oWOF

Our Water Our Future: A Capital Campaign for Our Own Water Pipeline

As a nonprofit organization, our mission at the Ouray Ice Park is to create and operate a free, public ice climbing park — every season. Building an ice park every year comes at a cost though, as well as A LOT of water. 

Currently we use overflow from the City of Ouray storage tanks to farm the Ice Park every winter. However, we are capped at how much water we can use. By building our own water pipeline, we would have access to 5X more water than we have now, which means: more ice, more terrain, and less crowding by next season. The best part? This pipeline would have no environmental impact. 

Our Water Our Future has already raised $1.15 million from private individuals and foundations. Now we need the ice climbing community to step up and help us finish this campaign by raising the remaining $250,000 that we need to hit our $1.4 million dollar goal! 

Please, contribute what you can, share with your fellow climbers, and help us finish this campaign so we can have a new water source to use come November 2025. 

*Be sure to check if your company will match your donation to this campaign!

NEW FOR 2025: Anchor Tags!

For a $2,000 Donation:

donors will receive AN ANCHOR TAG WITH THEIR NAME/LOGO ON A DESIGNATED ANCHOR IN THE PARK

JAN 2025: SCHOOLROOm anchors available

To donate reserve an anchor tag, please contact our Executive Director Peter O’Neil at peteroneil@ourayicepark.com.

For Donations $500 Dollars and More

donors will receive name recognition on our new donor wall at dick’s chalet

Levels:

Belayer: $500 - $999

Lead Climber: $1,000 - $4,999

Guide: $5,000 - $9,999

Advocate: $10,000 - $24,999

Ambassador: $25,000 - $49,999

Legacy: $50,000 - $99,999

Summit: $100,000 +

Thank you to Jeff Skoloda of Skol Studios who built and installed this wall this past December. If you would like to discuss more significant donations, please contact our Executive Director Peter O’Neil at peteroneil@ourayicepark.com.

Campaign Updates: December 15, 2024

December 2024 – This winter, you might notice some large concrete structures beside the trail from Dick’s Chalet to the Powder House. These are the concrete casts for our new water source!

As part of the Our Water Our Future project, we’ve obtained permits from the Army Corps of Engineers to excavate a new wet well at the confluence of the Uncompahgre and Canyon Creek.

With the funds raised to date, we were able to build seven concrete casts, weighing in at 13,500’ each, that will be installed downstream of the ice park when water levels allow in 2025.

We are working to raise the remaining $250k needed to see this project through to installation and ultimately, to connect this new water source to the existing plumbing throughout the park.

We know that you, the climbing community, give a LOT to make the Ouray Ice Park run each and every season. Between membership, donations, and standard operations, it takes a village to make the ice park transform into a winter climbing wonderland each year. Our first priority at this time of year is always *MEMBERSHIP* as membership fees quite literally allow our park to operate and our staff to get paid each season.

Our water project is more of an ongoing cause — you might not know that the Ouray Ice Park is a 100% donation-based organization. Despite being a city park, we don’t have significant recurring funding to support operating costs each year. We rely on your membership and donations to make this place a reality. So, whether you have the means to support or water project or not, we just want to say that we appreciate each of our members, our climbers, and our community partners. We couldn’t do it without you!

Campaign Updates: November 31, 2024

November 2024 – Hey climbers! We’re working on getting the word out about Our Water Our Future — the ice park’s campaign to install its its own water source that will secure the future of ice farming in Ouray for decades to come.

In that vein, we wanted to share some highlights from the past year of work on the OWOF project: 

• Pipeline Completion: We’ve successfully finished installing the pipeline connecting the south end of the park to the northern water tank near Dick’s Chalet. This is a key benchmark because it ensures we have the necessary infrastructure to distribute water from Canyon Creek throughout the park once the new water system is operational.

• Dick’s Chalet Upgrades: Electricity has been restored to Dick’s Chalet! While working on the pipeline this fall we were able to mend the electrical connection and bring power back to Dick’s. While we were at it, we also restored electricity to Dick's Chalet (YAY warmth) and finished installing a new fiber line so that Ice Park staff and climbers can now access high-speed fiber Wi-Fi throughout the park. We couldn’t have done this without the generous support of our local business partner Clearnetworx – thank you all!

• Culvert Storage: Seven concrete culverts have been relocated to a storage area behind the Powder House. They will remain there during the winter season, awaiting deployment to Canyon Creek when we commence construction on the wet well! 

With these systems in place, we’re poised to resume construction and tackle the final steps of the project in Spring 2025. 

FUNDRAISING UPDATE: We’ve raised over $1 million, but to reach our final goal and secure our own water source for the Ice Park, we need your help to raise the remaining $250,000 by April 2025. Every donation brings us closer to securing the Ice Park for future generations. Please consider a one-time donation when you buy your 2024-2025 membership! Together, we can ensure the Ice Park’s legacy.

Campaign Updates: December 21st, 2023

On December 19th, 2023 Ouray Ice Park Executive Director Peter O’Neil, City Administrator Silas Clarke, Ouray Hydroelectric Power Plant owner Eric Jacobson, and Deputy City Clerk Bev Martensen signed an agreement permanently preserving public access in the Uncompahgre River Gorge. Click below to read the full article.

Campaign Updates: February 6th, 2023

Infrastructure

Last September, we received all of our 6-inch pipe for our new water pipeline. This pipeline will extend from the confluence of Canyon Creek and the Uncompahgre River, located off the Box Canyon Road near 3rd Avenue, all the way up to our valve vault at the Upper Bridge near Dick’s Chalet. In October, we began excavating the trench that will hold this pipeline, and we successfully buried 2,100 feet of pipe along the Box Canyon Road from Canyon Creek to the Powder House. We also buried new fiber optic cable for local internet provider Clearnetworx, which not only saved us over $50,000 dollars in construction costs, but will also allow us to connect to their internet and monitor our water flow remotely and more accurately than ever before.

In November, our Ice Farmers placed all the yelomine pipe and spray head plumbing infrastructure that will be a part of our new pipeline. Our farmers were able to utilize this added infrastructure this past season, and brought back some historic climbing areas that included the Shit House and Gazebo Walls. They also expanded all the infrastructure in the new Two-Eyed Dog area.

The vertical turbine pump that will be installed in Canyon Creek arrived last fall. This pump will be located about 20 yards upstream from the confluence of Canyon Creek and the Uncompahgre River and will draw water from Canyon Creek and deliver it to the Ice Park through our pipeline. A 10-foot deep wet well needs to be excavated next, into which the vertical turbine pump and motor will be installed. The excavation of this wet well will happen either early this spring (before runoff begins) or this fall (when Canyon Creek should be at it’s lowest flow).

Currently we are working with San Miguel Power to get a plan in place to run power to this new pumping station, which required us to order a transformer. The transformer allows San Miguel Power to connect the vertical turbine pump in Canyon Creek into their electric grid. Although San Miguel will not be hooking up their power to our pump until late summer, there are still supply chain problems with the production of electrical transformers and it has not arrived yet.

This April, we will complete the excavation of the trench and finish burying the rest of the pipeline. The remaining excavation will begin where we left off behind the Powder House, and extend all the way up to the valve vault at the Upper Bridge. Our new pipeline will be connected to the valves in this vault. This vault controls the distribution of the water to the north and the south ends of the Ice Park. However, with this new pipeline, a larger vault will have to be constructed.

Fundraising

So far we have raised $950,000 dollars through generous contributions from philanthropic individuals, foundations, and donations. This February, we are aiming to raise $25,000 dollars through individual donations so we can acquire a challenge grant from the Western Colorado Community Foundation of $25k by the end of the month. That leaves us with $400,000 more dollars to raise to get this new system online by next season.

So please, support us this year so we can finish our water pipeline and bring you more ice and more terrain than you have ever experienced before! Thank you all for your continued support of the Ouray Ice Park and we will see you in the park!

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