IMCS Winter "What's New" Letter

Greetings from International Mountain Climbing School (IMCS) and International Mountain Equipment (IME) in North Conway New Hampshire. We are entering into our 34th year of providing equipment, guiding and instruction for Rock, Ice, and International Expeditions. In the mountains, in the world around us, and in life in general, things change (like Global warming) and things stay the same. This is true with IMCS as well.

We have had quite a number of people ask if we could be more pro-active in getting the word out about our International Trips and instructional programs. As some of you may know, we have not done a catalog or mailing in a few years now. The price of printing and mailing a catalog was becoming prohibitively expensive, not to mention the tremendous amount of paper required just to stay in touch. So here we are, being pulled, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century. We cannot escape the world of email, blogs, and the internet. We hope that this seasonal "What's New?" letter will better inform you of what we are doing and where we are going. Our website (www.ime-usa.com) is still the best source of information on our programs.

What has changed and what has stayed the same?

The first major change is that one of the owners of IMCS has moved on. Maury McKinney, long time co-owner and director of IMCS is heading in a new direction. Maury, originally from Florida, is a lifelong swimmer and has always had a passion to coach and instruct aquatic sports. Maury is pursuing his dream of creating a world-class aquatic center right here in the Mt. Washington Valley. As of October 1st, 2007 Maury is no longer a director or an owner of IMCS. Maury will still work as a part-time guide for us and will do his best to accommodate requests. We will miss him here in the office but he is not going far away!

Long time owners Brad White and Rick Wilcox will continue to oversee the climbing school. Brad White will be the director of the climbing school and Rick Wilcox will continue to run International Mountain Equipment. In addition to her guiding responsibilities, IMCS guide Joan Lee-Elkin will be helping Brad in the office.

What's New?

International Trips:

We have one person interested in going to Argentina in January 2008 for our Tronador trip. He is aggressively looking for partners. This trip is coming right up so if anyone is interested give us a call or e-mail us at guides@ime-usa.com.

For more details on this trip check out:
http://ime-usa.com/imcs/expeditions/so_america/Tronodor/index.html

Nepal - Everest Base Camp:

Rick and Celia Wilcox have recently returned from their annual trek to Everest Base Camp where they successfully accompanied 16 clients to 19,000 feet and back. Please give them a call at IME if you are interested in next year's trip.

IMCS Guides get AMGA certifications:

We are proud to announce that this summer four of our IMCS guides took the AMGA guide's exam and passed with flying colors. Also this summer IMCS guide Elliot Gaddy took the AMGA Ten Day Guide Course and looks to take his exam next year.

Guides who passed the exam are:

Peter Doucette: Certified Rock Guide
Zeb Jakub: Certified Rock Instructor
Bayard Russell: Certified Rock Instructor
Beckett Honicker: Certified Rock Instructor

Congratulations to all!


Ice Fest 2008

We are working hard to set up our Ice Festival for 2008. The dates for the Ice Fest are Thursday February 7th through Sunday February 10th, here at International Mountain Equipment. IMCS guide Sarah Garlick is organizing this event. You can see what she is up to by checking the Ice Fest Blog on our Home page: http://www.icefest.blogspot.com/ As of now all clinics have space available and we are taking reservations. http://www.ime-usa.com/ice_festival/index.html

Winter arrives in the high country!

Winter has arrived in the mountains if not here in the valley. IMCS guide Peter Doucette and client David Kimmel successfully completed a Presidential Range traverse last week. They found themselves breaking through two feet of snow at times, with waist deep drifts. Check out their adventure here on the Guides' Blog.

Eager to check conditions out, owner Brad White along with his son Ian and Ian's high school football coach (former professional football player for the New England Patriots, Drew Inser) summited Mt. Washington on Sunday, November 11th via the Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail. They descended the Jewell trail from Mt. Clay, completing a spectacular nine mile loop with over 100 miles of visibility on all sides and a balmy 14 degrees F.


On Wednesday, November 14th, Brad further investigated the arrival of winter with a venture into Tuckerman's Ravine. Brad went up for some early season ice with friend and fellow IMCS guide, Al Hospers. Things were a bit too warm (40 F) to accomplish their goal of an ascent of the center headwall because of melting ice hanging from above. They did swing the tools and run some laps on good ice on the lower right side in an area called the Open Book . You can check out this trip and how the ravine looked on Al's website: http://www.neclimbs.com/

We have not given up on rock climbing yet. Down low in the valley things are still warm enough on the south faces. Brad got some climbing in on Humphreys Ledge here in North Conway on Saturday with the thermometer reading around 42 F and in the sun the climbing was pleasant. Humphreys Ledge offers a good selection of intermediate rock climbing in the 5.6-5.9 range that is in the sun all day. This is still a great time
of year to do climbs such as Hotter than Hell (5.9) to upper Inferno on the South Buttress of Whitehorse Ledge in North Conway.

More information will be coming soon on the new AMGA Single Pitch Instructor Program (SPI) this spring. We will be offering this course in May as well as all summer once the program is fully established by the AMGA.

One of the most important assets of International Mountain Climbing School has always been our guides. Our guides represent the heart and soul of our organization. Our guides are, first and foremost, climbers. If you were visiting the Mt. Washington valley this summer to climb or even just to sight-see you might have been drawn to Cathedral Ledge on a warm evening. You would have most likely run into a number of IMCS guides out climbing after a day of work. If you were in Alaska this spring, Africa this summer, or in Nepal in the last few weeks, we were there. If you were in Yosemite, Zion, Red Rocks, India, or the Black Canyon in the last few months, again, we were there. You may have been on the summit of Mt. Washington this past Sunday or walking the Presidential Range. Some of us were there also. Sometimes we were there
just for fun. Sometimes what passes for fun is doing a major new route on one of the major peaks around the world.

In this day and age you have a lot of choices of where to go for climbing instruction. You can get one-stop shopping right where you live in the cities if you go to the rock gyms and the adventure outfitters. But think about what you would like to learn and from whom you would like to learn it. We do not just dream about going to the mountains, we live it everyday. It is part of who we are and what we do. We would love to share the mountains with you and help you reach your highest ambitions. We look forward to climbing with all of you in this upcoming year.

Sincerely,

Brad White and the guides of IMCS

International Mountain Climbing School
PO Box 1666
North Conway, NH 03860
(603) 356-7064
guides@ime-usa.com
http://www.ime-usa.com/imcs/index.html