mnadventure.com

Sandstone Ice Fest wrap-up
A big thanks to everyone who helped to make the Sandstone Ice Festival a great event. This was the fifth year of the festival; Dawn Glanc was the guest speaker, there were some awesome sponsors, and there is a very good possibility of an ice park coming soon.

Having a world class athlete as the guest speaker was a new feature for the event. Dawn Glanc was great, she hung out all three days of the event, giving climbing tips and encouraging everyone tied to a rope. Her slide show was excellent and inspiring, covering the dream of a beginner to the winning of the 2009 Ouray Ice Festival.

As the Sandstone Ice Festival grows, so does the sponsors list. Demo gear showed up from Black Diamond, La Sportiva, Scarpa and Petzle. Cozy, warm demo parks were provided by Mt Hard Ware. Thanks to all the sponsors that donated goodies to the door prizes: Atomiks, Mad Rock, Grand Casino Hinckley, Redpoint Nutrition and all the other sponsors that added to the fun.
Thanks to Peace Coffee and Surly for providing beverage samples, thanks to the Days Inn for giving the room discounts.

Every year the event introduces new climbers to the challenges of moving on ice. The ice climbing clinics at the festival filled fast this year, thanks to the clinic instructors; Kiri, Amy, Rubens, Jon, James, Dean, Kaija, Kendra, Gina and Matt.

Besides the ice climbing, winter sports lovers showed up for the winter camping, and the great hiking and skiing on the trails that lead into Banning State Park. Blake Cazier of Positive Energy Outdoor (ed)Ventures brought a couple dogs and a sled. My 6 year old daughter, Lily, went for her first dogsled ride, thanks Blake. Ski Pulks were also made available by designer Ed Bouffard.

Thanks to Greg Martin for all he has done for this festival and the past events. Besides organizing the volunteers and helping with the set-up and tear down, Greg was available to help with all the big and little decisions that go along with planning a large event. Greg's positive perspective made opportunities out of the many hurdles involved in the planning of the Ice Festival.

Even though the ice was thin this year, everyone was having a great time climbing and enjoying the winter. The community support of the festival is strong and steps are being made to make ice farming possible in the near future.

Read more about the Sandstone Ice Festival on Nora's blog at seaboopugs.blogspot.com/

Tony Vavricka
Event Director
Sandstone Ice Festival

Tony,

Thanks for all the hard work. I wish I could have spent more time up there this year. I'm looking forward to starting to get some plumbing up on the ledge that we can tap into with either pumps or the new hydrants that the city will be putting in so we can be a little more deliberate on where the Ice flows show up. The main flow area will always be the same, I am just hoping we can lay things out so we can have the same flows on all the routes to the north. That way we can equip them and have some great mixed lead routes.

I need to get Johns hoses back so I can fix them and return them to him with his pump. I'll talk to Greg about that.

jeff

Thanks Jeff, and thanks for all you have done to open up the climbing in Robinson Park.

Thanks to everyone who made it to the Sandstone Ice Festival. Climbers from as far away as Arkansas, Texas and Las Vegas showed up to climb in Sandstone MN.

And again, a huge thanks to our sponsors. Please support the businesses that support the Ice Festival. Call Vertical Endeavors (651.776.1430) and thank them- better yet- do a little x-mas shopping the next time you are in the gym.

Sponsors like V E ,bringing their demo gear to the event, are vital to success of the festival.

I also need to thank the volunteers that helped with the demo gear; Taylor, Darrin and Bryan. Thanks to Jim(my father-in-law)
who covered the rental on the projector. Thanks to everyone who donated a rope for the event.

Thanks to; the city of Sandstone for hosting the event, the Gas Light for the awesome fireworks, and the Pine County Courier for the great, post event write-up.

The list goes on and on...

I'll be there next year for sure! How thin was the ice?

photo from the 2009 Sandstone Ice Festival