The organizers of the Michigan Ice Fest are super stoked to have Grivel back for our Ice Fest again this year! Not only will we have demo Grivel crampons and tools available to check out and do a few routes with, they are also sending two incredible athletes to this years Fest!
Natalie Afonina
Natalie grew up competitively ballroom dancing but secretly wishing she was an arctic explorer. Inspired by stories from her Soviet mountaineering dad, she hitchhiked from Seattle to Bozeman with a pair of donated ice tools and crampons. Since then has been honing her skills climbing rock and alpine routes which has taken her on expeditions to some of the most beautiful and remote places in the world including Bolivia, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Patagonia and Morocco. She has a fondness for longer, aesthetic ice routes, alpine mixed climbs and using her materials engineering background to provide product feedback on outdoor gear development. When she’s not chasing ice conditions and alpine adventures, she supports several citizen science projects, works on increasing the safety of autonomous robots and mentors new climbers at ice climbing festivals.
Clint Helander
Clint began climbing 20 years ago when he moved to Alaska. Although he has climbed all over the world, it’s the frozen mountains of Alaska that he loves the most. Clint has made first ascents on peaks like Mount Huntington and Mount Hunter. Over 12 expeditions to the remote Revelation Mountains, he has amassed nearly a dozen first ascents, including Golgotha, Apocalypse Peak, Mount Mausolus, the Ice Pyramid and others.
We are very excited to have this legendary company back supporting our event and more importantly, we will have amazing Grivel product to sell! Make sure you stop in at to check out the latest and greatest from this company that has produced alpinism equipment since 1818.