Climbing Poll: 25% Would Travel to U.S. if Border Opened
Would you travel to the U.S. during the covid-19 pandemic to rock climb?
The border between the U.S. and Canada closed on March 21 due to the covid-19 outbreak, and while it doesn’t look like it will open anytime soon, some climbers said they would travel south if it did. That’s despite the exploding number of cases south of the border. There are now over 1.2 million cases and over 70,000 deaths as of May 5 in the U.S., follow the numbers here.
On May 4, we posted a Twitter poll that asked: “If the U.S.-Canada border opened before summer, would you travel south to go rock climbing?” Out of the 81 people who answered, 25 per cent of climbers said they would travel to the U.S. and 75 per cent said they wouldn’t.
If the U.S.-Canada border opened before summer, would you travel south to go rock climbing?https://t.co/5qw5xSC9yT
— Gripped Climbing (@GrippedMagazine) May 4, 2020
When Will it Open?
Ontario Municipal Affairs Minister and Leeds-Grenville MPP Steve Clark said this week: “I’ve been pretty firm that I don’t want the border opened up for non-essential travel. Goods and services is one thing but non-essential travel I still have very big concerns.” The municipal affairs minister says he won’t be comfortable until we see coronavirus case numbers flatten in Ontario but, more importantly, the numbers flatten in New York State.
As of Monday, New York had 316,000 positive cases and over 19,000 deaths. “We certainly don’t want spread from New York State or Pennsylvania coming in our communities,” Clark said. The federal government will decide when the U.S.-Canada border will reopen. A conversation took place about the border opening and climbing in the U.S. in the Facebook comments, which you can view below along with the original story.
