The 2017 Mount Washington Ice Fest was hands down without a doubt our best EVER, but it only happened with many helping hands, sponsors, guides, participants, climbers, talent, and passion! Wow, we are still coming down from an awesome high, we had a blast this year! We hosted over 1200+ people over the course of the weekend including climbers visiting the area, guides, sponsors, climbing clinic participants, volunteers, and people attending evening events!
Here are some 2017 MWV Ice Fest numbers for you to put it all in perspective:
Over 1200 participants over the whole weekend.
About 400 folks ice climbing.
Around 45 world class guides
23 amazing volunteers (Couldn’t have pulled it off with you folks),
25 sponsors
7 amazing Ice fest coordinators
First, we want to thank all of YOU! All of you who have a passion for ice climbing, the MWV Ice Fest and having a freakin’ killer 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 just came up for the festivities, for ALL who bid on the American Alpine Club Silent Auction and helped them raise almost $3,700 for the Live Your Dream Grant! 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 committing to the highest level of support. Their positive energy and supportive personnel just blew us away and helped make the visions for the 2017 MWV Ice Fest a reality. Outdoor Research had 6 of their athletes present and guiding at the Ice Fest, and also provided special OR beanies to all the guides this year! Additionally, Outdoor Research sent us Guy Robertson who gave an awesome show on Scottish winter climbing on Saturday evening! On Friday evening we had Scott Bennett present thanks to CAMP & Cassin who sponsored his show and travels! Scott gave a down to earth insight to his trip to Pakistan with Steve Swenson and Graham Zimmerman.
Next we want to thank Tuckerman Brewing Co, Julbo, American Alpine Club, Sterling Rope, C.A.M.P., Cassin, NorthConwayLodging.com, Patagonia, and Flatbread Co. who all committed at an incredible levels to help make the Ice Fest festivities fantastic. And of course ALL our other sponsors who made this event special and possible, including: La Sportiva, Mammut, Miir, Petzl, DMM, RAB, Arc’teryx, Adidas, Grivel, Asolo, Black Diamond, Scarpa, Hyperlite Mountain Gear, Trango, Ibex, NeIce.com (we love the soup kitchen!), Clif Bar, Colonial Knife Corporation, Randy Rackliff from Cold Cold World, Rock & Ice, Frontside Grind, Rock & Ice, Cilo Gear, The Nereledge Inn, NeClimbs.com, Bagels Plus, Harvard Cabin, Good To Go Foods, and Untapped!
Next, we want to thank all those who volunteered their time, energy, and hard work out of the kindness of their hearts. You’ll see how many extra hands and brains we need to make the event what it is! 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! 23 VOLUNTEERS! Big shout out to Ailie Byers, Eric John, Karen Choy, Dan Riethmuller, Alex Lyttle, Lisa Matthews, Toby Arnold, Bob Wallstrom, Jeremy Fitchett, Lindsey Garland, Sarah Bouckoms, Brady Callahan, and all the other volunteers! We will make a shout out to each and every one of you SOON! Also the amazing AAC volunteers – Ailie Byers, Rick Merritt, Nancy Savickas, Rick Merritt, and Barry Rosnock who donated their time to help make this event so incredible. We heart you all big time! And anyone we may have forgotten (please let us know)!
The 2017 MWV Ice Fest guides!
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 the guest guides as well. We were just blown away by the top caliber guides we had for the 2017 Ice Fest. Our IMCS guides were Sam Bendroth, Conrad Yager, Paul Cormier, Zeb Jakub, Paul McCoy, Sue Barnett, Jordan Cargill, Jonathan Garlough, Max Lurie, Craig Taylor, Alex Lyttle, Joan Veilleux, Bob Ahern, Chris Graham, Al Hospers, and Tom Boydston. IMCS is available year round to guide, just call them at 603-356-7064! And guest guides this year included Emilie Drinkwater, Alexa Seigel, Alain, Comeau, Ian Osteyee, Erik Eisele, Matt McCormick, Majka Burhardt, Marc Chauvin, Nick Aiello, Bryan Gilmore, Erik Thatcher, Ben Mirkin, Matty Bowman, Ryan Stefiuk, Josh Wharton, Katie Bono, Scott Bennett, Mick Pearson, Craig John, Bob Baribeau, Sarah Garlick, Jim Shimberg, Bob Baribeau, Tim Farr, John Kascenska, Bayard Russell, Matt Shove, Jimmy Voorhis, Freddie Wilkinson, Janet Wilkinson, and Karsten Delap. Wow! What a stellar line up we had this year!
PHOTO BOOTH PHOTOS BY ERIC McCALLISTER! Photographers! We were honored to have the talented photographer Eric McCallister at Saturday evenings events! He took portraits of all the Ice Festers that evening. Here is the link where you can download and order prints!
A SUPER big thank you to two local companies that give BIG to MWV Ice Fest each year! First Tuckerman Brewing Co. who is the official MWV Ice Fest beer sponsor and keeps all you climbers happy with their amazing beer all weekend long! And secondly, Flatbread Co. who is the sponsor of the guides & reps dinner where the feed and welcome all the guides and reps on the Thursday night before Ice Fest begins! They ALWAYS help us kick off the weekend with amazing energy!
We cannot forget our killer clinic photographers Eliza Earle, Lindsey Garland, and Luke Flanagan! We are so stoked for their photo’s from the clinics getting after it on the ice, we can’t wait to see them! We’ll let you know when we have those available to all of you!
Mick Pearson 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!
As for helping and bringing awareness to more good causes: Miir helped raise over $700 for the local Mountain Rescue Service with their sale of beautiful Miir cups! We had a Delete Blood Cancer Swab Drive at the Apres Hours, and also had KISMET Rock Foundation, the Access Fund, Protect Mount Washington, and the Harvard Cabin at the evening events! WOW! The biggest “give back” year we’ve ever had!
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 24 years and Brad for 19+, and to put it into our hands with all the faith, trust, and support they give- is absolutely amazing. Thank you Brad & Rick!
Last but not least we want to say congrats to longtime committed Ice Fest fan Jose! After 7 years, this was his year to summit Mount Washington! Go Jose!
Jose at the summit of Mount Washington!
Our 24 thank you’s in honor of our 24th 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! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
THE 2017 ICE FEST CREW! Meg, Jordan, Anne, Michael, Ashley, Todd, & Grant!
MWV Ice Fest Planning Team
Todd Asher Bergstein
Ashley Link
Jordan Luciano
Michael Wejchert
Grant Simmons
Meg Hoffer
Anne Skidmore