A climber makes her way up a steep wall of ice in the Ouray Ice Park during the 2018-19 climbing season. Despite predictions of warming temperatures in the region over the next 30 years, Ice Park supporters are excited about the attractionâs future, namely because of the launch of a $3 million campaign to build a new pipeline that would help ensure the availability of water necessary to operate the Ice Park. Photo courtesy Breanna Demont
News
Optimism reigns at ice park amid grim climate forecast
By Carolina Brown & Mike Wiggins
For the Ouray Ice Park, whose existence depends upon sufficient water and temperatures consistently cold enough to cultivate and sustain the blue-hued walls of frozen water that draw thousands of climbers every year, the climate forecast is grim.
A 2013 report produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change contains dozens of projections that agree the Intermountain West will warm between 2 and 6.5 degrees Fahrenheit by 2050 compared to the baseline ...
