Big New M9 at Ontario’s Bear Lake Climbs Wild Pillar

The Ontario ice and mixed climbing season has been in full swing for nearly two months and there have been a number of new routes.

Big 70-metre M9 WI5+R lines are few and far between in the “yours to discover” eastern Canada province. So when a new pillar formed at Bear Lake, top local climbers Stas Beskin and Daniel Martian roped up.

“They finished bolting the original start to what eventually became The Shining,” said Andriy Kolos, author of the Ontario ice climbing guidebook, “but it went right after the roof.”

Their new route is called Young Lust and heads left after the mixed crux and then tackles the spicy WI5+ pillar.

The last bit of mixed before the pillar takes a blue/yellow Camalot, but otherwise the route is fixed.

Martian is one of Ontario’s leading sport climbers and Beskin is one of eastern Canada’s top technical ice and mixed climbers. They climbed the 350-metre Rocket Man M7+ WI6 in the Rockies in 2016.

Also in Ontario, Dave Britnell found a new ice crag in Madawaska and climbed new routes, including 24 Carat WI4 the easier mixed route Fool’s Gold.

For current Ontario ice conditions visit here.