History Made: Will Gadd and Sarah Hueniken Make First Ascent of Niagara Falls

Canadian ice climbers Sarah Hueniken and Will Gadd made the first ascent of Niagara Falls this week as part of a Red Bull shoot.

“I checked out the spot we were thinking of climbing in the summer,” Gadd said. “You’d be swept away by the torrential downpour then.” This year’s cold weather slowed water flow and allowed climbable ice to form. “During a warm winter, there’s no climb here.”

Gadd led the route and Hueniken followed the pitch. Gadd wrote on Facebook, “Sarah Hueniken followed it clean, so it was really a team ascent, so stoked!” Two days before the ascent, Hueniken wrote a great blog about how climbers put themselves out there on social media.