Urban Climbing in Montreal

Finding Alternatives to the Gym and the Crags During the Pandemic

It’s hard to believe that it was almost six months ago that we first experienced the impact of this pandemic. Like many sports around the globe, the climbing community has been greatly tested by the pandemic. Gyms closed. World cups were cancelled. The Tokyo Olympics were postponed to 2021. Although these measures were necessary for the safety of athletes and fans of the sport, it has greatly impacted the people who live off climbing.

Beatrix Evans is a routesetter at Allez Up and a core community ambassador of the Arc’teryx brand. Evans lives and breathes climbing. If she’s no in the gym training or coaching, she’s exploring the outdoors for hard projects. Once a competitor at the highest level with participation in ifsc Bouldering World Cups for Team Canada, Evans pursues academic studies at Concordia University. Just like her peers in the community, she suffered the results of the lockdown. Confined at home for the majority of the spring, she learned to adapt to her new life. From parks to the urban landscapes, she took any opportunity to get out of the house and feel alive again.

Mathieu Tranchida is a photographer specializing in sports movement. A recent international business grad, he’s also an accomplished skier and aspiring climber. Before the virus, he spent three months in the Swiss Alps to shoot the movie From Switzerland with Love produced by freeride skier Laurent de Martin. Just like Evans and other members of the climbing community, he had to learn to live for months without any new adventures or photoshoots. As time passed, his hunger for creativity and challenges pushed him outside the house.

Tranchida and Evans represent a community of artists and climbers who had to overcome the challenges of covid-19 by doing what they know best: staying on the move and being creative. One way they did that was by exploring urban climbing.