Athlete • Speaker • Guide 
Athlete • Speaker • Guide Date: 16th December 2013
It’s been a week of Bozeman, and it’s been a really good week. I first climbed in Bozeman about 15 years ago. I was on a season-long tour of basically every ice festival and event in North America, and couldn’t miss the chance to sample Hyalite. The event was a lot smaller then, but the spirit was great, and I’m always psyched to go when I can. Over the years I’ve been to four or five more “BIFs”, and the festival has grown massively in both size and mojo. Hundreds of clinic participants, sold-out shows, a big competition, and a unique Montana vibe that permeates everything. It’s one of the best festivals in the world. A few highlights:
Climbing:
In addition to all the people climbing at the clinics Hyalite is just filled with people climbing water ice and mixed. This week saw some repeats of Inglorius Bastards, M12 (Nathan Kutcher, Stephanie Maureau, Sarah Hueniken, me), and I snagged the second ascent of House of Flying Daggers, also M12 (and about the same as Inglorius). Ryan Vachon and Nathan Kutcher came close on House as well, but there is less ice on the route than when Kyle Vassolopus did the FA so the exit is now the crux. The local classic, “Winter Dance,” saw a lot of traffic. Ines Papert made a rare onsight of it with an old friend of mine and the head of research and development for Black Diamond, Bill Belcourt, who just turned 50, nice work team BD! Winter Dance has a solid trail up to it, it’s been climbed every day this week and is in sweet shape, go get it!
A special shout to the guys who gave me a lift down the canyon on Thursday. Best ride down the canyon ever, and a big part of what makes me psyched on the Bozeman Ice Festival, hell yeah!
Difficulty Competition:
The UIAA North American Championships went off well. This was Conrad Anker’s big push to eventually bring a World Cup to Bozeman, and he and the team did it well. In a neat twist my old friend David Dornian was the UIAA rep; we travelled to Tokyo in ’92 for one of the early Sport climb world cups, the world moves in circles. The routes were solid, and the comp generally well-run. The crowd’s energy for the finals was awesome; a packed house with bonfires cranking sparks into the dark, a collective psyche of “UP!!” and enough volume to make my skin crawl when I tied in, thanks for the stoke–it was just awesome to feel that energy and be a part of it, hell yeah! I was happy with my result; I always set out to climb the route, and managed to do that while feeling pretty solid. There was a relatively short limit to climb to the top, which made it more pumpy than it would have been with a less restrictive time. Drytooling comps are now definitely about speed as much as difficulty for the top places; if you want to send the route you’ve got to MOVE or time out. Will Mayo also sent the route while the clock ticked to zero, and Gordon McArthur came close for fourth, a very solid result. The young Slovenian, Janez Svolijaak, went last and knew Mayo and I had topped out–no isolation could keep the roar of the crowd or the announcer’s voice counting the time down out of our ears–and that to win he would have to beat Mayo and me on time. He went all-out, no resting, tools skidding, and sent the route like a robot on meth (an ex GF thought that last comment is an insult to Janez–it’s not, respect to him). It was a wicked competition performance–he didn’t play it safe for a podium placement , he went for it, and I always respect that attitude in a competitor. He is 20 years old, and clearly the future.
I didn’t get to watch the women’s event, but it had a difficult crux or two that really separated the field. Angelika Rainer was the only woman to send the route, and even she struggled hard with a crux that also stopped Jen Olsen. Sarah Hueniken and Stephanie Maureau got through it with some blood in their eyes, it was a tough. In a comp it’s always good to either clip the chains or finally fall while pumped stupid, and the women’s route got people there. Ines Papert, likely the most accomplished female ice/mixed climber in the world today and a friend I competed with back in the day, unfortunately slipped off the final route low. That’s competition, and shows that the line we ride with our tools is often very very fine. I wish I had more to say about the women’s comp, but I was stuck in isolation unfortunately. The biggest hassle at comps for me is isolation, and the endless waiting around to climb… Great when it happens, but it just feels like life is sliding by in isolation.
Speed comp: Adam Knopf route-set and somehow managed to come out and still win the Speed Climbing championships. The man is an animal, and to me that was one the biggest highlights of the event, a really rad performance. There wasn’t the crowd for the speed that there was for the difficulty, but I think speed is pure athleticism, probably a better spectator event than difficulty. Kendra Strich won for the women, nice work! I competed but fell off in the first round when I went for it a bit too much; competition is always about being at the right level of mental engagement and arousal, and I was just too psyched to go hard. It always sucks to fall off in a comp, even if my focus had been on the difficulty, and it’s a good reminder of how sweet the good results are. It takes getting slapped down a bit sometimes to appreciate the often very fine line between success and failure in mixed comps.
Now it’s time to head out to Hyalite and climb again, stoked! A big thanks to Jo Jo, Conrad, Ari, and the many, many rad volunteers and people who pull together to make this festival happen. You all rock. I feel like a new generation of people is entering into the competition and festival scene, and that’s great to see and be a part of. Go Bozeman!
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