Niagara Falls is a tourist destination any time of the year, but with record-breaking low temperatures and plenty of snow this year, Niagara Falls is an even bigger draw than normal because it is frozen and breathtakingly beatiful.
For those who can brave the -13-degree temperatures in the region, they are treated to a winter wonderland that is only dreamed of in the minds of writers and the imaginative. The mist from the falls casts a magical coating on everything it touches and it is a sight to behold.
The frozen wonderland is not only drawing the romantic dreamers, it is also bringing out the adventurers.
A few weeks ago, a pair of Canadian ice climbers became the first in the world to climb their way up Niagara Falls.
Will Gadd and Sarah Hueniken climbed up the Horseshoe section of the famous falls.
Gadd told the ABC that the same spray that makes everything so beautiful also made from the part of the waterfall that had not frozen made the historic ice climb slippery.
“Where I started climbing there was probably 20 or 30 feet of ice there. There was about 150 feet give or take of climbing,” he said.
Niagara falls has come to an icy halt as the water that flows over the falls every minute has frozen over. pic.twitter.com/yUT0GKAEjM
— Tri-State Weather (@tristateweather) February 17, 2015
“It was difficult because that water makes mist and the mist was actually still blowing onto the ice and I was covering up my ice tools.
“It was a little bit different, it added to the hazards for sure. It was complicated, but yeah, we figured out how to do it reasonably safely and had a great climb.”
Gadd said the climb was difficult and safety was his greatest concern.
“The climb was serious. It’s an upper incline, it’s not something that I would recommend to too many people in the world,” he said.
What drives a man to want to climb Niagara Falls? Sportsnet's @lukefoxjukebox found out: http://t.co/SpQmQ6jwsQ pic.twitter.com/wk4PuU0aRi
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) February 8, 2015
“But it’s overhanging so the ice tends to fall off behind you and you can be relatively safe with that and I spent a fair amount of time organising the area and working with a really good safety crew with the New York State Park Police to make sure that things were going to be reasonably safe.
Watch the extended 3 min video of ice climber Will Gadd scaling #NiagaraFalls @NYstateparks http://t.co/HDQq4r6hsD pic.twitter.com/KFM7xm7EB0
— NY State Parks (@NYstateparks) February 6, 2015
“But … anything really worthwhile in life has some hazards and this to me was worth those hazards. I felt like I could do it reasonably safely and did in the end, but it’s Niagara Falls.”
