Ice Festival

It’s a surprisingly long way across the frozen Kennebecasis River from the Rothesay Yacht Club to Long Island. People packing climbing boots and backpacks were crossing on foot, headed for the hundred foot frozen waterfall on a cliff known as Ministers Face. I made the trip on skis and passed a number of the ice walkers on the way. We were all going to the annual Ice Festival, the walkers to climb the frozen waterfall and me to shoot some video of them doing it.

This gathering of ice climbers from around the region started about seven years ago. They do it every year if weather and ice conditions permit. It started out as a small gathering of friends who climb and has grown every year. Most of the climbers this year are from the Fredericton and Saint John areas and many of them are first timers. Experienced climbers go first and using foot long ice screws they attach the safety ropes to the frozen falls. Ropes are also looped over trees at the top of the falls. Climbers attach spiky crampons to their boots and with the help of ice axes, pick their way up and down the ice wall.

There were five or six climbing ropes dangling down the ice. Climbers attached themselves to the rope with the aid of another climber controlling the rope; pick their way up the face. The ice was a wall of climbers all day long. There were between 20 and 30 people taking turns while I was there and when they weren’t actively involved in the sport they were talking about climbing. It’s obviously a very social activity and after the climbing ends for the day the climbers all gather for a potluck and a slide show from previous festivals. That takes place at Steve Adamson’s house nearby.

Steve is known as the grandfather of climbing in New Brunswick. He’s only 47 but has been climbing for 33 years. And not just on ice. Steve has climbed mountains in the Rockies, the Alps, Andes and the Himalayas. He’s the guy who first climbed many of these frozen waterfalls in New Brunswick. Steve says this part of the province is pretty hard to beat when it comes to ice climbing. Besides Ministers Face there is good climbing in Welsford and in the Sussex area.

Steve pointed out to me that ice climbing could be dangerous. If something goes wrong you have to know what to do. Ice can break like glass and people can fall. Experienced climbers can tell how stable the ice is by the look and colour of it. All that being said the climbers out this day obviously love their sport. They say it’s both a physical and mental challenge. Steve Adamson says it would be unthinkable for climbers not to go ice climbing in the winter.

I was offered the opportunity to try ice climbing many times that day. I politely declined, preferring instead to capture the experience on video. When the shooting was over I packed my gear, put on my skis and headed for the mainland about a mile away across the river. I like my ice horizontal.