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“It gives you an opportunity to challenge yourself to do extreme-

ly hard physical activity and to keep your mind under control.”

A SLIPPERY SLOPE

As temperatures drop below 32 degrees Fahrenheit and flow-ing mountain waterfalls be-come solidified into cascades of ice, climbers gear up for

another season of ice climbing. While the cold winter months are seen by many as a time to curl up next to a fire with a steam-ing cup of cocoa, ice climbers would rather spend their time outside, clinging to the side of a giant ice cube.

Ice climbing isn’t a sport for the

typical outdoor enthusiast. It is a sport where climbers scale frozen waterfalls, face freezing temperatures and risk seri-ous injury or even death. Although some people would rather remain within the confines of their cozy homes, ice climb-ers are driven by their need for adventure and the possible dangers that the sport entails.

Ice climbing evolved from its predecessor, rock climbing. Mountaineers soon discovered that at high altitudes they

had to find their way across frozen terrain, leading to the development of special tools that ice climbers have come to rely on. Most ice climbers find their way into the sport through rock climbing; how-ever, there are distinct differ-ences.

“Rock doesn’t change except with geologic time,” said Wayne Trzyna, systems administrator for the Com-puter Science Department at Colorado State University, and a former ice climber. “Ice conditions can severely change from one season to the next.” Not only do ice climb-

ers have to pay attention to these season-al changes, but ice can also be deceiving, hardening over pockets of snow and leaving weakened patches in a wall. Ice climbers have to carefully analyze their surroundings before ascending a route.

For climbers like Trzyna, the risks involved are what make it so appealing. “It gives you an opportunity to challenge yourself to do extremely hard physical ac-tivity and to keep your mind under con-trol,” Trzyna said. “There is a lot more ad-venture in the wintertime because there are less people around, and the mountains are so beautiful and quiet.” Trzyna was an ice climber for over 30 years, conquering several climbs in the Canadian Rockies and Rocky Mountain National Park, when he decided that the

stakes were beginning to get too high. “ I got hit in

the eye by a falling chunk of ice,” Tryzna explained. “There was a period of about a month when I wasn’t sure whether or not I was going to be able to see out of that eye again.” Every sport can be pushed to the limit, but when dealing with sheer falls and unexpected accidents, ice climbing can sometimes go too far. “The thing is, you tend to take

CLIMBERS CONQUER THE ICE

dangers of the sport

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bigger risks as you get more confident in yourself,” Trzyna said. “Most of the really avid ice climbers seem to get injured or killed the longer they’ve been doing it.” In December of 2009, Guy Lacelle, one of the world’s most renovwned ice climbers, fell to his death while at an ice festival in Montana. Lacelle’s death was the result of a freak avalanche triggered by climbers above. Lacelle had been climb-ing since the late 1970s, and had traversed some of the most difficult routes known to ice climbing before the accident. While Lacelle’s death came as a shock to the whole climbing community, it was a reminder of the risks involved with the sport.

With so little room for error, ice climbing isn’t a sport that anyone can spon-taneously decide to get into. With so many risks involved there’s no such thing as be-ginner’s luck, but you have to start some-where. “It’s not a sport where you can just buy axes and go climbing,” Adam Pa-

pilion, a senior natural resources major, said. “You should definitely go with somebody that knows what they are doing.” Papilion has been climbing for three years and works for the adventure program at CSU. Developed for interested adven-turers, the Student Recreation Center offers a beginning ice climbing and mountaineering course, instructed

by trained climbers like Papilion. Offered in the fall, the course takes beginning climbers to Brown’s Peak in Wyoming where they are suited up with crampons and ice axes and given a crash course on how to conquer the ice. While it is a beginner’s course, it isn’t for everyone. “You have to be able to deal with

survival situations when you’re out there,” Papilion said. “We go out and sleep in the snow, and it gets pretty cold.” The first day of the course is meant for training, but by the second day par-ticipants are already climbing their first routes. By the end of the two-day trip some participants instantly become hooked to the extreme sport. Every winter ice climbers choose to venture out into the mountains to fill their need for thrill, and a freedom like noth-ing else. To them, the freezing cold and risk of se-vere injury are only a part of

their sport, and not nearly enough of a reason to keep them away.

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