Winona Ice Festival thrives in record highs

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Second annual Winona Ice Festival

The day's local, regional and national news, detailed events and late-breaking stories are presented by the ABC 6 News Team, along with the latest sports, weather updates including the extended forecast.

(ABC 6 News) — In Winona, record highs were no problem for the second annual Winona Ice Festival.

The festival, created last year by Eric Barnard, brings hundreds of people together to take part in a popular outdoor activity: ice climbing. This year, temperatures ranged from low-40’s to mid-50’s, setting records across Southern Minnesota, but Barnard says those temperatures are actually a good thing.

“This weather is pretty amazing for ice climbing, especially for people who are just getting into it because when it’s warm like this the ice is really soft, and it’s easy for people to get purchase on the ice with their ice axes.,” Barnard said. “When it’s really cold the ice is super dense and it’s really brittle so it fractures a lot so they have to swing more so it’s more fatiguing.”

The event drew about 315 people to the Winona Ice Park, about twice as many as came out in the event’s first year.

The Winona Ice Festival takes place through February 2.