Origin of the Ice-X Foundation
Summer 1999 the Ice-X climbers meet eachother for the first time during a technical snow- & ice-climbing course on the Ortler in northern Italy. We’re all three from The Hague and surprisingly our homes are only 500 meters away!
After the course we keep contact and often climb indoors, mostly in Haarlem. During these evenings several ideas for expeditions come up, to Aconcagua, Alpamayo and Elbrus. Finally we decide to climb Mount Elbrus, the highest peak of Europe, one of the Seven Summits: the succesful Dutch Elbrus Expedition 2000 (Russia, 5642 meter, juli 2000).
Since that expedition we have accomplished over a dozen other expeditions and projects, arranged many lectures and workshops and provided 1,000s of people with information.