Moriah Bell News Today

This year, the 27th Ouray Ice Festival drew about 2,000 attendees - not bad for an event hosted by a community about half that size.

A crowd dressed in bright, puffy jackets whooped and clapped from the edge of a gut-twistingly deep gorge. Below them, a young guy with pink hair and an axe in each hand raced against a clock, propelling himself up what looked like plunging chandeliers of ice — the world-famous ice of the Ouray Ice Park, just a short hike up from the tiny town in southwestern Colorado.