Ice Climbing Instruction in New England

I'm looking for recommendations for ice climbing guides/instructors in New England, preferably New Hampshire. I'm looking for decent prices, and an introductory course in ice climbing that covers basic tool usage, gear preparation and such. Gear also has to be provided by the guiding company.

I'd like a course that gets me out climbing as much as possible, probably a 2-3 day course. Anywhere from December - Feb/March is good.

Let me know!

Brendan

You are almost certainly going to want to head to North Conway, NH, as it is the center of ice in the northeast.

You won't go wrong with Mark Synnott and his crew or the peeps at the IME climbing school.

Check out Bayard Russell. Nicest guy, great teacher and STRONG climber!

IME is an excellent place to seek quality instruction. You may also want to look up Ragged Mountain Guides, its a newer small company, but high quality instruction all through New England

Good suggestions so far, also;

Kevin Mahoney

Kurt Winkler

and of course

George Hurley

+1 to all the above. There is a plethora of guides in that area that are not only fantastic guides and teachers, but also some of the top climbers in the world. It's a good place to learn.

I'm looking at Synott and Cathedral Mtn Guides (whitemountainrockandice.com). Any differences between the two, or benefits of one or the other? The prices seem to be the same.

I think if I were in the market for ice climbing instruction, I wouldn't be shopping based on price... Though I'm sure any established guide service in the whites is good, IME especially.

An alternative to these fine guides listed above, take a look at the AMC Boston chapter's Ice Climbing Program

I took it a couple of years ago and while it doesn't give you the individual and personally tailored attention of a guide, it gives you a broad overview of New England ice climbing and a good intro to the discipline. You'll also be introduced to a large group of very active potential partners.

A wide selection of ice tools are provided by the club for the course. Boots and crampons can be rented from IME in North Conway.

Marc Chauvin of chauvinguides.com is the only guide I will pay to climb with in North Conway.

cheers.
-chris

sthomas wrote:An alternative to these fine guides listed above, take a look at the AMC Boston chapter's Ice Climbing Program I took it a couple of years ago and while it doesn't give you the individual and personally tailored attention of a guide, it gives you a broad overview of New England ice climbing and a good intro to the discipline. You'll also be introduced to a large group of very active potential partners. A wide selection of ice tools are provided by the club for the course. Boots and crampons can be rented from IME in North Conway.

+1 on the AMC course. One thing stomas didn't mention is they have 2 weekends of climbing as part of the course, as well as 2 more "open cabin weekends" available to the students afterward, and many types of tools are available to borrow throughout the course so you can really get a sense of what you like. That's 8 days of climbing for the price of the course. You'll need to buy/rent boots and crampons, though, but you'll be in N. Conway near IME anyway.

amcbostonclimbers.org/instr…

Marc Chauvin, Art Mooney, IME.

Def go with Bayard... great climber and good friend!

Oh wait and he's one of the dudes pushin the sport in NE...

alpinist.com/doc/web10w/new…

I've climbed with Craig Taylor when he was guiding with EMS. He's now with IME, and is a great guy who's been in the area forever!

ime-usa.com/imcs/guides_tay…

Brendan,

Check out the Mount Washington Icefest

Jim

+1 for synnott mountain guides! I agree with the rest of the posts though...really can't go wrong with any of the suggestions