We had aspirations to climb on some rock that is only workable when the St. Croix river is frozen. We started in Franconia, just down stream from Taylors Falls. Damn I want to buy that Scandinavian Chalete! What a cute collection of houses in that little glen. We hiked down the river, well frozen over, with about 6" of good snow, (as in NO slush). The wall which held the cave we were headed to came into view after a short 5 minute hike. The small nook in the bottom right of the wall is the "cave".
Josh Helke is supposedly the first ascender of the problem that works from the back of the cave straight out the edge of the roof.
Nic O(god I'm gonna spell this wrong) Oklobzija(?) did another line starting under the roof, going out & up the wall, dropping off at the first large jug you encounter. Josh's goes @ about a 7, and Nic's at a 9. I'm not sure of the names of these lines, so someone help me out here...
You'll notice the while frost all over the underside of the roof. Beneath the cave was an unexpected pool of about 2" of water. Damn! "Drink up everyone!" I exclaimed, until someone pointed out the several dead bats frozen into the ice.
We studied the lines. I hiked around a bit, hoping to scope out something else, but didn't find a thing. Chris & I were both psyched about a crack starting to the right of the cave & swirving up above it. I might have put on a harness, had we come equiped for that sort of thing.
Directly across the river is another great face at the edge of the river. This one Chris & Alex visited last summer by kayak before she headed off to Colorado. Today it was grey & supremely contrasted by the frost over the entire wall. You could make out every micro crimp & feature on it. But again, no climbing today.
The water is apparently pretty deep right in the "drop zone" of the cliff face, so we've put it off until summer, when we can return with a depth finder & really check it out. There is usually a sand bar right in the middle of the river across from it, so you could swim to the wall & climb it barefoot. We also began invisioning a Huck Finn style raft covered in pads, to paddle around to these walls. Kris, um, you're supposedly building this for us.
We headed back to the car, encountering some snow-shoers who of course inquired about "those things on our back". We drove to Taylors falls to walk the river there. Again, a lot of fun looking lines in a not so climbable state. I walked up stream, almost to the bridge, to scope a line I look at everytime I cross the river to Wisconsin. Very often the landing zone is under water, and I've never seen ANYONE climbing on it, though it is supposedly in the guide book. I checked it from the top. There was a huge landing zone exposed by the low water level. Plenty of room to land AND have a crowd watching. I can't wait until fall, when the river will be low again, and frost will not cover it.
So back to the gym with us for now...baahh!
