Climbing Video: Will Gadd climbing icebergs
December 31, 2007
The cold weather keeps me thinking of ice climbing. Here’s a video of Will Gadd climbing icebergs.
A higher quality MOV video can also be found at National Geographic.
Popularity: 21% [?]
Upcoming Ice Climbing Festivals in 2008
December 30, 2007
The following is a collection of all the upcoming ice climbing festivals in 2008.
January 4 - 6, 2008
Kandersteg Ice Climbing Festival
The 8th annual Kandersteg Ice Climbing Festival will be held in the Bernese Oberland. Over 450 ice climbers are expected to attend this festival in Switzerland.
January 9 - 13, 2008
Ouray Ice Festival
The 13th annual Ouray Ice Festival will be held in the Ouray Ice Park in Colorado.
January 11 - 13, 2008
Adirondack International Mountainfest
The Mountaineer and Adirondack Rock and River have teamed up to host the 12th annual Adirondack International Mountainfest in Keene Valley, New York.
February 1 - 3, 2008
Michigan Ice Fest
This is the 25th year of the Michigan Ice Fest located on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
February 7 - 10, 2008
Mount Washington Valley Ice Festival
One of the premier climbing events in the country, the 2008 ice festival will be the 15th annual running of the event. This year they even have an Ice Fest 2008 blog. I’ve been to this one twice and it was great.
February 15 - 18, 2008
South Fork Waterfall Ice Festival
The 10th annual South Fork Waterfall Ice Festival bills itself as the “Friendliest Little Ice Festival in the Northern Rockies” and will be held in Cody, Wyoming.
February 16 - 17, 2008
Smuggler’s Notch Ice Bash
I’m not sure how long this festival has been running, but the Smuggler’s Notch Ice Bash will be centered out of the Sunrise Cafe in Jeffersonville, Vermont.
If there are any upcoming ice festivals I missed, please leave a comment below.
Popularity: 12% [?]
12th Annual Mountainfest in the Adirondacks
November 22, 2007
Taking place in New York’s Adirondacks, the 12th annual Mountainfest will take place this winter January 11-13, 2008.
A full schedule of classes include beginning through advanced ice climbing, snowshoe mountaineering, and avalanche fundamentals.
Popularity: 5% [?]
Petzl Charlet Sarken Crampon Recall
October 12, 2007
Petzl has posted a recall for all its Petzl Charlet Sarken crampons.
Recent customer experience has shown that the front points of SARKEN crampons are susceptible to premature wearout following heavy use. This means cracking of the metal forefoot near the front point(s), followed by possible breakage if usage continues.
Petzl has stopped sales and production of these crampons and is recalling all SARKEN crampon models because we feel that the potential lifetime of the crampons should be longer than user experience has demonstrated.
If you own these crampons, Petzl has instructions on their website.
Popularity: 13% [?]
Ice Climbing at the New River Gorge
March 6, 2007
I heard some rumors about the ice climbing at the New River Gorge, but hadn’t had a chance to actually get up there this winter. With the arrival of March and the warmer weather, it looks like I’ll have to wait until next season to get some ice climbing in locally.
It’s really not that hard to figure out which areas at the New to explore to find possible ice climbing though. If you climb there enough, you’re quite familiar with the various small waterfalls and areas that stay perpetually wet from drippage. All make excellent potential ice climbing areas.
I saw an article in the Charleston Gazette with some great pictures of the ice climbing this past season at the New.
This February provided a string of subzero mornings followed by afternoons in which temperatures failed to venture above the freezing point, making small watercourses plunging into the New River Gorge and the cliffs surrounding nearby Summersville Lake solid enough to climb.
Ah, next year I’ll unpack my ice tools, screws, and crampons…
Technorati Tags: climbing, ice climbing, west virginia
Popularity: 20% [?]
Build your own ice climbing wall
March 6, 2005
The Alaskan Alpine Club has a unique web page that illustrates the actual construction of an artificial ice wall over the course of four months. They also have photos of some prior years ice walls. And finally, this page lists other ice climbing walls from around the world. Try building one of these in your back yard!
Popularity: 4% [?]
Upcoming Ice Climbing Festivals
February 15, 2005
Two more ice climbing festivals are upcoming. The 8th annual Festiglace du Quebec sponsored by The North Face will be held February 18-20 in Pont-Rouge. Billed as the world’s biggest ice climbing event, the event promises gear demos and expert advice booths, free intro to ice climbing lessons, snowshoeing circuit and demos, professional and amateur competitions, and courses and workshops.
The 2005 Canmore Ice Climbing Festival will be held this year on March 3-6. Sponsored by Arc’teryx, the Canmore festival will have competitions, skills clinics, a slideshow and auction, and gear demos.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Ice silos site of regional competition
February 12, 2005
Sponsored by Red Bull, Cedar Falls, Iowa is hosting an ice climbing competition this weekend on silos.
For the past five years, University of Northern Iowa outdoor pursuits teacher Don Briggs has been icing down four silos for the purpose of climbing. The largest ice wall stretches 68 feet from the ground, while two others top out at 55 feet.
Will Gadd will be attending as an event host and will also be conducting demos.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Winter climbing tips
February 5, 2005
Jack Roberts, climbing guide and author, has some useful “tech tips” on his site. These include secrets to staying warm and keeping winter fun, preparation for long winter alpine days, and Jack’s twelve golden rules for better leading on ice.
Popularity: 2% [?]
The science of ice for climbers
February 3, 2005
Anyone who has climbed ice knows how fragile and changing the medium can be. For more insight into the science of ice formation, I recommend this article on how ice climbs form, deform, change, and fall right apart.
An excerpt from the author, Will McCarthy:
Ice is weird stuff, though climbing it might just be weirder. Ice-climbing is also potentially painful: half the equipment has sharp metal points (like tools, crampons, and ice-screws) that mix well with neither the other half of the equipment (like clothes, pack, and rope), nor with the soft flesh of a climber. And then there’s the objective danger. Ice-climbs are temporary features of winter, and are in a perpetual state of falling down during their short life-spans. That’s the part of ice-climbing that’s potentially lethal. The paradox of ice-climbs is that they can provide the easiest and safest means of ascent of a cliff, or a mountain. The trick is to determine when an ice-climb is safe, and to do that requires knowing all about ice.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Ice climbing festivals list
January 29, 2005
IceClimb.com has a list of the 2005 ice climbing festivals in North America.
Popularity: 2% [?]
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