February 14 thru 18, 2019
For quite a few of the years I’ve been in Utah I’ve traveled to Ouray for President’s Day. The holiday is one I never got off prior to moving to Utah, but is considerably better as a winter holiday than Easter, given it is earlier and subject to much less variability in when it falls. This year Carly and I rented a hotel room right in downtown Ouray with its own hot springs. This was quite a good idea and I would like to try to come back to this place again as the accommodations were pleasant, price reasonable, OK continental breakfast, and two on premises hot springs, one being adults only and open 24 hours.
This winter has been spectacular in Utah, currently sitting at around 144% of median. Colorado is also doing quite well. This made for some great conditions in Ouray. Plenty of snow around to make it look like winter and small amounts of precip while we were there so it wasn’t too difficult to get around. The drive down did have a bit of a long stretch with snow, which was less than ideal and added at least an hour to the drive.
Climbing was good overall. I was able to get back on and complete a climb that I’d backed off of in 2017. Unfortunately the last pitch had a large crack at mid height which I down climbed off of.
Carly was able to lead some pitches as well. A snow slog on Camp Bird Rd as well as P2 and P3 of Horsetail Falls. With the weather and how good the ice near Ouray was, we never got over to Silverton/Eureka. Perhaps another time.
