Spring Climbing in March

Despite skepticism and the unknown possibilities of damp winter camping as well as climbing conditions, I embarked on Saturday up the shore for what could have been a very uncomfortable couple of days.Instead, I had a ton of fun enjoying a beautiful starry Minnesotan night, sleeping in a poofy down sleeping bag that warded off the temps in the teens, and enjoying the utterly silence of the forest that goes along with winter camping. The shovel next to the tent is from digging out a flat patch of ground, and I'm looking out towards the fire pit where s'more deliciousness was had.
Climbing at Palisade looked a little iffy when we first got there.The gates were closed and locked to get up to the top of the cliff, so we threw our gear on our backs and hiked up to the top of the cliff, wondering if the rock faces were going to be as snow-packed as the road was.Lucky for us, they weren't! In fact, the early morning sun had dried off and warmed up most of the rock faces along the cliff, despite the giant chunks of ice bordering the shoreline. It was nice and warm, at least up to 40 for the first part of the day. The wind definitely got chillier as the day went on, though, and I was pretty glad that I had extra layers with. All in all, did pretty well- I flashed a 5.10b that I hadn't done before, called Ex Nihilo, and only fell twice on the 5.11b Driving in Duluth- hopefully I can get that once clean on one of the next trips up the shore. It felt amazing to get back outside climbing on real rock, and now that I know it's dry at Palisade, let the spring outdoor climbing begin!
PS- Knitting update next time, I promise... :)