Smugglers’ Notch Ice Bash 2024
The 17th Annual Smuggs Ice Bash
January 26-28, 2024!
Please visit the Smuggs Ice Bash website www.smuggsicebash.com or the Facebook page for the most recent updates on the event.
Friday Night Drytooling Competition
On Friday, January 26, the 13th annual Drytooling Competition will take place at Petra Cliffs Climbing Center in Burlington, VT.
The friendly but fierce indoor competition gets its energy from a live DJ and spectators cheering them on. Beverages and a wicked good time.
$10 includes one raffle ticket. Pre-registration and walk-ins welcome.
Friday Night Drytool Comp- Spectator
Register for a 2024 Smuggs Ice Bash Clinic
Clinic Registration is open and filling fast!
Saturday Evening Presentations
Saturday Evening Presentations
Clinic Participants: $15 (includes 1 raffle ticket)
General Public pre-purchase: $20 (includes 1 raffle ticket)
Day of Show: $25
Cambridge Community Center, 6:30pm
Weekend Venue
The Cambridge Community Center (Cambridge, VT)
Gear demos, presentations, clinics, and more, Saturday & Sunday January 26-28.
Vendors & Sponsors
It is all of the vendors who bring their fleet of gear & expertise and the sponsors who make this event possible. Check out smuggsicebash.com for the lineup of sponsors and supporters.
Smuggs Ice Bash History
A brief history: The Smuggs Ice Bash was born in 2005 thanks to local climber Alden Pellett, who collaborated with Doug Millen of Northeast Ice to try and rally a festival in Smuggler's Notch, Vermont-- an area rich with rock and ice climbing history. As Pellett writes, "The Notch has been climbed heavily since the 70's with many unrecorded routes having been done... Bouchard…Zajchowski… It is also good to note that Fritz Weissner resided in Stowe during the later years of his life. Many unrecorded aid lines exist. Climbers exploring "new" ground should not find it surprising to come across an old soft ring piton or moss-filled pin scars. Despite the hardmen that have explored the area, however, Smuggler's Notch remains an untapped resource for futuristic climbing that will yield numerous first ascents over the next few years as tools and styles evolve further."
Over the first few years of the Ice Bash, Bert Severin of Sunrise Adventure Sports became more involved, and eventually supervised the management of the Ice Bash. With the number of attendees, vendors, and clinic offerings multiplying, the Ice Bash outgrew its original venue. In the spirit of friendly and fun competition, the festival added an indoor drytooling competition at the local climbing gym, Petra Cliffs, drawing a crowd of 200+ people from the Burlington area that otherwise may not have been part of the ice climbing festival. A busy personal life led Bert to seek out new management of the Ice Bash, and he approached Steve and Andrea Charest, owners of Petra Cliffs, in October 2012. Petra Cliffs excitedly took over management of the Ice Bash, with help from many of the regulars who have made the Ice Bash successful over the past years.
The Ice Bash has a Facebook page to interact with participants, keeping them informed and inspired, a website, an Instagram account, more clinics, and other fresh ideas-- we hope to continue to grow the participation in the greatest winter festival in Vermont, and we could not do it without our vendors, local venues, participants, guides and volunteers!