'17-'18 Midwest ice conditions

Thanks Jon!

Made the trip after all. Wyalusing ice looking good. Not super fat but in!

Quarry Monster

Three pillars on the left, stay off the center one near the base as it's a hollow sound / thin and wouldn't want to break it. We went up third pillar (right-est) and then traversed left on more solid ice.

RR tracks - in, not as fat as my trip last year. The fatter climb way down is in, the first climb you pass is a nice thin smear. 

Fatter climb Further down tracks (Eastward)

First climb walking along tracks, runs nice and high up the cliffside, but can't tell from ground how bonded that ice 'smear' is.

Excuse me in not checking for the names of the climbs

Dude, Quarry monster looks fat!  The right line usually barely comes in.

Finally... someone has posted conditions update of Quarry Monster!  Thanks Mikey.  Any ice over on the right side of Todd's quarry?

JUST SAYING HERE:     This is their Winter wilderness weekend' event at Starved Rock...with lots of guided hikes throughout the park going on for general tourism, eagle watches, etc.. ..Maybe to make a show of good will with the park,,,how about we skip ice climbing there on 20th-21st.?   Limited stuff available anyway, with a big meltdown coming in with Saturday temps in 40's and rain on Sunday predicted. Not the biggest loss to pass on it.    Plenty of ice fests going on to attend elsewhere..  See if our absence is taken as good will.   Who knows, maybe even some of these hikers guided out to the ice falls will ask their guides... " but where are all of the ice climbers we counted on seeing today?"   You never know, it might give us some good karma for the seasons ahead with the talks of them closing up at least Wildcat next year to ice climbing use.   Not missing much with the warm temps and surely ice is NOT ready in Tonti or the 'Cat for our use from pics just 48 hours ago.    How about it Midwest Team?    Other plans if you can? 

Unless we've met with the Park and told them this is what we want to do, it will be interpreted as lack of interest, not us trying to give people a good time.  But let the weather be your guide ....

CLIMB THE ICE!!!!!!!!!!!!  ALL OF IT!

jon jugenheimer wrote:

CLIMB THE ICE!!!!!!!!!!!!  ALL OF IT!

Fuck yeah!

I recommend climbing the ice to establish that you are a user group and have as much right to access the frozen waterfalls as the other users.

I have no dog in this fight as I have not climbed here in decades. I do have fond memories of ice climbing here a lot from about 79- thru 1984. Great times! Starved rock was less then an hour from my house for a time . On a side note during my high school years it was a popular place to go when ditching school. We would find places to jump off the cliffs into some pretty tight pools of water. Ahh...miss spent youth.

LOL..nice caption about how she 'rappels' down the ice while on belay , when she is obviously climbing UP in the pic.   Also saw a pic on SRSP facebook today from hikes, and it shows Wildcat looking like it sure is in now, unless the angle of the pic hides how thin the top and bottom are connected.  But looking good for sure.

Woodchuck ATC wrote:

LOL..nice caption about how she 'rappels' down the ice while on belay , when she is obviously climbing UP in the pic.   Also saw a pic on SRSP facebook today from hikes, and it shows Wildcat looking like it sure is in now, unless the angle of the pic hides how thin the top and bottom are connected.  But looking good for sure.

WC was "in" the other day(Thurs) but ALL wet and running.... worse now for sure!

Quarry Monster seriously drooling 01-20-18.

Junkyard Dog 01-20-18.  It was warm plastic well adhered ice.  A little bit of bake out here and there.

Eagle Eyes 01-20-18.  Very delicate and drippy drippy.

Juggler wrote:

WC was "in" the other day(Thurs) but ALL wet and running.... worse now for sure!

that other SRSP posted pic made it look pretty fat.  Hardly ever seen enough room on Ottawa ice for 2 or 3 ropes at one time. It's huge this year in width anyway.

LaSalle as of 1-20-18

Ottawa as of 1-20-18

Appears to still be solid,,,,hopefully this little rain or warm up will do less damage than we thought. Add some flow, maybe it can grow more when cold gets back in full time.  Edit 12 hours later.  We've have over .75 inches of warm rain here, and I'm only 90 miles east.   Hopefully not as much or damage has happened out at SRSP.   If anyone ventures out this week in the warmth, do post up a current pic of conditions of the ice please,,or a local weather report on rain totals, etc. if you can.  

EB wrote:

Keep up the good work man! Hope to make it out one time this season!

EB wrote:

I missed any earlier info or links.  Is there a FB page on this or a website to visit for full info, pics, directions, days, hours, costs,,etc??   Might put it in my future wish list' to do.   Thanks