Last year’s 25th edition of the Ouray Ice Festival had all the usual fanfare — the climbing competitions and clinics, the presentations and auctions, and of course the anything-goes Saturday night Petzl Party. And to mark the silver anniversary, Ouray artist Jeff Skoloda created a 15-foot-high, steel-framed sculpture that was coated in ice, then set ablaze.

The 26th annual festival, assuming it happens, will look nothing like the events of the past, however.

The coronavirus pandemic that has s...