This year’s Ice Fest was hands down our best ever, but it only happened with many helping hands, talent, and passion! Wow, we are still coming down from an awesome high, we had a blast this year!
First, we want to thank all of YOU! All of you who have a passion for ice climbing, IME/IMCS, the MWV Ice Fest and having a gosh darn good time! So thank you to ALL of the participants who took clinics, for ALL of you who checked out the demo’s, for ALL who bid on the American Alpine Club Silent Auction and helped them raise almost $3,000 for the Live Your Dream Grant! They were expecting to give three grants out this year, but now from what they raised directly from the MWV Ice Fest they can give 4-5 grants! AMAZING! We think this grant is one of the coolest things out there, and we are so proud and honored to help support it and have it as the official Ice Fest beneficiary!
Next, we want to thank all of our sponsors! This would not, and could not happen without our AMAZING sponsors. First, our headlining sponsor Outdoor Research for their level of support. Their positive energy and supportive personnel just blew us away and helped make the visions for the 2014 Ice Fest a reality. Outdoor Research sponsored our first Instagram Photo Contest, which tripled the amount of photos that were hash-tagged under #mwvicefest. Outdoor Research also provided over 100 hats for our clinic participants to stay warm and keep it festive. The American Alpine Club helped support Jeff Longcor’s opening show on Friday night, a show about making climbing dreams happen with an amazing team of friends with the help of the AAC Live Your Dream Grant. Patagonia sent us Barry Blanchard and Majka Burhardt; both gave unforgettable, inspiring and top quality shows that left the crowd incredibly psyched. And Mountain Hardwear sent us Tim Emmett who had everyone simultaneously laughing and on the edge of their seats to a sold out show on Saturday evening! In addition Sterling Rope, La Sportiva, LOWA, Mammut, C.A.M.P., and Cassin all committed at an incredible level that help make the Ice Fest festivities fantastic. And of course ALL our other sponsors made this event special and possible, including: Petzl, Julbo, Grivel, Beal, Edelweiss, Scarpa, Black Diamond, Rock On, Hyperlite Mountain Gear, Dry Ice Tools, Ibex, NeIce.com (we love the soup kitchen!), Neclimbs.com, Clif Bar, Randy Rackliff from Cold Cold World, Rock & Ice, Tuckerman Brewing Co, Frontside Grind, Flatbread, Climberism, Rock & Ice, The Nereledge Inn, Harvard Cabin, Skratch, and Eastern Slope Inn!
BUY LOCAL! We ask you to think about the companies and organizations listed above that you saw this weekend- and if you liked what you saw or tried during the weekend we encourage you to buy local. Buying local in the Northeast supports the Reps that came, and we believe it’s important to support the small climbing outdoor shops that have a lot of heart and soul- and of course one that hits close to home to us is IME.
Next, we want to thank all those who volunteered their time, energy, and hard work out of the kindness of their hearts. We gave special recognition to Doug Madara– once again he put in an insane amount of hours throughout the ice fest. In addition we want to thank the volunteers personally for their time, talent, and dedication. Big shout out to Dan Riethmuller, Nickie Sekera, Luke Serkera, Tom Adams, Brian Glenn, Bob Wallstrom, Sarah Arsenault, Lauren Bergeron, Sarah Audsley, Adam Bidwell, Alexa Seigel, Sam Bendroth and all the AAC volunteers, who donated time to help make this event so incredible. We heart you all big time! And anyone we may have forgotten!
We had the most clinic participants to date this year! How cool is it, that so many people are PSYCHED on ICE!?!? And thus, we want to thank all the IMCS guides and our guest guides as well. We were just blown away by the top caliber guides we had for the 2013 Ice Fest. Our IMCS guides were Brad White, Sam Bendroth, Al Hospers, Zeb Jakub, Craig John, Paul McCoy, Chris Magness, Jonathan Garlough, Max Lurie, Todd Asher Bergstein, Alexa Seigel, Craig Taylor, Paul Cormier and Conrad Yager. They are available year round to guide, just call IMCS at 603-356-7064! And guest guides this year included Barry Blanchard, Emilie Drinkwater, Tim Emmett, Ian Osteyee, Carlos Buhler, Ryan Stefiuk, Erik Eisele, Matt McCormick, Kevin Mahoney, Majka Burhardt, Silas Rossi, Bayard Russell, Freddie Wilkinson, Matt Shove, Mark Synnott, Elliot Gaddy, Andrea Charest, Karsten Delap, Lindsay Fixmer, Alain Comeau, Peter Doucette, & Adam George. Wow! What a stellar line up we had this year!
Once again, we were honored to have the talented photographers of Little Outdoor Giants apart of the Ice Fest. They took portraits at the evening events of anyone and everyone they could at the Ice Fest! They had a bunch of their portraits on display from last year, and we can’t wait to see what they came up with from this year! We’ll keep you posted on that!
Jonny GoodTymez BonTempo was our amazing MC, we were so psyched that he joined us year. He rocked the mic, and he rocked the tunes. Thank you Jonny!
And we want to thank local raging band, Rek’lis for rocking out with our Ice Festers on Saturday night!
Finally, we want to thank Rick & Celia Wilcox and Brad White who trusted us with the amount of time we put in, our visions, and our requests of them. Rick has seen this Ice Fest happen for 21 years and Brad for 16+, and to put it into our hands with all the faith, trust, and support they give- is absolutely amazing. Thank you Brad & Rick!
And as promised our 21 thank you’s!:
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! Aaaaaaand THANK YOU!
-MWV Ice Fest Planning Team
Ashley Link
Hanna Lucy
Naomi Risch
Anne Skidmore
Michael Wejchert
p.s. If you see any one or thing missing please let us know! E-mail us at: mwvicefest@gmail.com