Photo: The Alpinist
Every town has them: hardcore athletes that don’t necessarily fit the mold of a “pro,” but are just as gifted in their chosen pursuit as someone getting paid to play. Those are the underground legends revered locally in mountain outposts around the globe, and sadly, the small town of Carbondale, Colorado lost one just before the New Year when Ryan Jennings was killed ice climbing near the Redstone Slabs in the Crystal River Valley.
Jennings was accomplished–he’d done multiple first ascents in the area. According to Rock and Ice, he was alone on a rarely-formed ice route in a pillar that had become prominent this year because of the heavy winter. He was self belaying and had apparently set gear in the slab. Circumstances are not entirely clear but during his climb the column broke away. The same column of ice had broken away before on a pair of climbers in 1997 but neither was injured.
Jennings skillfully managed his career, fatherhood (he has a son and daughter) and climbing—and still managed to push the envelope. In 2014, with his climbing partner, Kevin Cooper, he completed an impressive first ascent on Mount Johnson in Alaska’s Ruth Gorge the team dubbed Stairway to Heaven. The line, on the mountain’s north face, was a route the duo had dreamed of for 20 years. “We are both getting on in age and both have children,” Jennings said. “I personally have gotten to a point in climbing where I contemplate risk versus reward every time I head out.”
Rock and Ice magazine is based in Carbondale so the magazine’s staff knows the local climbing community well. Jennings death affected everyone in the Roaring Fork Valley according Alison Osius, who penned the piece for the magazine. “Local climbers, like this writer, who had shared a rope with the affable, solid and straightforward Jennings only weeks ago at a winter crag in nearby New Castle, are pained and tremendously sorrowful at his loss and for his family.”
Jennings was 42.
