Much of Illinois has been mired in drought for months and farmers aren’t happy. Neither is Dave Everson. He and other ice climbers are about ready to label winter 2026 the worst in a dog’s age.

Everson is a resident of Orland Park, but in most years, Starved Rock State Park doubles as his winter home. He took up ice climbing nearly 40 years ago and looks forward to scaling the columns of ice that descend into the park canyons.

Only this year there have been few such columns at the Utica-area parks. Mother Nature hasn’t cooperated.

“We’ve had so many dry months in a row that there just wasn’t enough moisture accumulating in the parks for there to be ice,” Everson said. “The park is getting a lot of phone calls from climbers. Most are frustrated because they expect that because it’s cold that there’s going to be ice there.

“There is, in fact, some ice, but it’s not touched down to the ground or even near what’s required for us to be climbing on.”

In a good year for ice climbing, there is a steady flow of water in the creeks that runs from the canyon tops and freezes overnight. This winter, however, there were two problems.

First, a lack of precipitation kept the creeks from injecting enough water over the cliff faces. Second, a mild Christmas melted away the snow and ice that had accumulated since Thanksgiving weekend, when the Illinois Valley was socked with snowfall.

The upshot is that January was a slow month at Starved Rock. Average January attendance is about 113,000, but, thanks in part to a biting cold, this year kicked off with a feeble 86,000, nearly a quarter below average.

While ice climbers might not have seen the adverse conditions coming, 2025 as a whole was warm and dry – not at all conducive to good ice climbing.

Illinois State Climatologist Trent Ford said the statewide average annual temperature was 53.6 degrees, 1.0 degree above normal and the 18^th warmest year on record statewide. Statewide average total precipitation was nearly 8 inches below normal, making it the 23^rd driest year on record statewide.

“Calendar year 2025 was very dry in Illinois, as all but two months last year were drier than normal,” Ford wrote in his blog. “Only April and July were wetter than normal statewide.”

August and September were especially dry, which in turn meant less-than-full streams to freeze into ice columns. That forced Everson and other ice climbers to head to points north such as Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

“It’s happened in the past,” Everson said stoically. “Fortunately, there are other places we go. They’re just not close if you live anywhere around Starved Rock.”

Everson said there’s still a chance for ice columns to form over the next few weeks.

“There’s still enough time where one major wet, sloppy snowfall and below-freezing temperatures at night could be what produces enough ice,” he said.

But the window is closing fast. In a typical winter, by mid-March, conditions are no longer conducive for ice climbing.