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Throwback Thursday: Watch Ice Climb Collapse on Climber

A warm day on some Ouray ice leads to a close call

Ice climbing on thin ice in warm conditions is dangerous and this video is a reminder. There’s still plenty of spring ice up there and alpine climbers are keen.

For this Thursday, we throw it back a few years to when a climber was on lead on a thin slab of ice on Kennedy’s Gully in the Ouray Ice Park in Colorado.

As a climber makes his way up the gully, other climbers who are off camera and filming him from above realize that the ice is quickly melting beneath him. “We’ve got a rope if you want it,” a woman says. “We’re setting up a rappel, can you hang on?”

“Yeah, that would be great,” he says. There’s a clear sense of urgency from the climbers above as they work to lower a rope to the climber before the ice breaks. Be sure to check out the comments on YouTube from non-climbers, always worth it.

Ice Climb Collapse

 

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