During the event, participants climb for donations at participating climbing gyms (Sportrock and Earth Treks), receive instruction from world-class climbing athletes, and can learn basic climbing skills from REI staff at the Intro to Climbing class.

For the $30 registration fee, it looks a good deal as well:

Registration includes punch cards valid at both climbing gyms, good for 11 days of climbing at each gym; plus a wildcard (one bonus day at each gym); goodie bags with giveaways from sponsors (available for participants who register before February 26); admission to Kick-Off event, Climbersâ?? Festival and Wrap party; discounts; raffle prizes and more. Participants also receive discounts on gym classes and memberships. New climbers who want to try out their skills before the event can do so on the climbing walls at REI Fairfax and REI Timonium (call for hours).

The funds raised go to support research at Johns Hopkins University on early detection, better treatment, and prevention of ovarian cancer.

Anyone can participate, so please check out the registration at www.herafoundation.org.

The post first appeared on All Climbing.

I wasnâ??t sure what Iâ??d get out of a weekend of ice climbing just with girls, because Iâ??ve always climbed with boys. Of course Iâ??d come away with sore shoulders, bigger calves and more mad girl-climbing skills, but what else would be on the table at a womenâ??s weekend? After an insanely fun weekend in Ouray at the Chicks With Picks Betty Ice Ball, I compiled a list of five things youâ??ll get more of when you climb with Chicks:

More Potty Talk: A lot can go wrong when you have to pee with a funnel. (I wonâ??t go into it here, but trust me — things can go really wrong.) Consequently, stories about pee funnels abound when you climb with women. After one of the dinners at the Ice Ball, a veteran Chick recounted a pee funnel story from her climb of Denali: The tube of her beloved Freshette landed in the â??toiletâ? at a high camp, sending her into total panic. How would she do the deed in a rope team with men now? A friend sent her to see the only other woman on the mountain, who, though she boasted about only using a hardware-store funnel herself rather than those fancy pee funnels, had a spare Freshette. The woman turned out to be Dawn Glanc, who served as a guide for this yearâ??s Betty Ball (and won the Ouray Ice Fest comp in Januray).

More Nudity: If youâ??re not afraid to bare your ass to the wind and other climbers in the Ice Park (assuming youâ??re not using the aforementioned Freshette), youâ??re probably not afraid to do it back at the Vic in the relative privacy of your room. Maybe my roommate and I were just exhibitionists, but when youâ??re queuing to get in the shower next so you donâ??t stink at dinner, you start peeling off baselayers. If other women came in the room to download the day of climbing while youâ??re toweling off, well, no time for modesty when youâ??re hungry enough to gnaw on your backpack. Thereâ??s nothing titillating about this, no grab-fanny going on here. That happens while weâ??re out climbing, fully dressed.

More Love: When you totally rock some climb, dude — and you will at Chicks, because youâ??ll have some of the best guides around, regardless of gender — expect high fives, fist bumps, puffy belay-jacket hugs and cheers. When a guide throws a contest into the clinic, like making it up in the fewest swings, expect stiff competition from your pals…and those puffy hugs in the end, because your competitors have grace. The love-fest wonâ??t go unnoticed. Nearby climbers seem a little jealous (could just be that youâ??re climbing with Kitty Calhoun), and one commented with a smile that we were having way too much fun, in these sports events, so if you’re a climber and you’re looking for sporting events today you can go here for this.

More Mascara: Iâ??ve never climbed in makeup. Probably because I almost never wear makeup. But for some reason, I spotted a lot of Chicks wearing mascara while ice climbing. I didnâ??t look further into this trend, but Iâ??m assuming itâ??s waterproof. How could it not be waterproof, right? Ice melts after it nicks your face. A few Chicks wore lip gloss, too, and I had to wonder how that doesnâ??t end up on your glove when you wipe your nose with the back of your hand. I donâ??t really get it, but it does look nice — much nicer than the layers of snot accumulating on my gloves. Perhaps I could learn something from the glam climbers.

More Climbing: The Chicks guides keep you moving. You start at 7:45 and climb until 4 p.m. You have 30 minutes to scarf lunch and move to your next clinic. When you get there, be prepared to work. Even when the guides donâ??t seem to be pushing you, they are. Sarah Hueniken, the guide for my mixed clinic, kept sending us further and further up routes by simply saying, â??Do one more move.â? This was the last clinic of the weekend, and I was wasted, but as soon as someone untied, sheâ??d get me to keep going with a mere, â??Youâ??re up, Jenn,â? and a smile. On the last climb, a tall M7, she summoned me to the rope and said, â??Well someone needs to go get the quickdraws.â? Indeed.

Jenn Fields is a writer and editor from Longmont, Colorado. She has written for Bicycling, Mountain Bike, Backpacker, Climbing and the Boulder Daily Camera. Her personal web site is http://www.jennfields.com. You can also follow her on Twitter.

Chicks with Picks just celebrated its tenth anniversary of teaching women of all abilities how to ice climb and improve current skills. More info can be found at http://www.chickswithpicks.net/.

The post More Chicks, A Weekend at the Betty Ice Ball first appeared on All Climbing.

The following day, on Friday, February 13 at 7pm, All Climbing is hosting a meetup / welcoming party with Andrew Hyde (a startup guru in Boulder) for Steph. Andrew is a good friend of Steph’s and helped setup her blog. We share a common interest in mingling the techology and climbing communities.

The location is still to be determined, but we’re currently taking names of those interested in attending. If you’d like to come, please sign up here.

Also, if there are any other organizations out there that would like to help sponsor this event, please contact me.

I know some climbers will be in town for the ABS Nationals at The Spot and if you have some time I hope you can join us for this meetup with Steph.

The post Announcing a Climbing Meetup with Steph Davis first appeared on All Climbing.

I’ve tried forever to find a single comprehensive list of climbing events, but they were scattered across numerous sites. So All Climbing is putting together the most comprehensive list anywhere. Check it out and if you see a missing event let us know.

If you use Google Calendar, iCal or any other calendar application that supports the iCal format you can use this address to subscribe to the climbing events: http://www.google.com/calendar/ical/tmarkiewicz%40allclimbing.com/public/basic.ics.

You can always view the calendar directly on our events page.

If you have any additions to the list, now or in the future, please use our contact form.

The post Climbing Events Calendar first appeared on All Climbing.

The Backcountry Blog has an insightful and partially negative view of the recent Red Rock Rendezvous.

As it turns out, being a pro climber does not necessarily make you a great instructor. It does make you an excellent advertiser though, and it was clearly conveyed what company makes the best equipment.

While the author didn’t appreciate the trad clinic, apparently the rest of the event was a great success.

I’ve been meaning to attend this rendezvous the past few years and have never made it. Did anyone attend this years Red Rock Rendezvous and have similar experiences?

The post Red Rock Rendezvous Review first appeared on All Climbing.

I’ve heard reports that the New River Rendezvous registration is starting to get full. This year organizers are limiting the event to the first 700 climbers who register in advance.

The fee is only $25 and from my past experiences at the Rendezvous, it will be money well spent.

The post Registration for New River Rendezvous getting full first appeared on All Climbing.

April 4-6 – Spring Fling Quartz Gathering, Quartz Mountain, OK

April 4-6 – Warrior’s Way and New River Mountain Guides Trad Camp, New River Gorge, WV

April 6 – YMCA Climb-Off ’08, North Canton, OH

April 12 – 8th Annual Crux the Competition, Radford, VA

April 13 – Radical Reels, Boulder, CO

April 16 – Galen and Barbara Rowell Lecture Series [tickets], San Francisco, CA

April 18-19 – ClimbFest Ogden 2008, Ogden, UT

April 19 – Goddesses on the Rocks, Joshua Tree, CA

April 18-19 – Red River Reunion Trash Clean Up, Red River Gorge, KY

April 26 – Beginning of Season Party and Pig Roast, Seneca Rocks, WV

The post Climbing events for April first appeared on All Climbing.

There will be a few changes this year including pre-registration limiting attendees to 700 (last year was around 1200 climbers) and parking passes will now be needed.

Registration will be live on March 1, 2008.

We will be requiring everyone to pre-register online for a small fee. The days of giving it all away are behind us. It’s not something that we want to do because it means more work for us, but there’s no gettin’ around it. Why you ask? A couple of reasons…The NPS has asked us to limit the number of people who attend the event because the Brunwood is busting out of it’s seams. That means we need to count people and weed out the riff-raff. And B, we also have to kick down for event insurance, and if you know anything about the insurance industry, you know it ain’t cheap.

The event schedule looks to be the same as last year, so everyone should be in for a good time.

The post 6th Annual New River Rendezvous announced first appeared on All Climbing.

January 4 – 6, 2008
Kandersteg Ice Climbing Festival
The 8th annual Kandersteg Ice Climbing Festival will be held in the Bernese Oberland. Over 450 ice climbers are expected to attend this festival in Switzerland.

January 9 – 13, 2008
Ouray Ice Festival
The 13th annual Ouray Ice Festival will be held in the Ouray Ice Park in Colorado.

January 11 – 13, 2008
Adirondack International Mountainfest
The Mountaineer and Adirondack Rock and River have set up temporary stage platforms and will host the 12th annual Adirondack International Mountainfest in Keene Valley, New York.

February 1 – 3, 2008
Michigan Ice Fest
This is the 25th year of the Michigan Ice Fest located on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

February 7 – 10, 2008
Mount Washington Valley Ice Festival
One of the premier climbing events in the country, the 2008 ice festival will be the 15th annual running of the event. This year they even have an Ice Fest 2008 blog. I’ve been to this one twice and it was great.

February 15 – 18, 2008
South Fork Waterfall Ice Festival
The 10th annual South Fork Waterfall Ice Festival bills itself as the “Friendliest Little Ice Festival in the Northern Rockies” and will be held in Cody, Wyoming.

February 16 – 17, 2008
Smuggler’s Notch Ice Bash
I’m not sure how long this festival has been running, but the Smuggler’s Notch Ice Bash will be centered out of the Sunrise Cafe in Jeffersonville, Vermont.

If there are any upcoming ice festivals I missed, please leave a comment below.

The post Upcoming Ice Climbing Festivals in 2008 first appeared on All Climbing.