Mount Washington Valley Ice Festival 2011

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February 4th-6th, 2011

North Conway, NH

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The Mount Washington Valley Ice Festival, aka Ice Fest, was started 18 years ago by local climbing legend Rick Wilcox. One of the premier climbing events in the country, Ice Fest brings together climbers of all abilities to celebrate the adventure, the fun, and the comradery of ice climbing.

Friday evening Film Fest: The evening includes the Outdoor Research Film Fest with films that include Matt McCormick, Rufus J Lusk, Granite Films, Ueli Steck , Rob Frost , and Steve House !

HouseSolo“Granite Films documented Steve House soloing Repentance last year! This piece will make you squirm and your hands sweat.”

Openings for clinics are still available.  Sign up before they are filled!

See more about this event on NEice, the festival blog spot and IME

See you there!

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Spray Ice, Quick Report

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“This is going out from Tim Hortons in Salmon Arm, BC. I wanted to post Pondella’s photos and some words. Yeah!”

“I am sure of little in life, but of this I am sure: The Helmcken Falls spray ice cave is absolutely the wildest, best, most insane ice climbing area I’ve ever seen.”

“The metal detector was an integral part of the rack, and will be for future ascents” – Will Gadd

Much More ….

Source: gravsports.com, Will Gadd

Smuggs Ice Bash 2011

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The 5th annual Alpinist / Smuggs Ice Bash takes place this weekend.

Friday, January 28: Kick off the Ice Bash weekend at Petra Cliffs in Burlington!

6:45 p.m. Matt McCormick presents “Climbing & Culture” – world class photography and video from Pakistan’s alpine playground, the Charakusa Valley.

indoor ice climbing7:00 p.m. Drytooling Competition begins – watch the area’s best climbers battle it out to a winner take all finish.  Presented by Petzl.

Saturday & Sunday, January 29-30: the 5th annual Smuggs Ice Bash, the local’s ice climbing festival at the foot of Smuggler’s Notch, will be offering some great clinics for women, beginners, intermediate and advanced climbers alike, and a wicked slide show by Ian Osteyee at the village tavern, 6pm

For complete event info, schedule and clinics, visit: sunrise adventure sports.com

New M8 at “The Lake”

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Tiny Dancer

Lake Willoughby, VT

FA: 01-21-11 Ryan Brooks and Josh Hurst

“Tiny Dancer, It’s between Plug and Chug and Call of the Wild.  It’s a modern mixed route that deserves to see a lot of traffic due to it’s accessibility, reliability and rock quality” -Josh Hurst

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tiny-dancer-1aP1: M7  Climb 20′ of Plug and Chug than diagnal right on ice blobs to the center of the overhanging rock.  Take the weakness up and right to more ice blobs on the mid-cliff ledge.  Belay on left in the ice.  It is possible to take ice blobs directly up to the rock in some years.

tiny-dancer-2aP2: M8  Start up the flake system to a small roof.  Trend right, crux, to a shallow corner system.  Once behind the icicles take the line of least resistance to the top.

Rack: 5-8 ice screws, standard rack to 2″, no pins needed, 12 quickdraws

Photo’s by Ryan Brooks.

13th Annual Catskill Ice Festival

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January 21, 22, 23 & 24

Last year was  great fun! This year again will have multiple clinics on all the skills and techniques you need to get out on ice – from basic skills, to dry-tooling, to glacier travel techniques.

Slide shows on Friday & Saturday evening featuring ice climbing in the Catskills, and a special show by Freddie Wilkinson on Friday. Slide shows will be held at Rock and Snow at 8pm. – Marty Molitoris / Alpine Endeavors

More information on this event..

"Rollies"

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Matt, Matt, Naomi, Freddie, Aya and Bayard - Photo by Matt Gluesenkamp

Matt, Matt, Naomi, Freddie, Aya and Bayard - Photo by Matt Gluesenkamp

Mountainfest FUN!

Sunday night after Matts slide show, we all went to the Bivi. Visiting climbers Matt McCormick, Bayard Russell and Freddie Wilkinson played “Rollies with the Legendary Joe Szot. Well you live and you learn, the boys definately got schooled!

“Most of the crowd made it to 4 and some cranked into the 5th round.
Matt McCormick made it into the one on one final with the Champ Joe Szot.
Matt bowed out with 8 rolls and Joe took the bar to crank out 11” – Brian D.

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Photos by Brian D.

Watch an earlier video of Joe Szot finishing the last of a set. Simply unbelievable! Never challenge this man to “Rollies”. He is the master and you don’t stand a chance.

-Doug Millen

Will Gadd – Ice Climbing

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Marble Canyon

 

ARC’TERYX Will Gadd Ice Climbing in Marble Canyon from ARC’TERYX on Vimeo.Arc’teryx athlete Will Gadd climbs a thin ice pillar in beautiful Marble Canyon, British Columbia.

Find out more about Will Gadd on his Arc’teryx page:

http://arcteryx.com/Athlete.aspx?WillGadd

Endangered Species

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Video

Endangered Species from Matt McCormick on Vimeo.

On Friday January, 14. Bayard Russell, Matt Horner and I climbed a line on the “Big Wall” section of Poko-Moonshine in the Adirondacks. The line paralleled the legendary Jeff Lowe route Gorillas in the Mist which hasn’t seen a 3rd ascent since Alex Lowe and Randy Rackliff repeated it the day after the FA in 1997.

We called this new variant Endangered Species WI5+R M6+

-Matt McCormick

Endangered Species

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Poko-O-Moonshine – Adirondacks,  NY

01/14/2011
Adirondack Mountainfest 2011

Story Up-Date 1/20/11 from Bayard Russell

True to Mountainfest tradition of establishing new climbs, Bayard Russell, Matt Horner & Matt McCormick established – “Endangered Species” M6+ NEI5+ R. The climb is just to the right of Jeff Lowes legendary line “Gorillas in the Mist”.

“It’s so cool that, after all these years, the Northeast continues to generate some of the most exciting winter climbing in the country” – Dougald MacDonald

The 2 Matts having a go on Gorillas In The Mist. No tools left this time. Photo by Smike

The 2 Matts having a go at Gorillas / Endangered Species earlier that week. No tools left this time. Photo by Smike

We were treated with photos and a video of the ascent Sunday night at Matt McCormick’s slide show.  A very impressive climb by some very motivated and committed climbers. Well done.  See the video..

Matt Hornor,s tools on Gorillas in the Mist. - Photo by Jessew

Matt Horner’s tools on Gorillas in the Mist, 2008. – Photo by Jessew

Many attempts over the years have been made on this section of cliff . Lack of good ice has always blocked the way. Back in 2008,  Matt Horner tried the climb in an after-work ascent where he ended up lowering off his tools in the dark, that was the best anchor he could build in the thin, candled ice (see photo).

See Fifty favorite climbs: the ultimate North American tick list By Mark Kroese  for information on Gorillas in the Mist

The Big Wall section of Poke-O. The thin strip of ice is the new route "Endangered Species" (Horner/McCormick/Russel). Photo by Jim Lawyer

The Big Wall section of Poke-O. The thin strip of ice is the new route “Endangered Species”. Photo by Jim Lawyer

More on the NEice Forum

Source: Matt McCormick, Matt Horner, Bayard Russell, NEice Forum, Facebook & Climbing.com

Story Up-Date 1/20/11

 

“There are a couple of things that we did do, and a couple of things that we didn’t do; here’s the deal” – Bayard Russell