I recently did something unimaginable… I opened a drawer full of random stuff that I never use, got out my checkbook, and wrote a rent check. That’s right, a rent check. Things were getting a bit cold in the Ponty so I decided to do that whole living-in-a-real-house thing. But don’t you worry… Ponty will be my home again one day soon.
While the Ponty has been chillin outside my house, the winter has been ripe for adventures. I’ve seen some great powder days, fallen in love with ice climbing, and even managed to get on a fair amount of rock due to the whole 300 days of sunshine in Colorado thing.
Here’s some shots of ice climbing at the Ouray Ice Park. Back in the day there was a leak in the town’s water supply and people realized they could climb the ice pillar it created. Then they also realized that they could “farm” this ice and create a playground for some of the best single pitch ice in the world.
Thanks to Ethan Andrew Gehl for the photos. You can check out some of his awesome nature photography at ethanandrewphotography.com or on instagram at @ethanandrewphotography. Also, I realize that I look super narcissistic with every single photo being of me, but those are the only ones he sent me so BACK OFF!
It’s pretty easy to take off your crampons after an amazing day on the ice an head west a few hours to make it to the desert. Moab, Utah has about everything a serious adrenaline junkie could ask for. We decided to try our luck in some canyons. Basically canyoneering involves hiking and scrambling down canyons with a series of rappels interspersed in your adventure.
Granary Canyon is just outside Moab toward the small town of Potash. It is rated 3A III on the Canyon Rating System and is a pretty nice beginner canyon. It has five mostly free hanging rappels, some borderline technical scrambling, and caps off with a 200 ft rappel that spits you out next to an ancient Anasazi granary.
Another heaven on earth that’s just a stone’s throw from Durango is Indian Creek. Indian Creek has some of the very best crack climbing around with splitter crack after splitter crack on every wall you look at. Here’s some photos from a Creek trip before it got super cold:
Pont-X Adventures 