Our 2025 Festival Team
Chelsea Rude |
Festival Director
Chelsea comes to the ICF with over 26 years of climbing experience and many years of attending the ICF as keynote speaker, athlete and as a clinic instructor. She first came to Lander/ICF in 2016 and fell in love with the energy of ICF, sunshine of Lander, the overall community and of course, the climbing! In 2023, Chelsea founded a climbing festival for gender minorities in Colorado and is excited to bring her knowledge, love for climbing + the community to the oldest (and raddest) climbing festival out there!!
Socials: @chelseanicholerude
Rina Christensen | Marketing Coordinator
Rina has been working in marketing and photography for about 5 years. In 2023, she joined the festival as a photographer has been our Marketing Coordinator since 2024!
She is a Florida native who relocated to Southern Utah to be closer to climbing. When she traveled out West in 2022, she got stuck in Wyoming for over a month and in that time was completely consumed by the beauty, peace, and vastness of the Wyoming wild terrain. Lander has a special place in her heart offering quality climbing, river dips, and ice cream from the Scream Shack. She mostly sport climbs, enjoying the process and journey a single pitch can offer. When she’s not in busy summer season, she travels for her photography business shooting weddings, couples and other projects!
Socials: @rinachristensen15, @thegardenphoto.co
JJ Mackenzie
JJ has lived in Lander for three years and has been attending the festival since 2021. Originally moving to Wyoming for a wildlife biologist position, JJ eventually relocated to Lander after visiting for climbing—and like many others, never left. JJ loves the time of year around the festival, as it's a chance to showcase the special community and the natural beauty of the area. As a bonus, JJ is always happy to help anyone identify wildflowers.
JJ’s favorite part of the festival is the art crawl—it's a day to freely indulge in buying art and admiring the incredible pieces on display. This year is especially exciting, as it marks the first time JJ will have a booth. Anyone looking for unique Pokémon-shaped ceramics is encouraged to stop by and check it out!
Carl Cote |
Lead Photographer
Carl moved to Lander’s City Park in his van back in 2021, after landing an internship with the local paper. He spent his first summer working around the county and finishing up his last few classes for journalism school. It was that summer, that the Festival Director at the time hired him to shoot the Festival - even though they had only met once. But the rest is history! Carl’s been shooting the Festival for us as our Lead Photographer every year since!
For Carl, the Festival is one of the premiere annual climbing gatherings in the world. He loves capturing its special moments and making new friends each year along the way.
When he’s not climbing or with camera, he love long runs in the mountains, and a good uncrowded point break.
Socials: @carl_cote
Emilee Jensen | Lead Videographer
Emilee has been a photographer for 11 years and recently got into videography. She has always been drawn to the outdoors and about 2 years ago started climbing. Climbing is how she chooses to express her love for being outside.
Emilee is attending school at Utah Tech for film, with an emphasis in documentary. She is inspired by Jimmy Chin and strives to live on the road and let photography and videography take her to new places.
Socials: @photosby.emilee