Sean Therien Sends New 5.13 and More in Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia climbing has boomed over the past few years, with a number of new hard routes up to 5.14.

Sean Therien, who runs Ground Zero Climbing Gym in Dartmouth, has already ticked a new 5.13 this year with his new route (ultimate) Everything.

In 2016, Therien made the first ascents of nine new routes, including Battleslam at The Castle, a new and popular area near Musquodoboit Harbour.

Therien’s new (ultimate) Everything climbs past six bolts and is one of the hardest routes at Main Face.

Therien noted, “Battleslam took two months of dedicated specific training, but (ultimate) Everything required all 30 years of my climbing experience to go down.”

Therien and friends also established new moderates in the East Gully where the old classic three-pitch Popcorn is found. They developed Army of One 5.9+ and E-asier Said Than Done 5.9.

With a lot of climbers ready to hit the rock on Canada’s East Coast this year, we will surely be seeing more hard new lines.

One of the more popular areas is First Face with dozens of quality routes. And one of the often traveled 5.12s is Mea Culpa, a 1991 Sean Willett line.

Another one from yesterday of @anne_giles1 on Mea Culpa 5.12a . #climbnovascotia #grippedmagazine #girlswhoclimb #sportclimbing #climbing #escalade #halifax #novascotia #explorens #explorenovascotia #partymom #annemal

A post shared by Matt MacPhee (@mattmacphee) on Apr 2, 2017 at 4:14am PDT

You can find all of the route information and directions to The Castle here.

The area was discovered in 2016 by Jack Bennett, who recruited Todd Foster to help develop it.

There are now nine 5.13s and one 5.14, Ben Smith’s Trickle Down, in the Maritime province.