Canadian Nathan Kutcher Wins Ouray 2018

Ontario climber Nathan Kutcher has won the 2018 Ouray Ice Festival Mixed Comp against some of the world’s best winter tool masters.

Kutcher bested Ryan Vachon in second and Angelika Rainer in third. This is the second time Kutcher has won the event. Alberta-based Will Gadd finished fifth and Sarah Hueniken in sixth.

A jubilant @realwillgadd taking the celebratory shot of Jaegermeister after sending the M10 comp route at the 2018 #ourayicefestival Nice job!

A post shared by icevince (@icevince) on Jan 20, 2018 at 4:36pm PST

His first was back in 2012 when he came out of nowhere to beat a strong field of climbers. When he was invited to climb in 2011, he started a serious training regimen at his home gym.

“One of my main pieces of training equipment is the death board,” Kutcher said in 2012. “I like it over the home wall because you go up and down instead of sideways. It is fairly cheap to build and works great for building power and training endurance, depending on how you use it. The main structure is 1- 2×12-16′ and 5- 2×4-16′.”

Read a story about Kutcher’s 2012 rise to fame here.

Full Ouray Finals Results
1. Nathan Kutcher
2. Ryan Vachon
3. Angelika Rainer
4. Sam Elias
5. Will Gadd
6. Sarah Hueniken
7. Tyler Kempney
8. Rudi Hauser
9. Wes Fowler
10. Liam Foster
11. Jedrezj Jablonsi
12. Marcus Garcia
13. Kennan Griscom
14. Grant Kleeves
15. Jesse Huey
16. Aaron Mulkey
17. Luke Negley
18. Chris Gibisch
19. Scott Bennett
20. Alex Novikov
21. Katie Bono
22. Beth Goralski
23. Dawn Glanc
24. Raf Andrownowski
25. Luke Lydiard
26. Hashimoto Tsubasa

Down to the wire again! Last year Ryan beat me by 10 seconds. This year I won by only 4 seconds! Two years ago I came to Ouray and was in the best shape of my life. That year the ice I was hooking broke and I came in almost last. In competition anything can happen. Things don't always go in your favor. With experience the luck to skill ratio improves but it's not always 100%. Winning is awesome, but at the end of the day I think that how well you do in a competition comes down to how well you feel you climbed. Last year I knew I climbed slow and could have done better and even if I had won I'm not sure if I would have been totally happy. This year I didn't feel like I was in the best shape but I climbed with commitment and pushed myself right to the line of falling off without crossing it. I could have topped out and been proud of that. It's a tough field. I thought for sure Ryan @nerd_in_nature was going to crush the route in less time than me, but luck was on my side. It was an awesome, pretty much off the couch effort by Sam @bookofsamuel and an amazingly smooth performance by Will @realwillgadd. I feel honoured to compete against these guys. Thank you to my wife @rebecca.lewis.climbing I wouldn't be doing all the cool stuff without her. @asolospa @rab_denver @truenorthclimbing #ourayicefest2018 #iceclimbing #mixedclimbing #drytooling #ourayicepark #downtothewire

A post shared by Nathan Kutcher (@nathankutcher) on Jan 20, 2018 at 5:18pm PST