--- title: Watch a Daring Ice Climber Actually Ascend the Frozen Niagra Falls description: On Tuesday, Canadian ice climbers Will Gadd and Sarah Hueniken became the first people to scale Niagra Falls. canonical: https://time.com/3689096/niagara-falls-will-gadd-sarah-heuniken-national-geographic-red-bull/ author: Kevin McSpadden article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-01-30T07:37:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:16:23.372Z og:title: Watch an Ice Climber Ascend Niagra Falls og:description: "I may have reached the top, but Niagara won the war" og:url: https://time.com/3689096/niagara-falls-will-gadd-sarah-heuniken-national-geographic-red-bull/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5bdb002a11521548/69877cbfcd68481db10996fb/ice-climbing-niagra-falls.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: ice-climbing-niagra-falls og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch an Ice Climber Ascend Niagra Falls twitter:description: "I may have reached the top, but Niagara won the war" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5bdb002a11521548/69877cbfcd68481db10996fb/ice-climbing-niagra-falls.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch a Daring Ice Climber Become the First to Conquer the Frozen Niagara Falls by [Kevin McSpadden](https://time.com/author/kevin-mcspadden/) ## Kevin McSpadden Jan 30, 2015 7:37 AM UTC  by [Kevin McSpadden](https://time.com/author/kevin-mcspadden/) ## Kevin McSpadden Jan 30, 2015 7:37 AM UTC A number of brave souls have [gone over](http://www.niagarafallslive.com/daredevils%5Fof%5Fniagara%5Ffalls.htm) the Niagara Falls, but on Tuesday Canadian ice climbers Will Gadd and Sarah Hueniken became the first people to [scale the world famous landmark](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/01/150129-niagara-falls-ice-climb-first-ascent-red-bull-canada-gadd/). Initially kept secret by sponsor Red Bull, the daring stunt was officially [announced](http://www.redbull.com/en/adventure/stories/1331701943766/will-gadd-ice-climbing-niagara-falls) when news of the harrowing climb began to spread, according to National Geographic. The two climbers followed a route along the edge of Horseshoe Falls, a 150-foot waterfall that is considered to be the most powerful in the world. Hueniken, who grew up 20 miles away, belayed Gadd as he made the first ascent. Hueniken then followed around 40 minutes later. To us regular folk it looks like victory, but Gadd felt as if Niagara may have won the battle. “That climb beat me up. I may have reached the top, but Niagara won the war,” he told Red Bull. “At the end of the day I was hypothermic. That waterfall did a lot more damage to me than I did to it!” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3689096/niagara-falls-will-gadd-sarah-heuniken-national-geographic-red-bull/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3689096/niagara-falls-will-gadd-sarah-heuniken-national-geographic-red-bull/"},"headline":"Watch a Daring Ice Climber Become the First to Conquer the Frozen Niagara Falls","datePublished":"2015-01-30T07:37:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:16:23.372Z","description":"\"I may have reached the top, but Niagara won the war\"","url":"https://time.com/3689096/niagara-falls-will-gadd-sarah-heuniken-national-geographic-red-bull/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Sports topic","viral","New York","Canada","red bull","National Geographic","adventure"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5bdb002a11521548/69877cbfcd68481db10996fb/ice-climbing-niagra-falls.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kevin McSpadden","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/kevin-mcspadden/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5bdb002a11521548/69877cbfcd68481db10996fb/ice-climbing-niagra-falls.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"ice-climbing-niagra-falls","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3689096/niagara-falls-will-gadd-sarah-heuniken-national-geographic-red-bull/","name":"Watch a Daring Ice Climber Become the First to Conquer the Frozen Niagara Falls"}}]}] ```