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Labour day climbing weekend...
Sep. 6th, 2013 03:00 pmJessica and I had planned to climb at Bon Echo -- a provincial park in Ontario where the Alpine Club of Canada (ACC) has a hut, and where all the cliff access is by boat (the ACC also has a boat). But, the weather forecast for the weekend was pretty awful. So we started looking around... most everywhere within 6 hours (or so) drive, including Kamouraska, PQ; Rumney or North Conway, NH; Northern Vermont; the Adirondacks; or the Laurentians (Val David or Montagne d'Argent) had bad forecasts.
But, the Niagara escarpment, near Milton, Ontario had a reasonable forecast. Not good, but ok. The approaches weren't too comitting, the drive didn't involve two border crossings on a long weekend, and I could get a free hotel within 20 minutes drive of Mount Nemo, probably the most extensive crag in the area. So, that was the new plan.
Saturday we got a good day of climbing at Mt Nemo, which is a (generally) single pitch limestone cliff, mostly easier trad routes. Sunday we headed back, but after a couple routes, it started to rain. We waited a few minutes, but it wasn't stopping, so we packed up. Jessica had a friend nearby she wanted to have dinner with -- so we didn't mind an early finish.
For Monday, we were planning a relaxing day for the drive home, with a stop in Kingston Mills (near Kingston, Ontario) if the weather was ok. Forecast was 60% chance of thundershowers, but the crag was less than 10-minutes off our route home, and the walk-in was a back-breaking 5 minute stroll, so we figured we'd risk it even if the weather was impending doom -- as long as it wasn't actually dooming at the time. As it turns out, we got several hours of good climbing on most of the easy-to-moderate routes at Kingston Mills (it only has 14 or so routes) before we decided to call it a day.
Given the dismal weather forecasts, we had a surprisingly good weekend of climbing.
But, the Niagara escarpment, near Milton, Ontario had a reasonable forecast. Not good, but ok. The approaches weren't too comitting, the drive didn't involve two border crossings on a long weekend, and I could get a free hotel within 20 minutes drive of Mount Nemo, probably the most extensive crag in the area. So, that was the new plan.
Saturday we got a good day of climbing at Mt Nemo, which is a (generally) single pitch limestone cliff, mostly easier trad routes. Sunday we headed back, but after a couple routes, it started to rain. We waited a few minutes, but it wasn't stopping, so we packed up. Jessica had a friend nearby she wanted to have dinner with -- so we didn't mind an early finish.
For Monday, we were planning a relaxing day for the drive home, with a stop in Kingston Mills (near Kingston, Ontario) if the weather was ok. Forecast was 60% chance of thundershowers, but the crag was less than 10-minutes off our route home, and the walk-in was a back-breaking 5 minute stroll, so we figured we'd risk it even if the weather was impending doom -- as long as it wasn't actually dooming at the time. As it turns out, we got several hours of good climbing on most of the easy-to-moderate routes at Kingston Mills (it only has 14 or so routes) before we decided to call it a day.
Given the dismal weather forecasts, we had a surprisingly good weekend of climbing.
