Build My Own Feed3rd Annual Pontresina Ice Climbing Festival
The Ice Climbing Festival in Pontresina, Switzerland will take place on March 27th and 28th for the third time. Ice climbers from all over Europe will meet at the tail end of the season for this special event. There will be a speed-climbing competition on the manmade icefall below the gondola in the Diavolezza ski area, at 2800 meters above sea level in alpine terrain.
On Saturday 27 March 2010, there will be an impressive speed climbing competition on the man-made ice below Diavolezza. Teams of two will be competing over several pitches. Head-to-head, qualifying heats will be performed on one-pitch top roped climbs. The two fastest teams in each group will qualify for the finals. Those will be two parallel top rope routes of about 100 meters. The team with the fastest combined time on both routes wins this one-of-a-kind speed-climbing competition.
The workshops on Sunday 28 March 2010 are open to all who want to try ice climbing for the first time or who want to pick up new tricks from some of the world's leading ice climbing athletes. Top climbers Ines Papert, Albert Leichtfried, Markus Bendler and Jack and Petra Müller will show their tips and tricks to small groups in a secure setting with mountain guides. Ice climbing equipment will be provided for testing all day.
In case of bad weather, the competition and workshops will take place at the new dry-tooling facility near the Sports Pavilion in Pontresina. Saturday night after the competition will see an ice party in the Sports Pavilion with a pasta dinner, movies, live music and a dry-tooling show.
The sponsors of The Ice Climbing Festival are GoVertical, Pontresina Tourismus, Engadin Mountains, Engadin St.Moritz, Arc'teryx, Black Diamond and Nokia.
Find more information about the program as well as workshop registration and the competition at www.Ready2Climb.com.
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