Ouray Ice Competition ... Rules ? Occam's Razor Failure.

So people are asking me about what happened at the Ouray Ice Climbing Competition, 2012. Well, I got disqualified. Conflicting information and rules led to me following some other competitors looking at the route with binoculars and camera. Here's the facts and the latest e-mail I got from the Competition Director:

Marc,

Congratulations on being accepted as a competitor in the 2012 Ouray Ice Festival mixed comp. We are excited to have you participate and hope your psyche level is high and that you have been training hard.

The competition is an invitational event and seeding will be determined by a jersey draw at the competitors meeting to be held on Friday the 6^th. I will notify you of the time and place of the meeting once we have all of the details worked out.

Vince Anderson is setting the route again this season and the route will be located near the lower bridge in the Ice Park by the vendors area. If you are in Ouray and see Vince or any Ice Park employees working on the route please do not watch. I do not mind if you look at the route from the viewing stand area, but anyone caught scoping the route from the gorge floor, on a nearby route or watching work being done on the route by the setters will be disqualified from competing.

I will be in touch in the coming weeks with more details on the comp for you and if you have any questions please feel to drop me an email.

Once again congrats and I am psyched to have you giving your all in Ouray.

Cheers,

Comp Director

In all fairness to the Ice Park, and to my own demise, it does say on the web site that there should be no binos or cameras on the web site. I failed to see this and relied on Bill's e-mail above, and the fact that other competitors were doing the same and I was somehow singled out. However, the rules here change every year and there needs to be some standardization. It was o.k. to use these things several years ago, the comp route was a red point last year (meaning all the competitors actually got to climb on the route before the competition), and this year it's all different.

The part that really bumbs me out is that another competitor felt so threatened by it that they had to make it a big deal rather than approaching me directly. As competitors, we are only able to gauge ourselves against other competitors to measure ourselves. What a pity that they felt so insecure about themselves to have it wind up this way. Furthermore, the fact that the officials decided to take action based on that person demanding action or else they would not compete, and action was taken to grease the squeaky wheel without all the facts presented, is even more disappointing.

When I asked who made the complaint, they told me to divulge the names of the others who were also engaged in the viewing with cameras and binoculars. I refused to give the names of the others who were also doing the same. I don't feel that it is in the spirit of the competition or fair to others who were in the same situation I was.

I'm not so sure that there's any advantage from the use of adjuncts to view the route. To view the route with binos or photos does nothing. Watching someone climb the route is altogether different since seeing someone climb will show where the holds likely are and how to do the moves. The use of adjuncts to view the route is more of a mental exercise since adjunctive viewing offers nothing over viewing with the naked eye aside from perhaps calming the nerves a bit. The Ouray competition is different than World Cups since the climb is on a wall and part of the difficulty is simply finding the correct hold. In World Cup, it's a no-brainer where to go, but the holds themselves are difficult to stay on.

The funny thing is that other athletes in the past have done the same and no action was taken. I recall an athlete actually getting on the route prior to an on-sight competition and nothing came of it. I get it that they are trying to have consistency and uphold the rules. I don't feel like my actions were subversive or in any way compromised the integrity of the competition. Why? There's no advantage of looking at the route since you can't even see the holds. In fact, photos of the route were posted on-line prior to start of the competition (not by me) anyway, the day before the competition.

I hope this doesn't ever happen to anyone else in the future and perhaps this will allow better insight for the powers the be as to how this can be avoided in the future. I set competition routes the Ice Comp and Jeff Lowe in 2000, with Michal Gilbert in 2001, and again helping Jason Nelson by setting the unforgettable diving board finish when Jeff Mercier beat Inez Papert by a single move. I've worked as a belayer on the suspended platform before I started competing. So I understand what goes into making a competition run in Ouray, the associated headaches, and the politics. I appreciate Vince Anderson's efforts as a route setter this year and can only be sad that I was not allowed to climb his route.

At any rate, I was not able to be heard, I didn't get to compete, and that's a wrap. Time to move on. What a waste. That's the way it goes with competition climbing. There's ups and downs and rolling with the punches is just part of the game. So this is my perspective and only my opinion. I respect the decision made, but don't agree with it.

I appreciate all those who can understand and support me through both the good times and the bad. I love mixed climbing. It's my favorite form of climbing and I enjoy competitions most of the time.

The good news is that I got to spend some time with friends and go climbing on some of the hardest routes in the USA. I got to help new ice climbers put on their crampons for the first time and help other competitors sharpen their picks. I was also able to refocus and set sights on loftier goals like getting back to the Hall of Justice where I still have projects, the UIAA Ice World Cup, and the Winter TEVA Games in Vail.