What makes someone freeze their tent to the ground, twice, and come out the other side a triple crowner? For Donovan "Iceman" Rice, the answer starts with a grocery bag full of snow on Mount San Jacinto and ends with 400,000 feet of vertical gain across a route nobody has ever walked. This is the first episode of Trail Stories, and it begins exactly the way every great trail story should: in the dark, in the cold, with a problem to solve.
Iceman is a triple crowner — PCT, CDT, and the Eastern Continental Trail — who spent two years designing the Great Colorado Route, a 1,700-mile scramble-heavy loop through the heart of his home state. He's three weeks from starting. In this episode, Doc traces the arc from a chaotic grad school chapter in New York City (gambling addiction, intervention, rehab) to the moment Iceman's father offered him an image that changed everything: an elevator going one direction. Down. The question is what floor you choose to get off on.
Trail Stories is a narrative format. Iceman carries the episode in his own voice. Doc's narration connects the moments. The full uncut conversation with Iceman drops Wednesday, May 20.
Iceman is a triple crowner — PCT, CDT, and the Eastern Continental Trail — who spent two years designing the Great Colorado Route, a 1,700-mile scramble-heavy loop through the heart of his home state. He's three weeks from starting. In this episode, Doc traces the arc from a chaotic grad school chapter in New York City (gambling addiction, intervention, rehab) to the moment Iceman's father offered him an image that changed everything: an elevator going one direction. Down. The question is what floor you choose to get off on.
Trail Stories is a narrative format. Iceman carries the episode in his own voice. Doc's narration connects the moments. The full uncut conversation with Iceman drops Wednesday, May 20.
Show Notes
Donovan “Iceman” Rice is a Colorado native, Triple Crowner, and the designer of the Great Colorado Route. He earned the name Iceman on the PCT in 2020 after freezing his tent to the ground. Twice. Once on Mount San Jacinto in the Southern California desert. Once at the base of Forester Pass. The second incident required a borrowed ice ax and boiling water poured directly onto frozen ground at 3 a.m.
After completing the PCT, the CDT, and the Eastern Continental Trail (2025), Iceman turned his attention to designing an original loop through Colorado: 1,700 miles, approximately 400,000 feet of vertical gain, scramble-heavy, and entirely his own creation. He starts in mid-May 2026.
Links & Resources
- The Great Colorado Route: https://www.greatcoloradoRoute.com
- Follow Iceman on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theicemaneth
- Colorado Fourteeners Initiative: https://www.14ers.org
- Fourteeners.com (Bill Middlebrook): https://www.14ers.com
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