Recommended Equipment for Ice Climbing

There is a whole industry based around specialized clothingand equipment for ice climbing. If you are just learning, basic outdoor or ski clothing works just fine. As you progress you will undoubtably want to check out different gear. Outlined below is a recommended list of what you will need for ice climbing around Ouray. There are some specific models given if you are looking to buy some good items. Ouray Mountain Sports here in town offers an excellent array of everything climbing related, and our guides are happy to help you out to make decisions in the shop.

Personal Clothing

Shell Pants: "Soft-shell" fabrics work especially well in the winter. Rain pants, ski pants work fine. We recommend the Mammut Champ and Extreme Hybrid Pants.

Shell Jacket: "Soft-shell" fabrics work especially well in the winter. Goretex ski coats or rain jackets are great too. Mammut Laser Jacket or Ultimate Hoody are great.

Warm long underwear tops and bottoms: Synthetic or wool base layers. Mammut Kula or Patagonia Wool 2 or 3 are good choices

Expedition weight fleece layer or similar: Heavier 2nd layer for under shell. Mammut Cotopaxi or Yukon, Patagonia R2 or R3 are good.

Puffy Belay Jacket: This should be an extra warm big coat you can throw on over everything while belaying. Synthetic or down parkas are great. Mammut Stratus or Ambler and Patagonia DAS are popular.

Warm Wool or Synthetic Socks: Smartwool Mountaineering Extra Heavy are favorites

Warm ski hat and/or Balaclava: Mammut Tweak Beanie and OR Windpro are good examples.

2 pairs of warm gloves: ski gloves work pretty well for beginners. Hestra makes unbelievably good gloves, check em out at www.hestrausa.com. Hestra Heli Glove and Fall Line Gloves are great. Black Diamond Punisher are good too.

Personal Equipment *denotes items available from SJMG

Ice tools*: 2 Modern technical tools. Black Diamond Cobra, Viper, or Reactor are best.

Crampons*: Stiff ice crampons with vertical frontpoints are best. BD Cyborg.

Climbing Harness*: BD Blizzard is a great ice specific harness.

Climbing Helmet*: We stock the BD HalfDome, but the Mammut Tripod is a Guides favorite as well.

Ice Climbing Boots*: Well insulated, stiff, crampon-compatible boots. Can be leather or double plastic. La Sportiva Nepal Evo and Batura are excellent choices.

Medium sized Daypack*: 30-50 Liter Rucksack with tool attachments. We like the Black Diamond Predator, Sphynx, and Speed packs. The Mammut Ice pack is nice as well.

Other Personal Items

2 liters of water, tea, or sports drink. A thermos with hot liquid can be nice!
Snacks and lunch for the day
Sunglasses
Sunscreen
Camera

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