Due to some unforeseen circumstances Kyle Dempster and Doug Robinson will not be able to attend the 2015 Michigan Ice Fest. While we are disappointed that the guys won’t be able to make it this year we will most certainly see them in Michigan next year! Thanks to some scrambling and hard work by Jon Jugenheimer of Black Diamond, and Brett Merlin of CAMP USA, we are very excited to announce that Raphael Slawinski and Anna Pfaff will be joining us as instructors/presentors!
Raphael Slawinski
I got into climbing late, in my mid-twenties. And maybe it was for the best, as I’m still excited about it more than twenty years later. It was moving away from the Canadian Rockies to the flatlands of Chicago, where I went to grad school, which got me into climbing. There were no mountains to scramble, so I started rock and ice climbing on small Midwestern cliffs. These days I’m comfortably settled back in Calgary, on the doorstep of the Rockies. Fortunately my job as a physics professor leaves me lots (but never enough!) time to play in my favorite mountain range.
It’s a good thing I like winter, because it’s really, really long here. There’s so much you can do: ice, mixed, ski … and sometimes, when the motivation’s high and avy hazard low, even winter alpine. Don’t get me wrong though, I love our summers too. High in the shadows of a big limestone north face, looking down on sunlit glaciers and forests far below, is one of the best places I can imagine being.
Ten years ago I discovered the great peaks of the Pakistani Karakoram. There’s something among those giant pyramids of granite and ice, rising above arid, brown valleys, that I haven’t found anywhere else. Whatever it is, it’s drawn me back time and again.
You can check out all things Raphael at his blog by clicking here!
Raphael is being sent to Michigan Ice by our Gold Sponsor Black Diamond!
Anna Pfaff
Anna grew up in Ohio and started climbing when she moved out west in hery early twenties. Some of her earliest memories of climbing include routes like the Emmons – Winthrop on Mount Rainier, Washington, the Salathe on El Capitan, Yosemite with Jean Readle, the Beckey-Chouinard in The Bugaboos, Canada. She has also climbed and ice-climbed in some of the most spectacular locations on earth. From Patagonia, Kyrgyzstan, Tibet, Pakistan, the Himalaya’s. More info on Anna to come but in the meantime check out her blog here!
Anna is being sent to Michigan Ice by our Gold Sponsor CAMP USA!
UPDATE PRESENTATION SCHEDULE
Thursday
TBA
Friday
Ben Erdmann
Raphael Slawinski
Saturday
Will Mayo
Barry Blanchard
