With ice climbing, you can go anywhere you want on the wall. In 1986, I did the first ascent of a climb there called Orient Bay Express with Conrad Anker. Some fellow climbers say Anker is one of the most experienced ice climbers in the United States. It was a real privilege and an honor to climb with him. He recently did a story for National Geographic Magazine on his discovery of legendary George Leigh Mallory s body on Mount Everest.
Ice climbing comes in all levels.
Students have come from around the world, even a pilot from South Africa who arrived in Thunder Bay, his first time ever to walk in snow and to see a frozen waterfall. Ice climbing is gaining popularity around Lake Superior. Some of my courses fill well before the season. Visits to Orient Bay have gone from about 40 in the early 1980s to about 3,000 annually. In ice climbing, the idea is to choose a path up that keeps you in a comfort zone.