Valdez Ice Festival

KAVU athlete, Jeff Shapiro heads to Valdez, Alaska for adventure and the chance to pass on some "light and fast". Additional photos by Seth Adams

By KAVU

April 3^rd, 2018

Ice Festival

Through my working relationship with CAMP/CASSIN, the company that builds the gear I choose for climbing rock and ice in the alpine, I had the opportunity to fly up to the famed "Valdez Ice Festival" to connect with the climbing community. Over the weekend, I was given the opportunity to teach all-day "fast and light alpinism" clinics to two separate groups of passionate climbers. Too much fun!

Being that the best part about getting to do such things is the people I get to meet, I couldn't have been more stoked! Also, Valdez has been a place I've always wanted to visit and even though I'd climbed several seasons in the Alaska Range, I'd not yet been to this place that apparently held renowned "road-side", 500+ foot frozen waterfalls!

Out of the plane and into the mountains

When I landed in Anchorage, I hooked up with a couple of legends. Conrad Anker and Andres Marin, both representing The North Face were also there to teach clinics.... I couldn't have imagined two better dudes to make the 5 hour drive to Valdez with. We basically laughed our way from the busy streets of Anchorage toward Prince William Sound. As we dropped down the pass to town, we saw our first glimpses of what was indeed huge ice routes, literally spitting distance from the road.

It was going to be a stellar weekend!

recon mission

Being that we arrived one day early to "have a look", Andres, Conrad and I jumped at the chance to get out for a quick jaunt on the classic "Bridalveil Falls". We continued the theme and basically laughed, hooted and hollered our way up what would end up being around 600 feet of high quality ice climbing!

Mountain Film

The organizers of Mountain Film were there the first night of the festival to share the epic imagery and short films on tour. Each film was an inspiration to the audience and I think I can speak for most that we left the theater with a new sense of motivation for life because of the inspiring story telling on the big screen.

There was definitely a sense of community and excitement for the rest of the weekend!

katie Bono

Fellow CAMP/CASSIN athlete, Katie Bono was there to teach both "women's ice climbing" clinics and "fast and light alpinism". She is an uber-badass athlete and a super solid human being.

I felt really lucky to get to team up with her for an all-day clinic and doing so made the day on the ice as good as it gets. One of the cooler people I've met, I hope to get to climb with her again somewhere around the world!!

tips and tricks

It was fun to pass on the little things we have learned over the years that help us to be more efficient on routes in the mountains.

fun was indeed had!

evening entertainment

On Saturday evening, we all got the treat to check out a slide show presented by Conrad which spanned both some interesting AK climbing history, all the way to his most recent and hugely successful trip with other NF athletes to Antarctica. It was inspiring, for sure and even allowed some really interesting discussion about critical topics like climate change and environmental responsibility.

A bit of a surprise was when Andres, who was a percussion major in school, sat at the drum set and basically rocked the house with some serious beats!! Andres is clearly a talented dude!

surprise bonus

After the clinics were done, the heart and organizer of the Valdez Ice Festival, Lee Hart, managed to get us on a chartered boat to reach out across Prince William Sound to look for the possibility for unclimbed ice! Adidas athlete, Marcus Garcia and I couldn't believe our luck! We teamed up with pro photographer, Seth Adams and at first light, loaded up with Josh at Valdez Water Taxi.

Once across the bay, we quickly saw a few gems that were calling our names!

Because of the tides, we only had so much time time to work with so we had to choose the route that inspired us most. We landed on a rock and black sand beach under what looked like 3 pitches of steep ice. It was a super unique environment to be climbing ice with the Sound behind us surrounded by snowy, Alaskan peaks!

So Beautiful!!

We solo'd the first pitch and then the ice reared up into "the business". It was more thought provoking than it looked from below which was a pleasant surprise and we had a blast working our way to the top of the route we would end up naming "The Raven".

friends

After an epic day in the mountains, it's always easy to see why climbers can pretty easily become fast friends. Trading leads with Marcus had me stoked for more adventures with him in the future!

kavu days

Huge thanks to Lee Hart, Brian Teal, and the entire team who made the Valdez Ice Festival possible, Emma Longcope from the AAC, Seth Adams, Marcus Garcia, Conrad Anker, Andres Marin, Katie Bono, Josh at Valdez Water Taxi, CAMP (for sending me up there), and all the amazing climbers who showed up to make the festival memorable!