We came across this photo and had to learn about the back story. Turns out, ice climbers Peter Lenz, Carter Stritch and Evan Johnson came across this stunning bit of ice by accident and made the best of their discovery.
“We were searching for ice up on the North Shore last season,” he said. “We thought we saw some ice out on an island on Lake Superior that was connected to shore by a break made of large boulders. After an adventurous hike we discovered that the ice we were originally searching for was just a patch of snow. We took a look on the other side of the island and found that big sheet of vertical ice. We had to get on it!”
Lenz said that the ice was all “pure Lake Superior water.”
“It was actually quite thick most of the climb. The ice was hard, as in compacted, which was something we weren’t expecting,” he said.
Lenz had a few other shots that are pretty sweet of climbing at the Sandstone Ice Park, so we threw those in on Page Two as a bonus.
It’s getting cold out there! Time to make the best of the winter weather. —Sean McCoy
