New Start for Canada’s First Gym

When Luigi Montilla started setting routes and climbing at Joe Rockhead’s in the mid- 1990s, he never thought that one day he’d be a co-owner with Jean-Marc de l a Plante. Those were simpler times, before Montilla started the climbing-hold company Friction, started the Tour de Bloc and went into business with de la Plante as co-owners of Up the Bloc in Mississauga.

Rockhead’s opened its doors in 1990 by Bob and Brian Bergman and Bob’s wife Sharon McCrindle Bergman. Back then, there were only a handful of climbers. They split their time between the Niagara Escarpment and Toronto buildering. There were no places for Toronto climbers to gather, train and make plans. The Bergman’s built Joe Rockhead’s about one year after they started climbing. As Bob put it, “When Rockhead’s opened its doors for business on June 30, 1990, a needed center of gravity for the local climbing community was established, and the seeds of our present urban climbing community were fatefully sewn.”

Joe Rockhead’s hosted several climbing competitions during their first few years on local and regional levels. Sharon received a certification from the American Sport Climbing Federation ( ascf) to judge internationally sanctioned climbing competitions, and Bob and Brian were certified at the same level for competition route setting. Their experience helped them design high-level comps and reputation for setting the best routes in Canada.

Rockhead’s was the first gym in Canada to set only one route per wall and to change them regularly. By 1992, the sport of climbing was booming and Bob and Brian set to work on retrofitting a big warehouse space on Fraser Ave. in Toronto’s Liberty Village with 10- metre ceilings. It opened in November 1992 as the biggest and best climbing facility in Canada.

In 2001, they hosted the first-ever Canadian National Bouldering Championships. It acted as a debut for the gym’s biggest renovations to date. The Bergman’s hosted two more championships the following years. Joe Rockhead’s helped grow some of Canada’s best climbers, including Sonnie Trotter. But over the past few years, the old and slick holds, the beaten-up walls and dusty pads begged the question by many regular visitors: What’s the future and where are the new holds? Many people wondered why, at the very least, there was no hangboard.

When the news broke that Montilla and de la Plante would be taking over, the Toronto climbing world was ecstatic. De la Plante already owned Allez Up, BoulderHouse Victoria and Seven Bays Bouldering in Halifax.

De la Plante said, “As an owner at Allez Up i n Montreal, Rockhead’s inf luence on the industry was felt in two ways. The first was their competitive team in the mid- 2000s. In those days just having a team and uniforms was intimidating enough, but the team was stacked and dominated the podiums. Their presence on the Tour de Bloc circuit greatly inf luenced how we prepared and route-set for events at Allez UP, and forced us to up our game.

“The second was when we hired one of their long time setters Tammer El-Sheikh when he moved to Montreal for school. His inf luence on the setting of routes was instrumental in refining the Allez Up product,and delivering the Rockhead’s style of routes which I would describe as technical with a focus on precise footwork and perfect sequences.”

And Montilla’s experience and connections in the industry ran deep. Montilla said about the new ownership, “I’m excited about the opportunity to continue the Rockhead’s legacy and carry it into the next generation. It’s the community that I grew up in, and I know so many people whose lives, like mine, have been inf luenced by this place. I’m looking forward to seeing friendly faces, old and new.”

When asked about what changes will be made to the structure in terms of new walls or training space, everyone was tight-lipped as all of the plans hadn’t been made at press time. They did announce, “Our plan is to honour the Joe Rockhead’s brand and culture by breathing new investment, energy and love into the facility. The facility needs updating, but the core values need to remain.”—