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To see video from the top of the ice tower, visit sunjournal.com/icetower

BETHEL — In the middle of winter, ice isn’t hard to find in Maine. Just ask anybody who has slipped on a patch lately.

So it’s a wonder anyone would make the effort to grow what looks like, from a distance, a giant, upside-down icicle, nearly 120 feet tall.

But to ice climbers Bob Baribeau, Landon Fake and Chris Hayward, the work of engineer Jim Sysko is a thing of beauty, more or less.

“In the natural world, a free-standing column like this, there’s only a few of these in Maine,” Baribeau said Thursday after scaling the column.

A professional ice-climbing guide and one of the leaders of the volunteer Mahoosuc Mountain Search and Rescue team, Baribeau said it was fun to climb, but he wouldn’t recommend it to others.

“We are climbers first, but we are also rescuers second,” he said as he managed the safety belay rope for Fake.

As they fixed the top rope Thursday for ice-climbing demonstrations they will give during the upcoming February school vacation week, a lot of things were going through his mind.

Beyond the focus on the technical details needed to make it safe for his companions, Baribeau worried a little.

“What if someone comes here unannounced, not a professional, not trained, not experienced?  Maybe they will make a mistake and then we will have to come,” he said. “So it’s a double-edged sword, but we’re thrilled. We’re ice climbers; we get thrilled by it just like everybody else.”

The ice column, one in a long series of man-made winter attractions spearheaded by the Bethel Area Chamber of Commerce in recent years, has been growing for weeks. The ice is a tribute to the natural ice in the region that’s suitable for climbing. Baribeau said Bethel is a hub for the sport in western Maine.

“We have tremendous world-class ice climbing right in this area,” Baribeau said. “We have places here, seldom seen, places where people seldom go, so if you want the solitude of snowshoeing in to see an ice column or see a waterfall that’s frozen over, we have it.”

Thursday was a key date in the life of the temporary monument, as Sysko, the engineer, turned off — for good — the trickle of water that oozed from the top down, adding girth and height to the column.

“This is it,” Sysko said. “We are not going to make it any bigger. It’s going to get cold again and the ice we have will get a little harder once it gets cold. Right now, it’s so warm that it’s a little soft.”

With temperatures approaching 50 degrees in the sun on a near cloudless afternoon, the steady drip of water coming down the melting column could easily be heard.

Sysko said he wasn’t expecting the climbers to go up the column Thursday, but seeing them set their climbing crampons and ice axes into the column and ascend to nearly 100 feet above the ground — the men estimated they were between 90 and 110 feet up — did feel good, Sysko said.

“There’s a sense of accomplishment, sure, because it was a big unknown,” he said. “We haven’t done this before. It was kind of a risky venture. But I’m happy at the way it came out.”

sthistle@sunjournal.com

Ice climbing demonstrations set

What:

Ice climber Bob Baribeau will demonstrate how to climb safely. He’ll also talk about equipment and share some history of the sport.

When:

From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 22, and again on Friday, Feb. 25.

Where:

Downtown Bethel, near Bethel Station.

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