Members of the ISU Mountaineering and Climbing Club scaled two 70-foot iced-down silos and swept the top three places in the men’s division at the Red Bull Silo Summit in Cedar Falls on Friday and Saturday.

Also, an ISU student took second in the women’s division.

About 36 people from 10 Midwest universities and Saskatchewan competed this year in the invitation-only event.

For the second consecutive year, Shaun Lindsay, senior in computer science, won the men’s division with a time of 1 minute, 3 seconds.

The Red Bull Silo Summit is a six-hour event during which participants race to the top of two different trails constructed from three iced-down silos. The final time is the sum of both runs.

“Iowa State really dominated the competition. We took the top four places, the fourth guy being an alum. I think the fifth-place guy was over a minute behind him,” Lindsay said.

Behind Lindsay, and also from Iowa State, were Steve Smith at 1:09 and Ryan Olson at 1:24.

In the women’s division, Andrea LeClere, senior in genetics, placed second with a time of 4:22.

“This year’s competition was fantastic,” LeClere said.

“There was an increased turnout and better representation of females, at least one from each school. There was good camaraderie. People were cheering for everyone, no matter what school.”

Lindsay attributed much of Iowa State’s participation from a Government of the Student Body allocation last year to the club that allowed it to purchase new ice tools and help boost interest in that aspect of climbing. With limited opportunities in Iowa, the Red Bull Silo Summit offers a chance to ice climb in the Midwest.

“It was a really surreal experience. You’re climbing a frozen waterfall in the middle of Iowa,” Lindsay said.

Lindsay got involved with ice climbing after taking a trip to Colorado to rock climb.

After learning on his own, Lindsay started practicing in his garage with ice axes and tools.

“It doesn’t help much with technique, but it will help you get stronger. It takes a lot of upper body strength,” Lindsay said.

The Red Bull Silo Summit integrates speed with the sport of ice climbing.

“Speed climbing, like in the competition, is not the way you usually ice climb,” Lindsay said. “The goal is to climb up a frozen waterfall in pre-made placements as fast as you can.”

The event was conceived when Don Briggs, instructor of outdoor pursuits at Northern Iowa, brainstormed an idea to ice down silos to provide a place to practice ice climbing near campus.

“I came up with the idea while helping a farmer plow his fields. I looked over at the silos and thought, ‘Hey, that could work,’ so we tried it and it worked,” Briggs said.

To ice the silo, Briggs created an elaborate system of hoses to ice down the sides. It takes about three days to complete the frozen waterfall.

“Three years ago we did a contest with 10 to 15 locals for fun,” Briggs said. “The (Cedar Rapids) Gazette covered the story, Red Bull heard about it, called me up, and offered to sponsor the event.”