The Festiglace competition, held in Pont-Rouge outside of Montreal, has witnessed ten years of unique competition, where climbers are tested on endurance, difficulty and speed. [Photo] Benoit Robitaille
Following wins this year at the 2007 Ouray Ice Festival, Ice World Championship and the UIAA Ice Climbing World Cup, Evgeny Krivosheitcev won all three contests–marathon, difficulty and speed–at the 10th annual Festiglace competition. The festival, hosted at Pont-Rogue just outside of Montreal, Quebec, ran from February 16-18.
Maxime Turgeon (Quebec) trying to pull into the steep ice at the end of the difficulty finals route. Tired from the marathon competition the day before, Turgeon said, ?my abs weren?t able to keep my legs up anymore.? Turgeon took fifth place. [Photo] Benoit Robitaille
Festiglace’s unusual format is designed to exhaust its entrants with three separate competitions over two days. On February 17 the marathon contest gave paired teams three hours to accrue points by climbing as many routes, of varying difficulties and point values, as possible. The top ten marathon finishers were invited to compete in the difficulty comp the next day. A toprope speed contest followed. Krivosheitcev, who generally prefers difficulty competitions, praised the marathon format–“Only at Festiglace can you take part in a comp like that,” he said. “It really shows your climbing and fitness levels.”
Krivosheitcev won the marathon by climbing over a dozen hard lines, including the most difficult, the Festiglace Route, a thirty-meter pump-fest that nearly made him drop his tools. His 313 points bested twenty-three other competitors, including second-place finisher Tony Lamiche (255). On February 18, Krivosheitcev finished the difficulty route, narrowly beating Switzerland’s Simon Wandeler, the only other competitor to finish the route, by three minutes. Fifth place finisher Maxime Turgeon described the route as “fifteen meters of classic Pont-Rouge overhanging choss at a difficulty of M7 (almost every rock section in Pont-Rouge is that hard because you can swing your tools into the rock to make holds), then there was a two meter roof followed by ten more meters of overhanging ice.”
Turgeon, who has attended Festiglace three times, said that the contest’s greatest asset is that “you can meet other people who have the same passion as you.” Krivosheitcev agrees, comparing the social atmosphere to Ouray. He has won Festiglace all three times he’s attended.
Despite Krivosheitcev’s success during the competitions, Sam Beaugey managed to steal this year’s show by skydiving out of a helicopter with Erwan Lelan and climbing completely naked during the speed competition.
Ukrainian Evgeny Krivosheitcev on the 2007 Festiglace difficulty finals route. Only Simon Wandeler (Switzerland) and Krivosheitcev reached the top; based on time, Krivosheitcev won the contest, eking out Wandeler by three minutes. This is Krivosheitcev’s third time attending–and winning–Festiglace. [Photo] Benoit Robitaille
Krivosheitcev drytools his way to victory on the difficulty finals route. [Photo] Rob Cordery-Cotter
2007 Festiglace Results
Marathon Competition (February 17)
1 Evgeny Krivosheitcev 313
2 Tony Lamiche 255
3 Eric Doiseau 238
4 Simon Wandeler 231
5 Francois Marcotte 230
6 Benoit Dubois 217
7 Jeff Mercier 198
8 Sam Beaugey 193
9 Maxime Turgeon 191
10 Louis-Philippe Menard 187
11 Will Mayo 185
12 Manu Cordova 179
13 Audrey Gariepy 178
14 Jonathan Urness 174
15 Guy Lacelle 166
16 Mathieu Maynadier 147
17 Boris Bihler 145
18 Stephanie Moreau 143
19 Mathieu Audibert 131
20 Jennifer Olson 118
21 Rob Cordery Cotter 95
22 Roger Strong 92
23 Jason Nelson 84
24 Abby Watkins 82
Difficulty Competition (February 18)
1 Evgeny Krivosheitcev
2 Simon Wandeler
3 Stephanie Moreau / Tony Lamiche
4 Eric Dorseau
5 Maxime Turgeon
Speed Competition (February 18)
1 Evgeny Krivosheitcev (29 seconds)
2 Benoit Dubois (32 seconds)
3 Francois Marcotte (39 seconds)