Fat City WI5

Jack Roberts in his Colorado Ice provides only a very brief description and he calls the whole area of Fat City Three Stooges, which makes a sense. There are actually 3 separate ice climbs in this alcove! The alcove itself is accesses usually on ice, unless there is a lot of snow, some may opt to rope up to climb there on WI2/3 ice. Inside the alcove expect a sloping either ice or snow field - we encountered deep snow up to our thighs. 

The first climb on your left (and farthest one) is a gully looking ice called Larry. It is rated as WI3 and appears to have low angled ice alternating with steep ice steps. Jack Roberts describes it as a 50 meter long. We have not climbed it although it looked nice. We opted out for more steeper ice. Larry on Mountain Project

Moe WI4 is a steeper looking ice slab in the middle between Larry and Fat City. Jack Roberts describes this as a 50 meter climb, however we climbed it in 2 pitches, with first pitch using the whole 60 meter rope and 2nd pitch was about 20 meters long. Moe on Mountain Project

Fat City, also known as Curly Joe WI5, 100 meters, this pillar is usually obvious and forms every year A classic and fun waterfall climb (from Colorado Ice). It is usually climbed in 2 pitches. Fat City on Mountain Project

Elevation in Eureka: 9,862 feet (=3,006 meters)

Getting There

From the Main Street in Silverton, continue onto initially paved and then good dirt road - Hwy 110 - which is snowplowed for the first 9 miles. As you pass  through Silverton turn right onto 110 = county road 2, if  you go straight uphill on 110, it will take you to Silverton Ski area. Drive past Howardville through a valley, past Minnie Gulch, all the way to Eureka (9miles). Park at the large parking lot on the west side of the road. There is a dry toilet (hard to access in the winter since the door gets buried in the snow). In 2018 the parking was moved north of the toilet. You do NOT need high clearance of 4WD vehicle to get there. 

Route Description

Fat City WI5 - is the first climb on your right as you enter the the alcove, and it is the closest climb. The climb is easy to identify - very beautiful looking ice waterfall with a steep pillar higher up. It is about 100 meters long and is climbed in 2 pitches. The first pitch was steep, and aerated (Jan 2018) ice. It did not look like it was climbed - large plates of ice were breaking, and one of the most scary leads for me. The ice screws were not creating the nice column of ice, which made me nervous. I could have chosen a different line, more solid looking ice on the far right, but the groove of ice appeared more inviting from the approach. I did have to break the trail to the start of the climb and was up to my thighs in deep snow. I stopped on the right side of the steep column and created anchors (did not see any on rock walls). This pitch was about 30 meters long. 

The 2nd pitch is steeper WI5 conditions in January 2018, and about 25 meters long. The center of the pillar had almost a groove and it starts really steep, and higher up easiest, but expect a sustained WI5, then WI4/5 climbing. Rappel via v-threads. 

Moe WI4 - is the next climb up, it is again a 2 pitch climb on ice slabs. The waterfall was wide and you could accommodate 2 parties climbing here. The first pitch was full 60 meters until I reached slings around a big tree below another steeper flow, on the left side. The first section of ice was WI4, higher up WI3. The 2nd pitch starts with a few steeper moves WI4 and eases into WI3, it was shorter, about 25 meters. There were slings at the top around a small tree in a good condition. Descent is via 2 rappels, the first one rope, the second rappel 2 sixty meter ropes. 

Larry WI3 - farthest up the alcove, obvious narrow gully with mellow sections of ice and steeper flows. We did not have time to climb this one. Per report it is only one pitch long, about 50 meters, so one would assume you do need 2 ropes to rappel.