Learn the Winter Sport Ice Climbing in Canada, Colorado, California, Michigan, and New Hampshire

Ice climbing is a cool way to spend a chilly winter day. However, using crampons and axes to climb a frozen waterfall is not something you should do on your own. You don’t have ice climbing experience. Ice climbers love to teach newbies how to do it.

These North American ice climbing hot spots have experts who can get you geared up and on the ice. It’s up to you how far you want to go.

North Conway, New Hampshire

New Hampshire‘s Mount Washington Valley has long been a center for Northeast ice aficionados–that’s why a number of world-class climbers live and guide here. Set up in historic North Conway village, where you’ll have your choice of top-shelf guide services and easy access to venerable ice at places such as Cathedral Ledge and the not-as-scary-as-it-sounds Frankenstein Cliff. Mount Washington is waiting for you if you have some experience. The small peak offers climbing opportunities and weather that is similar to the great ranges of the world.

Held in February, the Mount Washington Valley Ice Fest is a great way to get your feet wet on the ice. Clinics include everything from Ice Climbing 101 to Alpine Style Climb to Women’s Ice Climbing.

Canmore, Alberta

The Canadian Rockies has some of North America’s best ice climbing routes. Surrounding all those stomach-turning, 3,000-foot vertical epics is a seemingly limitless selection of reliable ice that’s suitable for beginners and intermediates. You have a good chance of getting rockstar instruction with the many elite climbers who live in Canmore and the surrounding areas.

Among the many excellent choices for schooling on ice, Yamnuska Mountain Adventures has been a local standout for 40 years. A weekend-long Basic Ice course builds confidence in easy-to-access frozen waterfalls. Students can sign up for a “plus” day to practice their skills on a multi-pitch guided climb.

Ouray, Colorado

If the climbs at Ouray Ice Park seem too good to be true, it’s because humans give Mother Nature a hand in this slice of southwestern Colorado. They tap the mountain town’s runoff-driven excess water supply each winter to “farm” uncompahgre Gorge ice. The fruit of their labor is a legendary ice climbing area with over 200 named ice and mixed climbing routes, a total of some 17,000 feet of vertical ice that’s free for all. The park is a 10-minute walk from the scenic mountain village of Ouray, but it draws climbers from around the world and is home base for a long list of local guides who teach ice climbing all winter.

Better yet, for a crash course introduction into the wild world of ice climbing, check out the Ouray Ice Festival each January. You can choose from dozens upon dozens of climbing clinics. Then, you can try out gear and watch the best climbers compete. Finally, you can hang with your new climbing friends at the many after-dark events and parties.

Lee Vining Canyon, California

The American Alpine Institute (AAI) says Lee Vining Canyon and the June Lake area in the Eastern Sierra provide “some of the finest steep water ice climbing in North America.” Spend some time here with that venerable institution’s guides and you’ll soon see why.

In the 1970s, Yvon Chouinard and Doug Robinson began pioneering the tempting routes that line the canyon road into eastern Yosemite National Park‘s Tuolumne Meadows area. Today you can follow in their footsteps, or at least see those famed climbs en route to your own tamer adventures on one of the AAI’s guided ice climbing courses. The courses typically last two to five days. However, you can also customize your programs. If you get hooked on swinging an axe, you won’t have to leave the canyon to find some of the steepest–and most demanding–multi-pitch ice routes in California.

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Michigan

Michigan‘s Upper Peninsula may be short on big mountains, but you can certainly count on frigid winter weather. Combining the cold with the humidity and miles of porous, sandstone cliffs that line Lake Superior’s shores, you have an amazing climbing destination that may surprise mountain-dwellers. The trick is to find out the secret. The northern Michigan town of Munising has become an ice climbing destination thanks to the precipitous cliffs of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Its ice routes tower up to 200 feet above the churning, frigid waters below.

The area hosts its own winter extravaganza, the Michigan Ice Fest, a heady combination of climbing and camaraderie that draws some of the sport’s biggest names, such as Conrad Anker, who once presented here. If you are unable to make it to the festival, the Michigan Ice Fest guides offer beginner classes when the ice is good. Climbing ice is a great way to spend the long winter in the Upper Peninsula.

Brian Handwerk is a New Hampshire-based writer covering travel, adventure, and science.