It isn’t easy to learn to climb ice in Portland. It doesn’t get cold enough for the gorge waterfalls to regularly freeze over and in the summer getting to the ice on the Elliot and White River Glaciers is no easy feat. While it’s not easy to find ice around Portland, the sport of ice climbing is exploding, and there are some great places within relatively close proximity where our members are regularly climbing—Hyalite Canyon near Bozeman, Montana and the Ouray Ice Park, in Ouray, Colorado to name a few.
To solve the problem, the ASI Committee came up with the idea of adding an ice wall to the MMC auditorium. This wall would complement the existing rock walls in our facility, and would offer the Mazamas the opportunity to not only teach ice climbing skills in the MMC, but to also provide a training ground for those that have already been through our advanced classes to practice their techniques before heading outdoors.
A fundraiser was held on March 13 and a whopping $27,000 has already been raised towards the $33,000 project price tag. Would you like to help make this project a reality? You can donate here.