New Ice Climbing Park Can Officially Lure Climbers To Duluth

Duluth’s west side has a wide and tall cliff carved from an old quarry. Natural ice cascades run down its face, ripe for crampons, axes and ropes. Officially Ice climbing there will be sanctioned by the city.

I love to watching man vs nature shows and as a young man enjoyed rock climbing. With winter here there have been a switch to Ice climbing story's. Seeing these men and women climbing in these crazy cold locations, had me thinking it is hard enough to climb when conditions are dry and warm, but now on ice, and in the cold?  Too crazy for me. But now I find this gem of a story from Pam Louwagie  of the Star Tribune and maybe it's not that crazy of an idea to give it a try.

An outdoor adventure attraction will be created. A new 30-acre park that was once a site that was owned by the Crushed Stone Co. The main attraction will be a 1,000-foot-long, 100-foot-high cliff for ice climbing.

This is part of the city’s efforts to revitalize the St. Louis River corridor. It's expect it to open this winter season for climbing, planned improvements including adding parking, drilling a well with electrical and plumbing lines to make ice on shorter and lower-angled sections of the wall for beginning climbers.

Duluth Climbers Coalition, is a newly formed nonprofit that is raising money to help fund and maintain the climbing portion of the park. So far $7,000 has raised. And the city is committed to matching 50 percent of the total cost up to $200,000 for the park and improvements using its half-percent sales tax on food, beverage and lodging.

I'm excited to check this out. They even are starting the planning of a “Ice and Mixed Fest” for Feb. 26-28, with clinics, presentations and climbing.