Canadian ice climbers become first to scale frozen Niagara Falls
A Canadian adventurer climbed into the history books Tuesday as the first person to scale the frozen waters of Niagara Falls.
Will Gadd, 47, has been ice climbing since the age of 16 but never thought he would see anyone — let alone himself — conquer the world’s most famous waterfall.
“Nobody ever believed this would be possible,” Gadd, of Alberta, said in an interview with Yahoo News. “It was a really amazing moment in my life. You don’t get many of those.”
Sarah Hueniken, 40, his girlfriend and fellow ice climber, held the rope for her boyfriend from an ice cave.
“I had a lot of time to feel connected to the place, to be aware of the power and magnitude and vibration in the area,” she told Yahoo News.
Afterward, she climbed up to clean all the protective equipment — becoming the second person to scale Niagara Falls.
“It was Will’s vision and his experience and his background that enabled him to get the permit to climb,” she said. “I was invited along because I have a lot of experience with that type of ice.”
The mountaineers used a specially designed ice hook, axes and crampons (traction devices attached to boots) to ascend the Horseshoe Falls, the largest of Niagara’s three main sections.
Not everything was frozen solid. The alternating layers of ice and snow created an unstable surface.
Just feet away, 150,000 tons of water raced over the crest every minute — at close to 62 mph. One of the hardest parts of the climb up Terrapin Point, about 147 feet from bottom to top, was getting extremely wet in the bitter cold.
“It’s a very complicated and dangerous place to climb. It takes a lot of organization to do something like that,” Gadd said.
Gadd’s friends, who call him “Captain Adventure,” had been telling him to climb Niagara ever since the polar vortex hit last winter. But he did not think the New York State Parks Department would allow it.
Red Bull sponsored the climb and helped Gadd navigate the permitting process through various levels of government.
“A straight climb and to get actual permission to do it,” he said, “it’s almost like shooting a skateboard commercial in Fort Knox.”
Hueniken, also from Alberta, said the exhilaration outweighed any fear she had.
“It’s historical. We are really lucky to have had the opportunity,” she said.
The energy drink company reportedly planned to break the news after the Super Bowl, but it turned out to be difficult to keep under wraps.
“People are looking at the falls all the time,” Hueniken said. “I think Red Bull was hoping to introduce it to the world themselves, but it’s not something that’s an easy thing to do undercover.”
Bob Kashinski, a Niagara Falls, N.Y., native, shot video of the feat from Table Rock on the brink of the Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side.
“It was icy cold on the brink of the falls,” Kashinski told Yahoo News. “As luck would have it, I went out about 9 a.m. and could see video camera and gear on the brink of the American side.”
Gadd appreciates the publicity his accomplishment has generated for ice climbing in general, especially since it gets more attention when something goes horribly wrong.
“My sport is — let’s face it — not exactly mainstream,” he said. “And on Super Bowl weekend, to have a lot of people looking at my sport and seeing the beauty of it, I’m really stoked. It gives me a real charge!”
