Hurley Gully

David new of a great ice climb tucked away in the hills above Colorado Springs.  Problem was he had not climbed there since 78′!  We headed up Old Stage road trying to locate the pull off for the approach.  There was a truck along the road, but David said that the location did not look correct.  We drove further up the road until we reached a spot that looked plausible.

Bushwhack from Hell

Ice climbing Colorado Springs

We hiked in and began heading downhill.  We hike until we reach the bottom of the canyon, we found nothing!  We walked up, up, up and uphill some more.  I went from cold to boiling hot and had to shed more cloths.  We found the car easily and decide the truck has to be the proper location.  We followed faint tracks as most of the snow had melted.  This cliffed out and did not appear to have any ice.  We contoured back and forth looking for likely terrain that would hold ice.  Finally pay dirt, we saw a well worn trail and the bottom of a ravine.  We worked down to it and David correctly assumed that this was the way out not the way in.  We scrambled up and over a ridgeline getting into tricky 4^th class climbing and located the descent trail.  The trail led to the base of a very fat climb that looked to be about a WI 4-.   There was a party above topping out and we decide to get ready and start climbing.  We were quickly greeted with a falling ice axe!  “Uh David, I am going to veto the decision to get started, let’s stay undercover.”  David replied, “You want a free axe.”   Soon a climber appeared over the lip getting lowered.  “Sorry about the axe”.  (Leashless).

David Topping out

David said the second pitch was WI4 and over 100 feet long, so I opted for the first pitch as we only had 6 draws and 8 screws.  I place three screws on this pitch which I thought was WI4ish.  I was wondering what the second pitch was like if this was only a three.   Well I found out when I topped out.  I built an anchor on a tree off to the side of a long, fat WI 3 pitch, never too steep, but long.   David looked at me and said, “I shouldn’t need more than 6 screws on this, yeh just six.”  David led out and gained altitude on the approach ramp and place one screw about 25 feet up.  Soon he had place three screws.  Must be tricky there I thought.  Now he place six screws and all 6 draws and was just past the 2/3 mark.  Two more screws went in the ice and David skillfully scavenged biners and clipped in the rope.  When he topped out he yelled down, “You know why I placed 8 screws on that?  I didn’t have 10!”

David on lead WI3

I followed up and had a great time climbing on the pitch.  I led a short mixed exist section and we coiled ropes and headed for town.