Load up 65 Alaskan climbers with lethal doses of vitamin D, show them some icy Chugach Crud and watch the antics. After years of attempts to make it happen, the first annual Alaska Ice Climbing festival was held on March 6-8 at Hunter Creek near Anchorage. Attendees came from as far away as Fairbanks and Kodiak. Parties, clinics and a competition filled the weekend.
 
Launching the event was a Friday night slide show in Anchorage on adventures to the Arrigetch and Karakoram by the Fairbanks climber Sam Johnson. On Saturday clinics started in Hunter Creek at 9 am, an hour hike up the narrow drainage in the roughest corner of the notoriously rough Matanuska Valley. By noon the competition was rolling and 21 contestants climbed a 100-foot toprope of overhanging ice, grass and decomposing Chugach rock. The canyon walls echoed with techno from DJ Lindsay’s backcountry sound system, while announcer Ralph Tingey’s crass commentary kept the competitors' dry tools wobbling on the crumbling rock.
 
In typical Alaska style, the salty alpine climbers dominated. Local gym teacher Jay Rowe won the event by methodically grinding up the route in just under the allotted 10 minutes, then lowered to the ground pumped and smiling through a face covered with dirt. Pararescueman Dave Shuman received a barrage of cheers when he dry tooled an alder bush protruding from the ice and then climbed up for a no-hands rest on the branch. Later, when contestants reached the alder, a chorus went up, “Do the Shu! Do the Shu!” On the final overhanging choss headwall, when a competitor’s tool bounced from rock rather than sinking into turf, the audience cheered “Harder! Swing harder!”
 
The Organic Oasis in Anchorage held a rowdy post-competition party. The final day was filled with more clinics and fun climbing on the canyon’s selection of fat 1-2 pitch flows.
 
Plans are being established for next year’s event on March 5-7, 2010. Come up for a taste of Alaska, where climbing is about adventure. Maybe use the Alaska Ice Climbing Festival to kick off an ice roadie to Valdez.

Competition Results:
1. Jay Rowe
2. Scottie Vincik
3. Joe Stock
4. Dave Lucy
5. Cody Arnold

See
www.alaskaiceclimbingfestival.org
www.alaskaiceclimbing.com