Ice is nice, but festival is fun even without it
by Jamey Glasnovic
What to do, what to do, what to do?
It is an unseasonably warm day in early March, with the 7th Annual Canmore Ice Climbing Festival set to kick off in 24 hours. My original enthusiasm about taking in the event (and maybe climbing for the first time in nearly a decade) is quickly replaced by the sensation that no matter how hard I try, I will still miss something. What with the festival's full calendar of activities and my full work schedule, no amount of time management is going to allow total participation.
Luckily, there's plenty to choose from in the four-day fest. Starting with the indoor Mixed Masters Dry Tooling Competition on Thursday and A Night of Epics and Adventures Slide Show on Friday, the weekend starts at a canter, and ends at a gallop with a full complement of skills clinics, demos, and comps running all the way to Sunday afternoon.
As it turns out, the weekend is a celebration of mountain culture as much as a climbing competition and the lineup reflects it, offering plenty of opportunity for spectator, neophyte and professional alike. Having never scaled the frozen stuff in my life, it can be difficult to know what's essential, but there have been whisperings that suggest the party on Saturday night simply can't be missed, so I pencil that one in right off the bat.
As I ponder the other possibilities, my eye is drawn outside, where it is hard to imagine there is ice left anywhere in the valley. The calendar reads March 2, but then again I've seen May look more like winter in this part of the world. Sunny, breezy and a high pushing 10 degrees hardly inspires thoughts of crampons, ice axes, and towering vertical frozen rivers, but these are the risks associated with organizing a major outdoor event. Mother Nature still runs things as She sees fit, regardless of what's been scheduled. In a chat with Mike Meilicke, owner of Gear Up Sports and founder of the event, I learn that the fact it's t-shirt weather doesn't concern him to the extent you would expect. With close to 50 volunteers signed on and climbers coming from across Canada, the US, and Europe, he assures me, ice or no ice the weekend is a go.
Hanging around at the Canmore Ice Climbing Festival is Scott Montgomery of Calgary, who entertained the crowds below with his furry costume and high rope antics.
And true to recent form, Saturday morning rolls around with no sign of the frosty headliner. He was here, clinging to the chicken wire hung high to offer purchase, but continued clear skies and warm temps have reduced what was to be an intimidating wall of ice into a sad lump of shavings at the foot of the scaffolding erected at the festival village located off Railway Avenue in downtown Canmore. There are a handful of two and three foot slabs that are reluctant to let go, but every stiff breeze adds to the melting pile at the base.
Without missing a beat, however, the Speed Climbing Competition moves over to the plywood wall conveniently erected on the west side of the scaffold for Sunday's Kayland Cup Mixed Competition and goes off without a hitch. As expected, the Ukraine's Evegeny Kryvosheytsev and Quebec's Louis-Julien Roy place first and second respectively. But not all that far behind, a number of local climbers put up a good fight and thrill the crowd of a couple of hundred with their tenacity and heart, with the biggest cheers of the day coming not when a competitor reached the top, but when he or she slips, fights to regain control, and then charges upward again.
In typical mountain town fashion, the atmosphere in the village is both casual and electric, with stunning views and plenty of dogs and families with kids hanging around, and by late Sunday afternoon I am hooked. I like to think I had been dragging my feet about trying the wall because to truly get a feel for the event I should observe it from all angles first. But the truth is I am often reluctant to try something new in case I'm no good at it.
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The Canmore Ice Climbing Festival was a big success despite warm weather, which necessitated a shift to an ice-free structure for competitions and clinics.
That feeling of uncertainty about untested skills, the fear of failure, and the prospect of being ridiculed are always present in my psyche. They are childish fears, cemented in adolescence when abilities were raw and support hard to find, but they remain real.
As I step up to the wall, my palms are sweating and my aversion of heights comes bubbling to the surface. Looking up from the base of the mixed route the wall is indeed imposing, and the overhang at the top looms menacingly. I've been 90 feet down, scuba diving on the outer edge of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia with the entire Pacific stretching out into gloomy blue of deep ocean. No problem. But 60 feet up? Well, that kind of creeps me out, even though I know I'll never get that high today. I don't have boots that accommodate crampons (and even if I did I don't have the skills to negotiate the dangling log at the top) but one-third that high is still enough to test my nerves.
The first few moves are relatively easy, but the technical route quickly pushes my abilities. The instinct is to grab at the holds, not hook into them with tools, but the axes offer a reach that would be impossible by traditional rock climbing methods. It's a variation that requires getting used to, but I do manage to pull off a couple of strong combinations before burning out my arms and running out of decent footholds. Funny thing is, once I get off the ground there is no more fear. Instead, my mind is consumed with unraveling the puzzle of getting higher.
Standing in the fading sunlight that marks the slow death of a pleasant day, a handful of eager souls are still giving the faux ice a go. Most of the sponsor booths have been packed away, the trophies and prizes have been handed out, and all the spectators have drifted off, but it never was about anything but climbing.
Doug Heinrich, a competitor and sponsor in today's mixed competition is standing next to me with the smile on his face of a man who's enjoyed himself. I mention that things went well even without the benefit of ice and he doesn't hesitate. "Sure, you just put up a piece of plywood and people seem to have a good time." And that has been the unmistakable spirit of the festival - to find a way around the obstacles and make it work, which I realize is simply an extension of the act of climbing itself.
Next year there's no question, I'm signing up for a clinic and competing in one of the comps, because it just looks like too much fun.
If You Go:
There are a number of options in the Bow Valley for climbers of every style and ability. The Vsion indoor climbing gym is open year round and offers lessons, courses, rentals, and party packages. Yamnuska Inc. teaches outdoor winter programs, including ice climbing, and Gear Up Sports rental shop can equip any mountain adventure.
The Vsion
109, 109 Boulder Cres.
Canmore, Alberta
(403) 678-8803
Yamnuska Inc.
200, 50 Lincoln Park
Canmore, Alberta
(403) 678-4164
Gear Up Sports
1302 Bow Valley Trail
Canmore, Alberta
(403) 678-1636
Ice Fest 2006?
Canmore Ice Festival organizer Mike Meilicke is considering a date change for the next event - perhaps as early as November this year. Watch for a date in the SolaraLife Essential Events Calendar.
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