{"id":36293,"date":"2023-01-11T04:45:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-11T11:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ourays-all-in-ice-fest-elevates-climbers-of-marginalized-communities\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T08:30:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:30:18","slug":"ourays-all-in-ice-fest-elevates-climbers-of-marginalized-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ourays-all-in-ice-fest-elevates-climbers-of-marginalized-communities\/","title":{"rendered":"Ouray\u2019s All In Ice Fest elevates climbers of marginalized communities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Kory
Kory Lamberts came to the All In Ice Fest at the Ouray Ice Park from the Bay Area with a group called \u201cNegus in Nature.\u201d Lamberts is an adaptive climber and said the festival was \u201cpretty special to me.\u201d (Reuben Schafir\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

OURAY \u2013 Shouts of excitement and celebration pour over the walls of the Ouray Ice Park \u2013 and it isn\u2019t from the annual festival for which the town and park are internationally known. The ecstatic ice climbers are here for the second annual All In Ice Fest, an event for ice climbers of historically marginalized backgrounds.<\/p>\n

The roughly 160 attendees descended on Ouray from across the nation to ascend frozen waterfalls in the town\u2019s world-famous ice park. Some are accomplished ice climbers, certified guides or are in training to take their certification exams; others picked up a pair of ice tools for the first time last weekend.<\/p>\n

The festival ran Friday through Sunday and featured an assortment of introductory and advanced clinics on ice climbing techniques and skills, as well as social and informational events in the evenings.<\/p>\n

The mission of the festival is to \u201celevate and highlight marginalized communities \u2013 including Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC), LGBTQIA2S+ communities, and Adaptive climbers.\u201d But the festival welcomes climbers without asking attendees to check any particular box with respect to their identity and historical marginalization. Instead, the registration form asks the registrant to \u201celaborate\u201d on their identity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s affirming our own experiences,\u201d said Elizabeth Sahag\u00fan, founder and program director of the festival. \u201cYou don\u2019t just have to be one of these identities to experience that (marginalization). And you can have intersecting identities \u2013 are you going to check two boxes? That isn\u2019t really a full picture of who you are and what you\u2019re bringing to the space.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Elizabeth
Elizabeth Sahag\u00fan is the creator and program director of the All In Ice Fest. She created the festival after feeling \u201ca craving\u201d for a space for ice climbers of historically marginalized backgrounds to learn, grow and celebrate one another. (Reuben Schafir\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The early pioneers of ice climbing were largely white, able-bodied, cisgender men who embodied the image of a colonizer. The goals of All In are to grow the ice climbing community, provide opportunities for professional development and celebrate the accomplishments of climbers of marginalized backgrounds, no matter how large or small.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who don\u2019t see people who are like them in these outdoor spaces \u2013 it makes it really hard to approach, it makes it really hard to try something new,\u201d said Boaz Cesaretti, an alpine guide who co-led an ice climbing essentials clinic on Friday. \u201cI didn\u2019t know any queer ice climbers when I first ice climbed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Born of a \u2018craving\u2019<\/div>\n

Sahag\u00fan, who received her doctorate in neuroscience and behavior last May, was a graduate student when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, forcing her to teach remotely. She had begun ice climbing in 2018 and found herself falling in love with the sport, but struggled with the lack of diversity within it. And so, in winter 2020, she went on a road trip to visit some of the country\u2019s premier ice climbing crags with the intention of expanding her circle of diverse climbers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really wanted to start building this community if I\u2019m going to continue doing it (ice climbing),\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

When she got to Ouray, she met Peter O\u2019Neil, executive director of Ouray Ice Park Inc. Although the idea of a festival was only in its infancy, Sahag\u00fan brought it up with O\u2019Neil.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe pitched it to him and he was really psyched,\u201d she said. \u201c\u2026 He was super excited, he was like \u2018Let\u2019s make it happen. How can we support you in this?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neil said the park had considered ways to expand diversity in ice climbing, but had yet to land on any concrete, effective solutions.<\/p>\n

\u201cLiz had the concept and I was like, \u2018Yes! What a great idea,\u2019\u201d O\u2019Neil said. \u201c\u2026 Someone has to take a leadership role and set an example. I\u2019m glad Liz had the idea and I\u2019m happy to support it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"McKenna
McKenna Hall of Durango topropes an ice route in the Ouray Ice Park at the second annual All In Ice Fest on Friday. (Reuben Schafir\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Using connections she formed in the Scarpa Athlete Mentorship Program \u2013 a brand initiative to help athletes from historically marginalized communities advance their athletic careers \u2013 Sahag\u00fan began to assemble a team to wrangle sponsors and put on an event. And despite her inexperience putting on a festival, the first All In Ice Fest took place last winter.<\/p>\n

For climbers who face challenges other than the steep grade of a frozen waterfall, All In is a place to celebrate the strength it takes to confront those challenges, whatever they may be. And attendees say the community makes all the difference.<\/p>\n

An opportunity to \u2018fully connect with the adventure\u2019<\/div>\n

True to the mission of the festival, the climbers who scaled the park\u2019s walls in scores last weekend were an amalgamated cohort of ice enthusiasts. To look around the park and see parka-ensconced belayers securing ropes for climbers of diverse backgrounds of all kinds created a unique and important learning environment, attendees said.<\/p>\n

Kory Lamberts, who lives in the Bay Area, said he found the festival last year through a group call \u201cNegus in Nature<\/a>.\u201d Lamberts, who is an adaptive climber as the result of a gunshot injury that left him without feeling in his left hand, said the festival was \u201cpretty special to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUsually, it makes me self-conscious not being able to climb how good I think I should be able to climb,\u201d he said. \u201cBut being in a space where other people are going through different types of things or having to find different ways (to climb) makes me feel more comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many climbers consider the sport to be as much a mental challenge as it is a physical one. To climb well demands scrupulous concentration \u2013 something a climber cannot always attain if self-consciousness, social discomfort or anxiety demand mental energy.<\/p>\n

Cody Bean said one of the first times they felt comfortable coming out as nonbinary was to a transgender athlete named Nikki Smith at an ice climbing festival in 2020. When Bean saw that Smith would be at All In, they jumped in the car.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of climbers might say that when they\u2019re climbing, that\u2019s when they detached from the world and focus on that problem,\u201d Bean said. \u201cBut if you\u2019re always having something in the background like white noise, trying to conceal a part of your identity or concern for your safety, it doesn\u2019t allow you to fully connect with the adventure. A space like this \u2013 there\u2019s nothing like spaces that are focused on marginalized identities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The
The South Park area of the Ouray Ice Park was filled with ice climbers from all over the country last weekend for the second annual All In Ice Fest. The event featured introductory and advanced clinics on climbing technique and various technical skills as well as social events. (Reuben Schafir\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Carlin Reynolds, a rock guide and the curriculum and technical director at OUT in the Wild Adventures, said the environment of All In released much of the outside pressure that can compromise a climber\u2019s ability.<\/p>\n

\u201cOften I show up somewhere and I\u2019m the only person outside the gender binary and maybe other people have only met a couple nonbinary people before,\u201d Reynolds said. \u201cIf I\u2019m bad at the thing, then they will probably assume that nonbinary people are bad at it. So it\u2019s a lot of pressure on me to be representing this entire population.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sense of comfort and safety that the festival provides is not just from the attentive belayers and guides running clinics \u2013 it is about who those guides and belayers are.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the relationships that I built in mostly non-diverse spaces tend to be a little bit more one dimensional,\u201d said Stefan Hadeed, the other guide leading the ice climbing essentials clinic. \u201cMaybe we can hang out and talk about climbing, but talking about other stuff, like life experience and all that, it feels like there\u2019s a disconnect. It feels good to be here in a more diverse place and feel like I can connect to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Stefan
Stefan Hadeed, a guide and instructor of the Ice Climbing Essential Clinic, shows Sabrina Padilla how to put on crampons at the Ouray Ice Park on Friday. (Reuben Schafir\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

After showers and some well-deserved food, the event\u2019s 160 attendees headed to the Wright Opera House for the festival opening. Organizers hosted a delegation from the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, which previously resided on the land where Ouray sits before forcible relocation.<\/p>\n

For Briana Mazzolini-Blanchard, the co-founder of an advocacy organization named the Indigenous Field Guide<\/a>, it is important that climbers leave the festival with specific actions they can take to preserve landscapes where Indigenous people have historically and continue to live. She sat on a panel Friday evening after the festival\u2019s opening and an event with the delegation from the Southern Ute Indian Tribe.<\/p>\n

Cassandra Atencio, the Southern Ute Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, said she and her people maintain a powerful connection to the land upon which the festival took place and to the water used to farm the park\u2019s climbing routes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWelcome to my homeland,\u201d Atencio told the crowd assembled Friday evening. \u201cWelcome to where my people have lived forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

This element of the festival ties into its larger mission.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re doing here \u2013 reflecting our values and what climbing means to us and what challenges we face and celebrating that we\u2019ve made it this far,\u201d Sahag\u00fan said.<\/p>\n

\"Amy
Amy Chen, who identifies as nonbinary, fits crampons to their boots before descending into the Ouray Ice Park on the opening day of the All In Ice Fest. (Reuben Schafir\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Stefan
Stefan Hadeed demonstrates a climbing footwork technique to first-time ice climber Amy Chen in the South Park part of the Ouray Ice Park. (Reuben Schafir\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

rschafir@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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