Norwich Ledge is a 100m rhyolite escarpment north of Bergland, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Since learning of this cliff a couple of years ago, I had always wanted to make the roughly 5-mile ski approach to see the potential for winter climbing. On the first recon mission little ice was found, as we were too late in the season. The next winter was warmer than average and a healthy amount of ice formed on the cliff. In February 2016, Kim Hall and I made the first known winter ascent of Norwich Ledge via the summer rock route Book of Saturdays (solid M5). Additional potential was apparent.

Soon after this first climb, Dave Rone and I made the first ascent of Parmotrema Arnoldii (WI5/6 M7+ A0), which climbs four short but involved pitches through the breaks in the many roofs that make up the tallest part of the escarpment.

Located left of Book of Saturdays, Parmotrema Arnoldii begins below a large roof in a right-facing slab/corner with bright red, broken rock. The route gains thin ice and turns the roof on the left, where one bolt and a fixed Pecker were used for the belay. Pitch two traverses right below the next roof system, then up a pillar of ice to set a hanging belay in ice. Pitch three turns the third roof on the left (the leader used one bolt for aid, and the second followed free) to thin ice covering the slab above, and then traverses right to set the final belay in ice. Pitch four climbs the exit groove, covered in the lichen that gives the route its name. The route’s hard-to-protect crux is found high in the groove.

To our knowledge, as of last winter, this route was the hardest traditionally protected mixed climb on the U.S. side of the border in the Midwest. The best conditions are likely found in February.

– Jon Jugenheimer