Hannah and I spend way to much time inside to make us happy. After a summer where we may have been indoors for a few hours total the past few weeks of never ending responsibility have been excruciating. We have been out a little, on a short hike and few long walks with the dog but nothing compared to what we are used to and what we would like. The terrible weather we have had this fall and work and school have really taken their toll on our mental states. Hannah and I needed a break so we headed to Marquette to see to one of our favorite bands, Steppin In It, in concert. I called my brother to see if we could stay at his house and he was thrilled we were coming down because the weather finally was turning and, in addition to the concert, he wanted to do some climbing.
The show Friday night was amazing, 4+ hours of dancing to great music. Saturday morning dawned to warm air, sunshine and a mild hangover. It took a while to get moving but the 60 degree temps and cloudless sky were more than enough motivation to shake my headache and head out. We stopped by Down Wind Sports so Hannah and I could buy my brother a climbing harness for an early Christmas present then headed to Ishpeming with the dogs. We had been to Suicide Bowl last spring and enjoyed the convenience and decent climbing so we decided that it was the perfect spot for the day. We pulled onto the road to the ski jump and headed down a two track near the base of a rock face jutting from the ground. Being outside felt so good and all of my worries from the weeks before and about the weeks ahead just seemed to melt as we dropped our top rope.
The crag is about 35-40 ft of good solid rock and the top of the ridge has an awesome view to the south. I am not much of a rock climber, never really have been. I really enjoy it but it doesn’t play to my strengths so I haven’t spent much time on it. The first route we attempted was a bit beyond me and after a few tries I called it quits to move on to something easier. Hannah has a mild fear of heights and seriously messed up her hands kayaking this summer so she struggled as much as me even though she is a much more capable climber. The second route was much easier and it was fun to climb one that made me feel like I was accomplishing something.
There isn’t a ton of info on climbing at this crag. I found a list of routes and grades on RockClimbing.com but I can’t figure out which routes are which and I can only guess at what routes we were actually on. I think we started with El Matador and moved to Fifth Grade Science Project. RockClimbing.com has both routes rated at 5.10a which seems way off to me. Neither of these routes are that tough. If anyone has any info on this area I’d love to know.
We were there for about 4 hours and it was just what Hannah and I needed. All of our stresses, at least for the time being, seemed to dissolve. We headed back to my brother’s as the sun was setting. We were all tired and sore but couldn’t have been happier. We ate a quick dinner and headed back into Marquette to catch Steppin’ In It’s second night on stage. It was a perfect day.
We have a few more photos up on our Picasa site and you can read my brother’s account of the day, as well as his post about our first trip to Suicide Bowl on his blog: Inside the Outside.
If you have more info on this crag, or any others in the U.P for that matter I’d love to hear from you. There is a distinct lack of beta on climbing in Michigan’s better peninsula. A friend and I tried launching a website to help remedy that last year but neither of us had the time to dedicate to it and we didn’t get a lot of support from others. You can check out our start at UPRockAndIce.com. If you have climbing info and think it is a cool project let me know and we might put some more effort into it. If not we will probably just let it drop.
View Suicide Bowl Crag.kmz in a larger map
