Gravity’s Rainbow was one of the few classic climbs that I hadn’t yet done in the Ouray area.  Whenever the sun comes out, the climb instantly falls down, so you have to wait for a period of bad weather to climb this route. It’s been snowy for several days now.  I drove up to check it out last night and it looked well formed.  The parts I could see anyway.  Under all those snowy bits, the ice is total junk and just falls apart.  You end up swinging your pick into the rock most of the time.<.p>

For those wondering… yes Gravity’s Rainbow is climbable, but it is very thin, there’s lots of crappy ice, and lots of crust covered rock.  Protection is occansional, and you’re forced to put ice screws in the places they tell you not to in the “How to Ice Climb” book.   My ice tool picks are now flattened stubs, and I’ll probably have to get most of my ice screws resharpened too.  It does however make for an adventure.