Kama Bay
Nipigon is best known
I was on another classic mixed climb and out of time for any meaningful rest before the top of the route, I’d stopped climbing for a moment to catch my breath and relax. A few final rays of a sinking January sun were disappear ing behind the islands and peninsulas of Kama Bay, the norther nmost waters of Lake Super ior. The prevailing northwest wind unleashed another bitter gust of spindr ift and had me gasping for air as I tr ied hard to get moving. Looking down I noticed my belayer withdrawn, deep into his down cocoon, desperately seeking refuge from the cold. Rapidly numbing fingers got me moving again. As with other climbs in that area, a wild snow and ice umbrella guarded the top. Despite having negotiated many of these things, I never seem to find them easy. A bombproof medium cam in a crack next to the yellow ice at my feet provided the peace of mind I needed to top out.
The area around Nipigon, Ont., has world-class ice climbing, but that is hardly news to most winter climbers, there is also much to please those looking to put steel to stone. Only an hour dr ive east of Thunder Bay on the Trans-Canada Highway, the welcoming community of Nipigon is the perfect base for a mixed climbing tr ip. Approaching by car from the north, east or west, climbers will find a war m reception – the tour ism billboards feature rock and ice climbers. Visiting climbers will find a range of motel, cabin and housekeeping accommodations at very reasonable pr ices, with most usually having room for last minute ar r ivals. A handful of welcoming restaurants serve up hearty breakfasts and generous dinners – the Nipigon Café is the spot to meet local climbers – just the stuff to fuel a day of cold weather climbing. The town is heavily invested in the annual Nipigon Icefest, held the first weekend of March every winter, and they do a great job of rolling out the red car pet for visiting climbers.
While the climbing community has changed, many of the local activists establishing new routes are longtime visitors, and most weekends will see familiar faces from Thunder Bay, Minnesota and Madison, Wis., among other areas. A very strong local ethic has dr iven much of the development, with all of the hardest traditional pitches having been done ground up in impeccable style. While lots of news about r ising standards in the climbing media has emanated from more well-known destinations, ground-up traditional standards in the area have quietly kept pace. Some very talented visiting climbers have remarked about both the quality and the difficulty of many of the local routes.
among climbers for Orient Bay. Mixed climbers will find three main areas of interest, all within about 20 minutes drive of Nipigon. Kama Bay is a traditional mixed paradise, and hosts an incredible concentration of excellent, generally well-protected routes. A number of the best are in the M5-M6 range and offer an excellent introduction to the character of Nipigon mixed routes before tackling harder lines. A number of M7-M8 routes await those looking for something more challenging. Best of all, most of the routes are readily scoped with binoculars from the logging road before deciding on a line.
Approaches at Kama Bay can at times be more arduous than the cross-the-ditchand-climb Or ient Bay crowd might be used to, rang ing from a steep 20- minute