Lillooet Ice Festival 2026 — Ready for Ice?
The Lillooet Ice Festival is back for 2026! From February 14–16, the town of Lillooet, BC gathers ice climbers of all backgrounds for a long weekend of clinics, gear demos, socials, and community. This year’s festival promises more climbing, more learning, and more connection than ever.
What’s New for 2026
The festival has expanded to three full days over the Family Day long weekend, giving everyone more chances to climb, learn, and connect. Added programming includes extra clinics and a brand-new evening presentation focused on avalanche awareness, especially relevant to ice climbs in the surrounding regions like the Bridge River and Duffey Lake area.
Clinics and Workshops for All Levels
Whether you’re brand new to ice climbing or pushing your limits on steep mixed terrain, the festival has a program for you. Clinics are grouped into Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced levels, with sessions ranging from full-day climbs to shorter 3-hour skills clinics and 1-hour workshops.
Beginner clinics, like “Ice Breaker,” introduce newcomers to fundamentals — crampons, basic waterfall ice climbing, and movement on ice. Intermediate and advanced clinics help those with experience refine their technique — footwork, swing technique, anchor building, mixed climbing skills, and even multi-pitch climbs. Workshops cover essentials like knots for climbers, ice tool sharpening, and safe rappelling/anchor building. From first-timers to seasoned climbers, there’s something for everyone.
Evening Events, Gear Demos, and Community Vibes
The festival isn’t just about climbing, it’s a celebration of the ice-climbing community. Highlights include a Vendor Village and Gear Demo zone featuring demo gear from major brands like crampons, boots, and ice tools. Evening socials include music, slide-show presentations, story sessions, and community-building vibes. There is also an avalanche awareness presentation, especially tailored for local terrain, and raffle prizes and festival swag from gear essentials to festival t-shirts.
Community, Inclusivity, and Respect for Land
The festival emphasizes community and inclusivity, welcoming climbers from diverse backgrounds and skill levels to come together in shared stoke, learning, and adventure. Importantly, the event takes place on the unceded ancestral territory of the St’át’imc Nation. The organizers acknowledge and honor this land, and ask all participants to be respectful visitors.
Bringing Ice Climber Together
Festivals like Lillooet’s are about more than just climbing, they help grow the ice-climbing community, build connections, share knowledge, and support local search and rescue through festival proceeds. For climbers near the Coast or up from the Sea-to-Sky, Lillooet Ice Festival offers a chance to explore some of BC’s best ice terrain, meet like-minded people, and sharpen skills in a welcoming, inclusive environment.
Whether you’re looking to try ice climbing for the first time, level up your skills, demo new gear, or just soak up the community vibe, the 2026 Lillooet Ice Festival is shaping up to be an unforgettable weekend.
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