“It wasn’t until Ty Vineyard stood on the cold, windy face of Gannett Peak as an adult that he not only felt the magnitude of the area’s desolation, but realized just how absurd the stories that he grew up listening to truly were.

Vineyard is a mountain guide for Wind River Climbing Guides, an American Mountain Guide Association (AMGA) Apprentice Rock and Alpine Guide, and a high-angle rescue team lead for Lander Search and Rescue. He’s spent his whole life learning how to move safely in the mountains.

However, the stories that set him on the path to climbing large mountains spoke to a different approach to the wilderness and a different approach to rock climbing. As a child, Vineyard’s father would talk about the times when, at age 14, he and his friends would tackle alpine routes in the Wind River Range after teaching themselves how to climb out of an old Freedom of the Hills sixth edition book.

“Those stories kind of trapped me into alpinism, into climbing,” Vineyard explained.

…

Regardless of safety, those tales would inspire Vineyard to pursue climbing himself, and would eventually lead him to a more niche interest – ice climbing.

While Lander is known for world-class sport climbing, among the community lies a small group of climbers who are eager for a two-hour car ride or late night scouting missions in Sinks Canyon in search of ice.”

This story highlights the experiences of numerous ice climbers across Wyoming, with a focus on individuals climbing in the Wind River Range. Lander, WY garners climbers from across the nation for its world-class sport climbing. This features the small subsect and unique community of individuals interested in the ice sport, which one individual described as “inherently a little miserable.”

This article was reported and published for the Riverton Ranger and Lander Journal. The full article can be accessed here