Ouray, Colorado
This is not a festival to celebrate ice and cold weather if that is what you are thinking. The Ouray Ice Festival is an annual event for ice climbers and brings in people from around the world. Hosted in the Switzerland of America, this three-day festival is hosted every January at the Ouray Ice Park.
The Ice Park itself is the largest man-made one in the world. Stretching across the Uncompahgre Gorge, the park is home to over 100 ice and mixed routes across almost two miles. The park is created by a system of pipes and faucets that are turned on and allowed to run down into the Gorge to create the routes. The park is open three months out of the year, typically starting in December. According to the park's website, it can take almost 200,000 gallons of water a night to create the park.
The festival has many different activities, so you can curate your schedule and time to whatever you would like. There are clinics, movies, presentations, competitions, gear demos, and parties. The majority of these things are included in your festival all-access pass. Clinics begin earlier than the festival and are not included in the access pass. They are half- and full-day clinics and can benefit those new to ice climbing and those who have been doing it for a few years. They are a few hundred dollars though, so choose wisely. Movies and presentations occur every afternoon into the night but are climbing-focused topics so be aware of the group you choose to travel with. The competitions are open to those who wish to register, with qualifiers occurring on the first and second day, and finals on the third day. The competition climbs are hard to watch, with only a few areas open to view portions of the route. Gear demos are available for the entire duration of the festival. There's not much you can't check out, but all gear is due back by 4:00 pm the day that you borrow it. From what I saw, much of the gear needed to climb ice instead of rock or gym climbing could be demoed. Harnesses, belay devices, personal anchor systems, and locking carabiners, all needed to be brought, as well as route anchoring systems and ropes. There are two sponsored parties to open and close the festival: a pool party at the hot springs and a party sponsored by Petzl. With the access pass, you get two free drinks at both events that are donated by a local company. There are options to buy other canned drinks at the pool party, but not the Petzl party. For both events, there is a capacity limit so I don't recommend waiting to show up.
Ouray itself is a very interesting area. There is no standard operating time for businesses, and many smaller shops seem to open and close on their own schedule that may or may not differ from their posted hours. There are a couple of breweries, a few restaurants, and several little shops inside the town. Additionally, there are a couple of spas and hot springs available for relaxation. There are a few hot springs associated with hotels and inns, a community hot spring that is more like a pool, and not 10-15 minutes outside of town is Orvis Hot Springs. This is a nudist-friendly hot spring with pool temperatures anywhere from the high 50s to the lobster pot temperature of 110 degrees. There is a sauna onsite as well. Inside of town, we ate at Colorado Boy Southwest Pub which had both excellent service and excellent pizzas. I had the chicken bacon ranch pizza and I'm still thinking about it. We also had drinks at the Outlaw, and the bartender had a heavy hand which was much appreciated. Frequent visitors to the town have also recommended Mojo's Coffee as a great cafe, and the Ouray Brewery for drinks if you can manage to get in. There was a wait for both the drinks only and restaurant sides.
If you are worried about wintery weather conditions and attempting to drive on them, I would say that a town like Ouray is very well equipped to handle such conditions, and they understand they are likely to see out-of-towners with less snow and ice driving experience than the locals in drivers ed. The area had recently seen several inches of snow before our arrival, but you couldn't tell inside of town. On some of the back and outskirts streets, that may or may not have been paved, it was a little bit different and there was definitely snow covering the road and potentially a few ice patches. The same goes for parking. The closer into the town and Main Street that you get, the less snow and ice patches you will have to contend with. The parking lots closest to the ice festival interest were patchy and slick, especially early in the morning. In general, just be aware of you and your vehicle's capability.
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