(calm music) - [Tony] In the late 1990s, this kind of became a spot where bad players in the area came to deal drugs, around early 2000, climbers started finding out the place, they started coming here, more and more paddlers started showing up and pretty soon that bad traffic moved outta here.

- My favorite thing that we're gonna do is find goats.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator 1] Funding for this program was provided by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund, SafeBasements of Minnesota, your basement waterproofing and foundation and repair specialists since 1990, peace of mind is a safe basement, Live Wide Open, the more people know about West Central Minnesota, the more reasons they have to live here, more at livewideopen.com, Western Minnesota Prairie Waters, where peace, relaxation and opportunities await.

- [Bret] Yep, that's me, you're probably wondering how I got myself into this.

Well, last year while rafting the white water of the Kettle River near Sandstone, Tony Vavricka from Hard Water Sports told us about the winter activities in the area, just over the banks of the river, across from Banning State Park sits an idle Sandstone quarry.

That quarry naturally made ice walls where water would run off and freeze on its steep cliffs, that caught the attention of thrill seekers from the region who would sneak into the area to climb the ice.

(calm music) I'm Bret Amundson and today on Prairie Sportsman, we got another cold weather Minnesota adventure for you.

(calm music) - So this is what brought me to Sandstone originally, was coming here to do the ice climbing and originally this is, the stuff here is all manmade now.

There is a small strip of ice that forms up every year naturally and climbers would come up here and they'd actually kind of sneak into the park and they would tell each other not to go to the businesses in town, don't go to the gas station, don't go to liquor store, by the way you're dressed, they're gonna know you're an ice climber and they're gonna come down here and kick everybody out.

Eventually in 2005, I went to the city administrator and I talked to him about having a little Ice Festival down here, that winter we rented a pump, we pumped our water up from a little pond at the end of the cliff here and made a small section of ice but just showed people what was possible.

From then, it grew and it grew and it grew and the.

- [Bret] Is that when attitudes started to change?

- Yeah, right after that first ice Festival, the people in town, that Ice Festival got some really nice publicity.

For a long time, it seemed like there was no good news coming out of Sandstone and all of a sudden Sandstone was getting recognized for something unique and fun and something good.

The city's actually really embraced the whole ice Festival, the whole ice park and they see it as a really good thing for the community.

- [Bret] Because the ice climbing takes place in a city park versus a state park, it was easier to get it approved and now it attracts visitors from all over the country.

- I've had clients from Oklahoma and Iowa and Texas, California come and fly to Minneapolis just to come to here to Sandstone to climb on the ice.

I get people that just have it on their bucket list or they see it and they just wanna do something or experience something fun to do in the Minnesota winter.

- [Bret] There's a lot of specialized gear for ice climbing with the most obvious being the ice axes.

- And those have evolved a lot in the last 20 years.

They're very ergonomical and they're designed for the really steep, sporty ice like this.

- [Bret] You also need what's called crampons for your feet, top it off with a helmet, boots, ropes and harnesses and things can add up quickly.

- It's a really big investment, if you wanna just say you're an ice climber and go out and purchase all the gear, you're probably gonna be dropping over a thousand dollars.

- That means a lot of people hire Tony as a guide so they can try it out before they decide to invest.

After getting harnessed in, it was time for my first climb.

Pretty decent weather today Tony, is this optimal climbing weather?

- Yeah, anytime the ice is hanging out and it's, the weather's good, people climb from zero to 40 degrees.

Put your axes as high as possible, yep and then looking for some good places to step.

- With zero climbing experience, getting started Wasn't easy, identifying where to place my axe and where to step became a vertical version of twister.

(upbeat music) - Good, find that wide foot, there you go, good, reach up real high with that ax, higher if you can, there you go, yep.

- I went right to the hole.

- Yeah, looks good, look where your feet are going again, good, good, good.

(upbeat music) - Anybody home?

- Swing it, stick it in there, even more, there you go.

- As I started my first climb, I tried to remember the three things that Tony taught me.

- First one is our kind of go-to stance on ice climbing, our feet are gonna be a little wider than our shoulders and then our ice axes are gonna be here, in between our shoulders and we're forming a nice triangle, so if you get them up high, if I take one ice axe off to swing, I'm still in that triangle, a nice stable base triangle.

Second thing to remember, when you grab that ice axe, let your hands sink way down into the bottom of it, grab it and kind of hold it real lightly and see how your pinky digs in.

When we're ice climbing, our hands are right in front of our face and our brain is telling us to grab these things as hard as we can and tight as we can, you're not gonna last long, you're gonna get pumped out.

You wanna have a loose grip and just hang down into that pinky like that, okay.

Number three thing to remember is to really, to look where your feet are going.

It's super important that if you look and place your feet, it's gonna be much more efficient than just scraping away and just kind of trying to hope for something, sound good?

- Feel like I should stretch before I do this, oh yeah.

How often do people fall?

- How often do people fall?

I don't know, that's why we have the rope though.

- Well, right, I mean, I don't mean fall all the way down but I mean, they'll come loose and.

- Yeah, it happens a lot.

- Once in a while?

- It happens, yeah.

By far, this is the safest way to climb, you got your anchor up at the top, the down here pulling that rope through, as you climb there might be a little rope stretch if you fall but it's gonna be a very, very shortfall when you do.

- Not only was there a learning curve going up but getting down takes a little practice as well.

- And then as you come down, keep the bottoms of your feet on the ice.

So sit back, keep your legs straight, keep the bottoms of your feet, try to get the bottoms of your feet on the ice, sit back more, lean way back, I like both axes in one hand, yeah.

Then hold that rope with the other.

(upbeat music) - After a bit of trial and error, my first climb came to an end.

I didn't really know what to expect climbing ice because you think of it as kind of an adrenaline junkie, thrill seeking type thing but it's so much more methodical, you, it requires a bit of stamina too.

I mean, my legs are a little jelly right now, coming down the ground, I'm not in very good shape, I'll be honest.

- Whenever I take a person on their very first climb, they're always overusing every muscle in their back and their arms and everything, those muscles are being flexed the whole time, weren't they?

- Oh yeah, absolutely.

- When you, the more you ice climb, the more you learn to relax that and you're not gonna have that tense feeling once you start getting into this sport.

- I was about three feet up when I was white knuckling it, obviously it takes experience and the more you get used to it, the easier.

- The easier it gets.

- And having somebody, obviously like you, holding the rope is nice because there were a couple of moments where I was like, I was starting to lean back and lose my balance and you start to get that feeling that you're about to fall off but obviously you're harnessed in, you're pretty safe up there the whole time.

- Yeah, it's the way we have it set up here, it's very, very safe, yep.

- All right, well, what's next?

- [Tony] So we have another route setting up over here, it might be a little bit easier for you, not quite as steep.

It's well traveled so you have footprints.

- You put me on the hard one right away, I see how it is.

- [Tony] To challenge ya.

- I like it.

I can see the appeal to ice climbing and I'm not surprised that there's a yearly festival here.

Don't try this at home.

- I've been helping out with Ice Fest probably for like six or seven years, in a volunteering capacity.

- Oh my gosh, she would do really well, she'd almost do better than you.

- [Bret] Yeah, no doubt about it.

- I am help co-instructing tomorrow and today I'm going to be leading a tool sharpening party, so their tools and crampons will sink into the ice in an efficient way.

- [Bret] The ice Festival started here in 2005, it quickly grew in popularity because of its proximity to the Metro area and the easy access to the ice, you can drive right up to to it while other climbing areas across the country might require hiking through some back country.

- [Susan] So, I mean, it's definitely an awesome opportunity if you wanna get a plethora of ice climbs in without the demands of being able to hike in an hour or two hours.

- I mean, sometimes it gets crowded, it's kind of nice when it's cold 'cause there aren't as many people here.

Only as hard are you negative five, it's negative five out here right now but if you're dressed for it, it's all okay and then when I'm climbing, I'll actually take this off because I'll get too warm climbing, so this is my warmup jacket.

- Whenever you go ice climbing, you start to observe the weather before you go ice climbing.

There are days where it's like 60 degrees outside and you're wearing a sports bra or otherwise there are days when it's like negative 10 degrees outside and you're wearing every single thing you possibly can, ensuring that you have the proper layers to be able to protect your skin from not getting frost bitten.

- I didn't know I'd have to bring a sports bra.

(Susan laughing) - The climbing itself can actually be pretty easy as long as you watch what you're doing, make sure your feet are doing the right thing and then your hands are gonna be easily just holding you in place.

Many guys will wanna do pull ups and you don't do a up, you just step, step like a ladder and just stand up and if you get that, you'll have fun climbing ice, you won't, you'll be able to do it all day long.

- [Bret] While the Ice Climbing Festival brings a lot of experienced climbers to the area, it's also a great opportunity for anyone who wants to try ice climbing.

- Yeah, when you get that stance, you're like, oh, right there, that's good.

We wanna keep our arms straight once we have that tool in place and we get that arm straight by dropping our hips, our butt back and out and bending our knees and then bringing up our feet and as we're bringing up that second foot, we wanna keep this arm straight, it's gonna be hard to do but you just gotta keep your butt out.

You're just lowering to keep that arm straight, that way we're not having to pull with our biceps and it's also making it in a position where we can see where we're kicking and it helps you get that toe up, you guys got it?

- [Lady] More or less.

- Awesome, who wants to climb?

(upbeat music) - It was in the late 1880s, the quarry opened up and they were cutting the rock for building material for building buildings and libraries and government buildings, that went up into the early 1940s and then this kind of became an abandoned industrial site.

People from town used it a little bit but in the late 1990s, this kind of became a spot where some of the bad players in the area came to deal drugs and it was kind of a scary place, people in town stopped coming down here and then around early 2000, climbers started finding out the place, they started coming here, more and more paddlers started showing up and pretty soon that bad traffic moved outta here and now we've got climbers and paddlers here and we've got the people from town coming back here and again, really having a lot of pride in this park, really, really think it's a special one of a kind place.

- [Bret] So taking an ice axe and scaling a frozen wall has saved this park.

- Yeah, it has.

- In the sense.

- Ice climbing, yeah, it changed the park.

- [Bret] There was a feeling of satisfaction of learning the ins and outs of ice climbing and reaching the top on the third climb.

There's a whole mindset that must change when you're climbing a wall of ice, the gear you have allows you to go places you normally can't and trusting yourself to get there takes time.

Reaching the top is only half of the rush, just taking a moment and looking around and realizing that you're hanging off a cliff made of frozen water, it's worth the climb.

- I just love ice climbing, it's just, it's quiet and it's just beautiful, it's and it seems easier to me than rock climbing.

- I love ice climbing, it makes me feel just empowered to be able to do something that is just so ridiculous.

I mean, I'm climbing frozen waterfalls.

The endorphin rushes, the serotonin, like the feeling of being able to get to the top of that.

I don't know, I'm in an adventure junkie too so I don't know, I just love it.

I don't know how to explain the feeling I get from swinging an axe or kicking my feet in or trying a new ice climb or trying something really difficult, I think it just gives a little bit of extra meaning in terms of my days.

Currently, three farmed ice parks in the state of Minnesota and actually I think there's only five or six of them, so we have, of any state, we have the most farmed ice parks.

- There's only a few ice parks in all of America and this ranks in the tops of them for sure.

The ice climbing season generally starts middle of December, pretty predictable through February that you're gonna have good ice, once we get into March those conditions can be kind of iffy.

- Face the wall.

- That's not fun.

- We got you.

- That's not fun.

- [Bret] To learn more about ice climbing in Minnesota, you can visit hardwatersports.com or mnclimbers.org.

- 'Cause we get to see all kind of insects and nature and go hiking in the woods.

- [Alyson] We strongly believe that children learn better outside playing and definitely making a strong connection with nature.

- [Liza] If they are connected with nature, then they're gonna take care of nature.

(upbeat music) - Right here it is.

- I had twins and I realized that their brain development was so crucial in those first five years, so then started thinking about enrolling my children in a nature based program and realized there wasn't a nonprofit nature based preschool in Minneapolis and there was all of this green space and all of these young children and in the process of looking for a nature based program in Minneapolis, I found a lot of amazing enthusiastic people who helped create our program.

- Alyson reached out to me and she wanted to have the preschool come nature preschool, come and be part of Bryn Mawr school.

I am very much about getting kids out into the world and exploring, finding out everything they can.

- We started with just two mornings a week, that was our first year, then we went to four mornings a week, then last year was mornings and afternoons, Monday through Thursday and then this next year will be Monday through Friday, mornings and afternoons, two different programs.

So we went from starting with 16 children and now we'll have 48 in the fall.

- Our students see the young children playing out in the forest, making forts, doing all kinds of activities outside and our children then at recess do a lot of the same things.

- They're outdoors a hundred percent of the time, they are happy to be outside in any kind of weather.

- One of my favorite memories and it's every year, when the first snowfall falls and children are elated, like they're just so excited, it was our first year and we were in the restroom and a teacher radioed that the snow was falling and the children in the restroom were literally jumping up and down and they were just so ready to get out there.

- The difference between the winter and the summer is just what you have to wear.

You still have to be aware of different things, in the winter is staying warm, knowing when to say, my toes are getting cold or I need this or I need that.

(upbeat music) - I have warm things and also hand warmers help us and toe warmers.

- [Liza] But in the summer, then you have to be aware of poison ivy and ticks and keep your socks over your pants.

- Never get poisoned by those poison ivy, 'cause if I got poisoned, my mom would've freaked out.

- We refer to our quick curriculum as emergent curriculum, it's really seeing what nature and children present each day.

We don't necessarily have to teach directly science or stem curriculum because it comes up, how deep is the snow?

Let's measure it with this stick.

If they wanna count the toads, they're gonna be up to 150, there's so many out there, so however we can build their interests.

I think children learn more when they're engaged and curious.

- My favorite thing that we're gonna do is find goats but we have to eat our snacks next to them because and goats even eat clothes, what if they eat my clothes?

Frogies are cool, they jump on but one time, some, one time, one peed on me and pooped on one of my hands, like this hand and this hand, I was like, frogie, bad frogie, now go.

(upbeat music) (calm music) - These things that are so, were so natural for our generation that are not natural for our kids right now, because they are given the screens and they are given super expensive toys that have just one use but in nature, their imagination just can fly away.

- We got to hold a real turtle and it was so fun and my friend was like, does turtles breathe from their butt?

I was like, no, they on their noses silly, just like human does.

- I personally have a belief that your connection to nature really helps you your entire life.

There's a saying, when you're stressed out, just take a walk in the park, somewhere green and it helps you calm and helps you grounded but also I feel like it starts nurturing your relationship with the world you live in.

- They're learning rhythm, they're learning to listen to each other, they are learning to being nature, they are learning coordination, moral skills, listening, repeating and for sure, Spanish.

- You're here during our first bilingual, Spanish English immersion week, which is exciting because we've always had staff who speak Spanish and children who speak Spanish so it's nice to offer that.

- I'm originally from Guatemala, we speak not quite half but I try to make it half of the time, Spanish at home and so nature and Spanish to me was the dream.

They're having so much fun in nature but also they're able to see that teachers also speak Spanish.

They're coming back home with, hey, I know how to say this word and so and so didn't or I didn't and so and so did, so that's really lovely to see.

(calm music) - We are a tuition based preschool program, so families pay, there's a sliding scale and then additionally, we do write grants, we've been fortunate to receive gear donations from graduating families so we can outfit children, as well as from various outdoor equipment companies who'll say here's 10 rain suits or that give us a discount.

- [Laura] We wanted it to be accessible for everybody, so the location was important and having the ability to offer scholarships was very important as well.

- We continue to reach out specifically to populations that we feel are underrepresented in green spaces.

These are the stewards of our future, they are our environmental protectors of the future and this connection built in childhood, I think is so essential, not only for children but for our whole planet and just seeing that sense of wonder in children is so fulfilling as a teacher, I can't think of a better job.

(calm music) (upbeat music) - [Narrator 2] True or false, it is illegal to arrive at a lake access with a boats drain plug in place.

True, drain plugs should be removed immediately after leaving a water access or shoreline property to ensure invasive species do not have conditions to survive.

We can stop aquatic hitchhikers from infesting more lakes and streams by cleaning up everything we pull out of the water, it's a simple to drill, clean in, clean out.

Before leaving a water access, clean your boat and water equipment, remove and dispose of all plants and aquatic species in the trash, drain water from your boat, ballast tanks, motor, live well and bait container, remove drain plugs and keep drain plugs out while transporting equipment, dispose of unwanted bait in the trash.

To keep live bait, drain the water and refill the bait container with bottled or tap water and if you have been in infested waters, also spray your boat with high pressure water, rinse with very hot water, dry for at least five days.

Stop the spread of AIS.

Funding for this segment was provided by, the Aquatic Invasive Species Task Forces of Wright, Meeker, Yellow Medicine, Lac Qui Parle and big Stone Counties.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator 1] Funding for this program was provided by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund, SafeBbasements of Minnesota, your basement waterproofing and foundation repair specialist since 1990, peace of mind is a safe basement, Live Wide Open, the more people know about West Central Minnesota, the more reasons they have to live here, more at live wide open.com, Western Minnesota Prairie Waters, where peace, relaxation and opportunities await.