Build My Own Feed16th Annual International Climbers Festival in Lander, Wyoming
The 16th Annual International Climbers Festival in Lander has come to a close for 2009. This year proved to be a great success with almost 450 people showing up in Lander, Wyoming for a weekend of climbing, slideshows, slacklining, crate stacking, beer drinking, pizza eating and dancing. 
The event started out Thursday night with the annual pull-up contest and party at the Lander Bar. The guys and girls both proved to have some serious upper-body strength with the women’s leader pulling down 18 and the top guy managing 27. After the pull-up contest Odub and Misty Murphy put on an inspiring set with some classic Odub songs and a couple duets that really rocked. The Random Canyon Growlers finished out the night with some great bluegrass that kept everyone up until the wee hours.
Friday morning, everyone awoke a little tired and still reeling from the night before but spirits were still high for the day’s events. Lander Park was the venue for the Trade Fair with all the sponsors showing off the upcoming year’s gear and different products to sample and sell. The park was also the venue for the big-crate-stacking-contest. For those who don’t know what it is – you take milk crates one at a time and stack them as high as you can while balancing on them and not touching the ground. Check this youtube link for an example. The record was 24, which if you check the pictures is pretty damn high. Luckily they’re tied into a top rope so there aren’t any injuries. The Gannett Grill was serving up their burgers and Tony’s Pizza had an abundance of slices for everyone.
That night was the start of the slideshows with a great presentation from Joe Kinder on his past year of projects. From Kentucky to Spain, inspiring places he has climbed and worked on incredibly hard projects.
Friday night was also the annual Dyno Comp. The town of Lander generously let the ICF close off a street and serve up some free beer courtesy of New Belgium, and host a great dyno comp that showed off the vertical leap of a bunch of local hardmen and women.
Saturday was the Mountain Hardwear Pancake Breakfast up at Wild Iris. The turnout was much larger than expected and they ran out of eggs quickly but luckily the flapjacks stuck around long enough for everyone to get a few in their stomach before a long day of clinics and climbing. Black Diamond had a large stash of demo harnesses, including the new Ozone and Aura sport harnesses. Everyone that took out a harness came back with glowing reviews and stoke levels super high on the new rigs. There was also a huge demand to try out the new LiveWire quickdraws, which came back with equally rave reviews.
Saturday night the free pizza and beer in the park and slackline comp quickly parlayed into the Telluride Mountain Film Festival at the Lander High School. Black Diamond athlete Renan Ozturk’s video Samsara stole the show. The video which documents their trip to India to climb the Shark’s Fin on Meru in the Garwhal Himalaya, gives a first-person perspective of the 22 days they spent suffering while trying to bag the unclimbed Shark’s Fin. Check the trailer here- http://www.vimeo.com/4702183
Overall the 09 ICF was a great success, and Black Diamond is happily coming back next year to battle it out in the pull-up contest and dyno comp!
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