Climbing Spot – A Bigger Challenge

We then walked over to the top of another more challenging waterfall. This one was longer and more steep.

Instead of climbing up from the bottom, we were lowered as far as we wanted and then climbed back up from there. We both found that we enjoyed the steeper grade better.

Kevin went further down than I did, even placing an ice screw to redirect the rope near the bottom so if he did come of the ice the rope wouldn’t swing him into the rock off to the side.

We were thoroughly happy and exhausted by the end, just as it should be!

What To Do Next

If you like ice climbing, you should also visit Ouray, Colorado’s ice climbing capital. It has an ice climbing park and an annual ice climbing festival!