2025 Ice Climbing Recap & Photos

As I re-read the 2024 Ice Climbing Recap, I debated just copying it and changing the dates. So much was similar to our now-annual Ice Climbing adventure – in the best sense! Once again, we had a phenomenal time on this trip, however the weather was quite a bit different, but that didn’t change the outcome at all.

We departed the church around 5:45pm this time and pulled into camp just before 8pm. We quickly checked in and unloaded our trailer to Bunkhouse #4, #5, and #6. We set up camp but decided against fires Friday night and simply retreated to our cabins to enjoy cracker barrel with the temps hovering in the high teens.

After getting up at 6am, we cooked our respective breakfasts; the adults learned that Mr. Bielkiewicz struggles to cook breakfast in the cold – let’s just say that we were fueled by extra “carbon” Saturday. We promptly began the 2nd annual scaling of the beautiful ice wall at Camp A at 8am with the guides recognizing several of us as repeat customers. Once again, the Scouts impressed everyone, including the guides, with their deft abilities to climb the ice. Almost everyone summited at least one route – several were able to summit multiple routes! The lead guide later told me “he can tell when a Troop is prepared and ours was one of the best he’s worked with.” This year there was a steady but light snowfall throughout the climbing and the day started at 7 degrees – but no one was deterred or complained of being too cold. Clearly our boys know what it means to Be Prepared! Check out the amazing photos!

After climbing we quickly cleaned up breakfast and made our way back to the lake where hockey was once again played for several hours while Mr. Naber set up his ice fishing shanty. Snow fell on and off all day, but again we were successful fishing as 10 were snagged this time around, including several large trout and one huge one that Jaivon pulled! Even Mr. Bielkiewicz caught his first fish since the 1980’s (although Andrew did all the hard work). Once the boys were finally tired out from “hockey” (which included avoiding the defensive prowess of Mr. Bahr and Mr. Borstad), we packed up and headed back to camp for dinner.

Each patrol and the adults cooked up great meals – Cheeseburgers, homemade chili mac and dutch-oven cornbread, and pasta carbonara (which the adults made and shared with the climbing leaders) rounded out the menus this weekend. After cleaning up the dishes and site in preparation for another chilly overnight, we got 2 large fires blazing to accommodate all 20+ attendees and everyone stayed warm and outside until it was finally time to retire for the evening to the cozy cabins.

We awoke at 7am Sunday to 10 degree temps and quickly packed our gear, loaded up the trailer and cars, cleaned up camp, and did our Roses and Thorns before heading back home. We didn’t get on the road until around 9:45am which put us back to the church at just past noon. It was amazing to have such a large group have such a good time in spite of the temperatures and frequent snowfall – us adults are really proud of our Scouts and how prepared they are. It just goes to show that when you are prepared, you can have fun in any conditions!

Klondike is up next – should be a breeze for everyone no matter the weather so sign up now!

Here are the attendees:

Zack B. (SPL) (2nd year attending)
Nash W. (2nd year attending)
Andrew N. (2nd year attending)
Damon B. (2nd year attending)
Eli S. (2nd year attending)
Bjorn B. (2nd year attending)
Caleb G.
Jaivon B.
Caleb M.
Quentin M.
Patrick H.
Carter T.
Luke H.
Dalton M.
Jackson D.
Elijah W.
Davis M.

Adults:
Chris Naber (2nd year attending)
Brett Borstad (2nd year attending)
Mike Bielkiewicz (2nd year attending)
Cameron Bahr