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
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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 ...