One Of North America's Best Winter Escapes Is An Exhilarating Colorado Climbing Destination

While some travelers flock south for warm weather to escape the winter, others know that the icy side of winter brings its own unique catalogue of activities that keep the heart warm. Colorado takes the crown as the best state for a luxurious winter vacation, full of glamorous ski resorts, imposing slopes, and underrated mountain towns with Europe vibes. A more niche (but all the more thrilling) winter activity in Colorado is ice climbing. Colorado's Ouray Ice Park is a one-of-a-kind spot to do it — it was, when it opened in 1994, the first dedicated ice climbing park in the world, according to the Colorado Tourism Office. Utilizing the city water supply to create chasmic, vertical walls, the park boasts over 200 ice climbing routes today.

One of the qualities that makes Ouray Ice Park interesting is the way it integrates human-made ice walls into a natural gorge. The park uses leftover spring water from the city water supply, then funnels it through a system of pipes and shower heads to cascade over the faces of the Uncompahgre Gorge. The water freezes as it showers down, creating ice flows to climb on, some as high as 150 feet.

The Ouray Ice Park gets great feedback from visitors, too. It holds 4.8 stars on Tripadvisor, with one reviewer writing, "Best place in the west to climb ice. Where else can you find this much easily accessed ice?" Despite its scale and all the work that goes into making the ice climbing routes, the Ouray Ice Park is free to explore to the public.

The Ouray Ice Park is right near downtown Ouray, an awe-inspiring mountain town sometimes known as America's Switzerland. The Montrose Regional Airport is about a 50-minute drive from the town, and the Grand Junction Regional Airport, about two hours away, is an alternative if flights to Montrose don't fit your schedule. Ouray itself is fairly compact — you could even walk from its Main Street to the ice park in under 30 minutes.

While the park itself is free, guides and equipment rentals aren't available directly through the park. Of several options for rentals and guides in town, Basecamp Ouray Mountain Guides gets some of the best reviews, with a solid five-star average rating from over 500 Google reviews. The service offers ice climbing rental kits (inclusive of tools and attire) as well as dedicated ice climbing guides, ranging from introductory courses to a three-day climbing mastery program. At the ice park itself, you can climb down into the gorge at various access points. The gorge is split into different climbing areas along about 1.7 miles. Note that ice climbing availability depends on the climate. As of this writing, the ice park hasn't opened for the ice climbing season, awaiting colder temperatures, but you can check the ice park website for updates.

If you don't want to tackle the challenge of ice climbing, the ice park has hiking trails along the gorge's ridge (where you can watch the ice climbers). The Ouray Ice Park Perimeter Loop covers about 2 miles, winding around the entirety of the park. The ice park also sits along the 5.6-mile Ouray Perimeter Trail, which encircles the entire town and connects to a waterfall — a good option if you want to extend a trek.