Will I actually lead during this class?

That is the goal. Leading ice is different than rock and we tend to have more caution around it when assessing people's skills and comfort levels. Generally we have guests doing at least one or two leads by the end of the day on easier climbing.

Is leading ice safe?

Safe is a really misleading term, especially when it comes to climbing. Nothing is ever truly safe but we can address hazards and manage the risk as best as possible. While toproping rock and ice has limited hazards like ice fall, leading adds a lot of complex hazards and good movement has one of the biggest impacts on your safety. There's a joke that if you don't let go you won't fall and if you don't fall you can't get hurt but we truly don't want to mess around with falling on ice. Leading ice has some of the highest levels of subjective hazard we allow clients to do. Aside from the obvious issues of falling with a bunch of sharp objects attached to ourselves the falls are typically farther and on terrain where you are likely to hit something, hard. So we generally spend a lot more time assessing the abilities of those who want to jump on the sharp end to lead ice than we might on a rock climb. We also have a much more in depth discussion of the more prominent risks that may be experienced.

How good at ice climbing should I be before I consider leading?

Most people are typically toproping ice for a few years before they consider leading. Being such an ephemeral medium it takes a lot of laps on ice to really have a feel for the medium. Placing screws also takes some time while leading which means you have to have some fitness to really hang out. Being able to toprope WI5 is a good place to be but even that doesn't fully prepare you to lead a WI3 climb with the added mental elements.

Do I need to provide any ice screws or anchor building gear?

We always provide the necessary equipment for our climbing classes and trips so you don't need to worry about bringing any equipment. If you're considering leading we'd strongly encourage you to have most of your own equipment. It helps tremendously to have the feel for your own equipment rather than fiddling with someone elses.