Midwest Ice Conditions-14/15 season

Any reports about Munising? Warm temps all nest week hoping for one last trip before trading the ice gear for rock gear.

Munising conditions are stellar and will be for a few weeks. Only ice that might become suspect would be East Channel and West Shore of Grand Island as they can become sun baked.

Bill Thompson wrote:Munising conditions are stellar and will be for a few weeks. Only ice that might become suspect would be East Channel and West Shore of Grand Island as they can become sun baked.

Thanks Bill. Thinking about Dairyland. Think it will hold up with the warmer temps.? What are your thoughts about accessing from Mini me gulley and traversing the shoreline? Or would you recommend rappelling from top?

The shoreline should be fin for a bit yet.

Great post by Bill here for updates;
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ErikShepd wrote:Starved Rock was in fat but very wet. Probably be out by the end of the week if its in the 50's (then again I don't really know how much shelter it gets being back in that canyon, maybe it'll make it till next weekend?). Tons of people were down in the canyon (>500 over the course of the day), felt like a zoo exhibit... Had to remind folks way to often to keep clear and not get ice blocks dropped on their heads...

I've not checked the calendar,but there is an annual photographers club outing that goes to see all the ice each winter....could have been why it was so 'touristy' busy that day. And with so few canyons full of good ice, they all head to the same places for photographs.

Went to Starved Rock today. As would be expected, the recent warm-up has caused huge flow in all of the canyons, with melt out at the bases and on the approaches. We were able to climb Wildcat only (Tonti and LaSalle, although technically climbable, would have require wetsuits).

Wildcat had a section that wasn't actively flowing earlier in the day, and provided good plastic ice. Not that much later, we noted a significant and almost instantaneous increase in creek flow over Wildcat; perhaps from an ice dam breaking? This made it unclimbable, and flooded the entire base area.

Summary: possible climbing in the early morning the next couple of days. But I wouldn't bet on it.

All GoreTex, head to toe,,,belay from above,,and climb up through the torrents of water beating on your chest:,,That's the way I remember my end of season climbs there for many a year. Pack full of extra dry clothes, extra gloves, spare jacket, socks, and just 'go with the flow' cuz it's so fun to do on a close out ice day.