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Le Temps Libre is New Eight-Pitch 5.11d at Cap Trinité

The route can be comfortably climbed in a day from the car and the rock is solid throughout

Cap Trinité is one of Canada’s most famous granite big walls. It rises above the Saguenay River in eastern Quebec and is home to a number of aid and hard free routes. There were at least two new routes added this summer including Le Temps Suspendu, a 280-metre A3-, and Le Temps Libre, a 260-metre 5.11d.

Pascal Simard and Madeleine Prévost-Lemire completed the new Le Temps Libre this summer. Simard told us, “The main thing that is special with this new line, and what was the heart of our project when we started it in 2017, is the fact that it’s easily (all things considered!) doable in a day, without the pesky boat access or hauling camping gear. It is the first time, to our knowledge, an 8-pitch route is done, from bottom to the top, completely free, in the car-to-car fashion on this cliff.”

Simard and Prévost-Lemire climbed it on Friday the 13th, last month, in a 10-hour and 33-minute push car to car: “timed from and to the start of the hiker’s statue trail junction at the boat dock.”

The new route “is also well protected with bolted belays to suit the free, fast and light climbing style” the FA team hopes will catch on in the area. “Contrary to many lines on the Cap Trinité, the rock is solid all the way,” said Simard.

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