Area Details
How to Get There: Get yourself to the intersection of Arundel St. and Lyon Blvd. and head to the unmarked road 25 metres west of the bridge going over Current River. From the scenic lookout parking, head left along the top of the wall.
Where to Eat: Thunder Bay has some excellent cafés, restaurants and pubs. For vegan options, check out Bliss, Growing Season and Bonobo’s Foods.
Where to Stay/camp: Trowbridge Falls Camping is a close-to-town option. There are free camping spots on Crown Land but ask some local climbers where to find those. There are affordable hostels and motels throughout the city.
Access Issues: Several crags are closed. Other crags aren’t officially closed but are found on Fort Williams First Nations Land. The best thing to do when you get to town is to do you research as to not visit a crag with questionable access.
Airport: Thunder Bay has an international airport close to downtown. Flights from Toronto and Winnipeg can be found for under $100.
Season: This is northwestern Ontario, so you need to be prepared for rain in the spring and bugs in the summer. The best time to visit is September and October for primo rock conditions. new route is called Captain Kool. It starts on Sick and Afflicted
5.12b and climbs past a small roof and up an arête. It joins an old A2 called John and Ponchareli. I trundled some big rocks off. Aric Fishman made the first free ascent of Captain Kool, followed by Taryn Markall, who suggested 5.11b. Sick and Afflicted is a top-rope climb that was led once by Mitch Marostica, who soloed the crux to get his first piece in the thin crack about
20 feet off the deck.
The Flying Dutchman is named after the steamship Bannockburn, a steel-hulled freighter that disappeared on Lake Superior in 1902. The wreck of the ship has never been found and it gained the reputation as a ghost ship known as The Flying Dutchman of the Great Lakes. Invincible Project is named after a wooden ship that was employed in the fur trade by the Northwest Company. It sank in a storm and is the first recorded ship to sink in the Great Lakes. Captain Kool is named after Captain Myrtle “Molly” Kool, a Canadian sea captain from New Brunswick. She’s recognized as being one of the first North American registered female sea captains and the first female Master Mariner in Canada.
Hopefully the graffiti gets cleaned and the anchors fixed to provide safer top-rope options. The dozens of classic trad routes deserve more attention than they get, with their sharp face edges, gear-eating voids, and solid rock. If you’re driving across Canada this year, then take a day to climb around Thunder Bay – you won’t be disappointed.