SCARPA Helps Forge a More Inclusive Path as Founding Partner of Inaugural All In Ice Festival

January 5, 2022

The new festival aims to foster an inclusive environment for all ice climbers as well as provide continued mentorship.

BOULDER, Colo. (January 5, 2021) – SCARPA, a leader in outdoor performance footwear, is proud to announce its founding support of the first-ever All In Ice Festival from January 7-9, 2022. SCARPA’s Athlete Mentorship Initiative lies at the heart of the festival’s creation, with 10 athletes on the official ice fest staff roster, and a multitude of others involved as participants.

The mission of the All In Ice Fest is to elevate and highlight marginalized communities — including black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC), LGBTQIA2S+ communities, and adaptive climbers. SCARPA’s Athlete Mentorship Initiative (SAMI) was created to connect and engage the SCARPA athlete team with accomplished athletes from historically marginalized communities aspiring to take their sport or career to the next level. The goal was to provide participants with opportunities for social, personal, athletic and career development. The All In Ice Festival perfectly exemplifies the success of the program. It developed from within the mentee team, and was able to be executed with the help from the broader SCARPA community, from mentors and mentees to leadership.

Liz Sahagun, Program Director and SCARPA mentee, describes the impetus behind the festival’s creation. “I began ice climbing and was seeking out connection that (to me) didn’t seem to exist. A year before my 30th birthday, I began my ‘journey to 30’ (inspired by Theresa Silveyra’s 30 before 30) by climbing 30 pitches of ice with people from underrepresented backgrounds before turning 30. I soon after joined the SAMI program, and was connected to even more climbers who had been looking for the same connections I had begun to make. The All In Ice Fest is a culmination of shared experiences across a myriad of backgrounds, and there’s nothing like it that exists in the ice-climbing community currently. I’m so excited to finally see it come to fruition.”

The core goals of the festival are to grow the community through clinics and access to gear, encourage professional development with options for experienced and apprentice guides and to celebrate all identities through group panels and socials that aim to inspire and build community.

The three day event will be defined by the overarching theme of ‘going all-in’ in the outdoor industry, and punctuated by panel discussions specifically about mentorship and storytelling. Friday’s presentation will be hosted by Sahagun and will be about the creation of the festival, followed by a panel with other folks about going all-in. Saturday will be hosted by Phil Henderson, Full Circle Everest Expedition Leader, and will be about leading the first all-black team to attempt an Everest summit. Sunday will be a showing of They/Them, a documentary with Lor Sabourin, followed by a conversation on storytelling with a group of creatives.

For more information about the festival, please visit allinicefest.com. For more information on SCARPA North America, please visit scarpa.com.

About SCARPA and SCARPA North America

Founded in 1938, SCARPA builds performance footwear for climbing, hiking, skiing, mountaineering, trail running and other outdoor pursuits from its headquarters in Asolo, Italy. SCARPA has been owned and operated by the Parisotto family since 1956. In 2005, SCARPA opened its North American headquarters in Boulder, Colo., staffed and directed by veterans of the North American outdoor industry, to oversee sales, marketing and distribution in the U.S., Canada and South America. For more information about SCARPA footwear, visit www.scarpa.com.

Media Contact
Dave Simpson I Siena Teare
Verde Brand Communications
(307) 200-7003
dave@verdepr.com
siena@verdepr.com

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