While waiting for some items to get shipped to Madison, we decided to take a short jaunt to Minnesota for the weekend. Our brief detour quickly turned into a week-long excursion that involved over 1,000 miles of driving and would have expended one-third of my yearly vacation days if I still had a job. This extension was largely thanks to fact that everyone in Minnesota was so incredibly friendly. Midwestern charm is no joke.
Now, it’s not like anyone has been rude or unfriendly to us; they just don’t go out of their way to befriend us. At most crags, people tend to make polite small talk, but otherwise keep to themselves and their existing group. However, in just a week in Minnesota, I think we made more friends than the rest of this trip combined. We were invited out to dinners, got (and gave) tours of crag-wagons, shared anchors, and were educated about all the best climbing areas in the near vicinity. Every time we went somewhere, some new friend told us about another place we had to try, and the list just kept getting longer.
Our first stop was at Barn Bluff, in Red Wing, one of the best known natural features along the upper Mississippi River. There, we were greeted by some grippy limestone sport climbs that felt like home, as well as an ex-Austinite who shared a number of mutual friends. Every climb we did there was incredible, and coaxed us into staying for another day. The only downside was that the rock there is loose and known to break off fairly regularly.
Case in point: on our second day there, we let a kid go ahead of us on a climb. While we stood a few feet away, he managed to break off a large chunk of rock, which proceeded to separate into four pieces and land in a circle around his belayer, somehow missing him entirely. He was super fortunate, because even with a helmet on, any one of those pieces could have done some serious damage. And considering that John has at least 30 pounds on the kid who broke the piece off, I’m counting my lucky stars that I wasn’t the one standing underneath.
The lucky belayer holding two of the rock pieces that narrowly missed him.
Our first night in Red Wing, John ambitiously ordered two entire breakfast dishes. And he did a great job sticking to a single color palette.
From there, we passed though the town of Sandstone, where unfortunately the sandstone walls (hence the name, I suppose) were too wet to climb. Instead, we continued north to Shovel Point and Palisade Head, where I had to face my fears head-on; the only way to access the climbing walls was to repel off the top of the cliff, which is something I have struggled with historically. There’s just something terrifying about starting in an upright, standing position, and then willingly leaning back over a cliff ledge.
On the bright side, after a few reps on some ridiculously oversized anchors (I literally repeated the action of going over the edge until I stopped wanted to cry each time), the nerves subsided and I was able to enjoy the spectacular view of Lake Superior. Although I have lived most of my life in Wisconsin – and have been to Minnesota numerous times – I was still surprised at just how beautiful it was.
The unnecessarily massive anchor bolts at Shovel Point.
Minnesota is gorgeous. I haven’t been giving it enough credit.
The view from the bottom of a climb at Palisade Head.
We finished our trip with a stop at Willow River State Park in Wisconsin. The wall here was so overhung that there were only a few climbs that were even within my skill level. I’ve done a fair amount of overhung climbs in Austin, but they’re usually no more than 40 feet tall. So at the point where I was too pumped to continue, I would look up only to realize that I still had half a climb to go.
The Willow River climbing area is that massively overhung wall on the other side of the river.
One week and 1,000 miles later, we are back where we started.
Bugs were a huge issue in Minnesota. John came up with the incredibly effective technique of using our propane stove to kill them. There are still piles of dead bugs scattered throughout the van.
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