Ouray – The diving board had bounced all comers until world champion Evgeny Kryvosheytsev spied a key piece to the puzzle: a small screw and washer.
The Ukrainian ice-climbing king already had scaled about 120 feet of upside down rock and ice at the 12th annual Ouray Ice Festival on Saturday. Five synthetic holds on an overhanging platform jutting from the snowy lip of the celebrated gorge blocked Kryvosheytsev’s path to victory.
“It was quite hard and really long,” said the 37-year-old and four-time world champion. “That last part was tricky. Just to grab the holds was very hard. I needed that washer.”
The frigid temps – pushed to certifiably bone chilling by tempestuous winds and blowing snow – were not enough to stop the hundreds of spectators from celebrating the Ukrainian’s masterful dance, which included a final, dazzling pull on a dime-sized washer anchoring the plywood feature to its steel supports.
“That guy is so strong. He’s unbelievable,” said David Roetzel, owner of Vail Rock & Ice Guides and a longtime climber whose 14th-place finish in qualifying rounds was not enough to make the final round of a dozen men and eight women.
This was Kryvosheytsev’s first trip to Ouray and after five days of scaling the walls of the frozen gorge, he’d found his nirvana.
“This is the capital of the world for ice climbers, for sure,” he said. “To have such a comfortable ice climbing area with mixed climbing so close to town, it is very unique.”
The ice festival is a boon for the town of Ouray, largely because its founders keep the competition challenging, which draws the biggest names in climbing, while making it lively for neophytes. A dramatic slack-line demonstration over the ice-walled canyon, ax-throwing competitions, sponsor booths offering free rental gear and more than 70 clinics attract climbers of all levels.
But the competition, even with relatively meager prize money, draws the best in the world. That’s no small feat, considering how rapidly the sport has evolved in the past five years, thanks to a mix of new, technologically advanced tools and aggressive athleticism that has married rock and ice into a single “mixed route” sport.
“It seems like people get better every year at this festival,” said Vince Anderson, a climbing legend from Ridgway who finished second in the qualifying round but peeled off the final route early. “People are hanging on forever. That new structure (the diving board) they put in this year added a whole new element. You could see the holds, it was a question of how to get to them.”
The route for each year’s competition is planned in the summer and continuously tweaked throughout the winter. The idea, said four-year route designer Mark Miller, is the route should repel all but the best. His first year of route-setting saw two people reach the top. The next year three climbers made it. Last year, it was two. And this year, only one climber finished.
“I set the route with the field in mind, so I have to guess what the best in the world can do. I am not in their league as a climber, so it’s just a guess,” Miller said. “I finally made the route I wanted to do. One-to-four topping out is good. Just one is perfect. I don’t know if I could set anything better than that.”
Staff writer Jason Blevins can be reached at 303-954-1374 or jblevins@denverpost.com.
