The 2015 Mount Washington 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 and now they can give away a handful of 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 2015 MWV Ice Fest a reality. Outdoor Research had 5 of their athletes present and representing at the Ice Fest! Additionally, Outdoor Research sent us Sarah Hueniken who gave an inspiring show with her incredible climbing achievements, but also life inspiring with how to create, seek out, and gain from opportunities! On Saturday evening we had Jonathan Griffith present thanks to NorthConwayLodging.com who sponsored his travels from his home base in Chamonix and his lodging while here! Jonathan gave a hilarious and jaw dropping show that left the room in an aura of psyche! In addition we want to thank Miron Chlebosz for giving a great opening show on the Tatras Mountains in Poland!
Next we want to thank LOWA, Mammut, C.A.M.P., Cassin, NorthConwayLodging.com, Sterling Rope, and La Sportiva, who all committed at an incredible levels to help make the Ice Fest festivities fantastic. And of course ALL our other sponsors made this event special and possible, including: Petzl, Julbo, DMM, Grivel, Beal, Edelweiss, Asolo, Black Diamond, Hyperlite Mountain Gear, Dry Ice Tools, Ibex, NeIce.com (we love the soup kitchen!), Clif Bar, Colonial Knife Corporation, Randy Rackliff from Cold Cold World, Rock & Ice, Tuckerman Brewing Co, Frontside Grind, Flatbread, Rock & Ice, The Nereledge Inn, NeClimbs.com, Bagels Plus, Harvard Cabin, and Skratch Labs!
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 want to give 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. We had the biggest lineup of volunteers to date, and this event could NOT have happened without them! Big shout out to Dan Riethmuller, Nickie Sekera, Tom Adams, Bob Wallstrom, Jordan Luciano, Jeremy Fitchett, Brian Threkeld, Gabe Flanders, Lisa Matthews, Megan Hiltz, Justin Lipson, Spencer Sears, Susan Ainsworth, Lindsey Garland, Sarah Bouckoms, Jennie Froehly, Christine Downs, Hillary Janelle 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 Sam Bendroth, Conrad Yager, Paul Cormier, Zeb Jakub, Craig John, Paul McCoy, Chris Magness, Jonathan Garlough, Max Lurie, Todd Asher Bergstein, Craig Taylor, Craig John, Paul Cormier, and Al Hospers. They are available year round to guide, just call IMCS at 603-356-7064! And guest guides this year included Sarah Hueniken, Emilie Drinkwater, Alexa Seigel, Ian Osteyee, Ryan Stefiuk, Erik Eisele, Matt McCormick, Kevin Mahoney, Majka Burhardt, Bob Baribeau, Anne Gilbert Chase, Tim Farr, Ben Gilmore, John Kascenska, Matt Ritter, Bayard Russell, Janet Wilkinson, Matt Shove, Jimmy Voorhis, Joan Veilleux, Karsten Delap, Alain Comeau, Alden Pellett, Dave Garry, and John Bragg. Wow! What a stellar line up we had this year!
Photographers. We were honored to have the talented photographers Eric McCallister at Friday evenings events and Ian MacLellan at Saturday evenings events. They took portraits of all the Ice Festers those evenings!
We had Doug Millen from NEice flying his copter cameras around and also Keith Force running his video octocopters during the event! We can’t wait to see their footage!
And we cannot forget our killer clinic photographers Lindsey Garland and Ross Henry! We are so stoked to their photo’s from the clinics getting after it on the ice!
Mon Voyage Neon was our amazing MC, we were so psyched that he could join us this year! He rocked the mic, and he rocked the tunes, thank you!
We also had a The Poster Project for our buddy Jim Ewing who took a bad fall, and sold posters of New Hampshire classic ice climbs to help raise a few more funds for him and his family during these challenging times! You can still buy posters! Go here: POSTER PROJECT FOR JIM EWING
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 22 years and Brad for 17+, and to put it into our hands with all the faith, trust, and support they give- is absolutely amazing. Thank you Brad & Rick!
And our 22 thank you’s in honor of our 22nd year:
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! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
MWV Ice Fest Planning Team
Ashley Link
Michael Wejchert
Anne Skidmore
Todd Asher Bergstein
Adam Bidwell
Alexa Siegel
p.s. If you see any one or thing missing please let us know! E-mail us at: [email protected]