Climbing Horsetail Falls near Ouray, CO

Horsetail Falls, WI4, 500ft, 4 pitches.

Day three of our ice climbing foray found us woofing down calories for breakfast at our favorite Backstreet Bistro locale. We gulped coffee and debated how to seize the day. We had tossed around the idea of doing a backcountry, multi-pitch (read: really lonnng) climb since we first organized the trip. Two days in the park had bought us quite the nice portion of confidence, with an extra helping of stoke.

"Man, we should just go for it. We'll feel it out. If it's not happening, it's not happening and we'll bail.

Now the only question was where? On the trip in we had scoped out Bear Creak Falls and Horsetail Falls from Highway 550. Cascade Falls, overlooking the small town of Ouray, seemed to be "somewhat" in.from afar, but it was sitting in the sun all day and we were already approaching ten in the morning. Not the best conditions to climb ice. Somehow, the discussion steered back to Horsetail Falls. We pulled up the beta on it and scoured it's offerings... 500+ vertical feet, typically split in to four pitches. The crux is the first pitch, rated at WI4-5, depending on how difficult a line you choose. Alright, alright, we could probably muster that, we convinced ourselves. We were both comfortable on the WI5 terrain and we had both led WI4 in the park the days prior. Jay graciously volunteered me to lead the first pitch -- can't pass that up, I guess. However, the selling point on Horsetail Falls: minimal minimal minimal approach. You can see it from the highway for crying out loud! Sold. We downed the rest of our breakfast, hopped into the car, and headed for the hills.

Prepping for the climb & workin' on game faces. Photo credit: Jay