New Multi-Pitch Rock and Ice Route in Ontario

Earlier this week, Aric Fishman, Keegan Tremblay and Erik Paton climbed a new multi-pitch mixed route at the Outbreak Wall near the town of Nipigon in northwestern Ontario. They called the 50-metre M6+ WI5+ Angels and Demons. The first pitch is a 26-metre M6+, and the second pitch is a 24-metre M5 WI5+. Fishman writes about the route below, and find information on the 2025 Nipigon Ice Festival here.

Angels and Demons by Aric Fishman: This is a rad route that I’ve been working on for at least a few years now. My initial goal was to establish this route fully ground up and with no bolts. Some years there’s more ice on it than others on both pitches. The first time I saw it I was super inspired because there was always lots of steep ice on the 2nd pitch which I really wanted to climb. The first pitch was like a gate keeper though, going up a wide chimney with smears of ice on the walls, mega daggers looming overhead, and ice filled cracks which led up to a giant wedged boulder to navigate through at the top before reaching a prominent ledge below the ice on the 2nd pitch. I have done a few attempts starting up this climb ground up, with rock gear and ice screws.

Each time I would get up to a pretty hard and runout section, and the angel on my shoulder would tell me to carefully climb back down and not risk serious injury or death if I fell. But the devil on my shoulder kept calling me back to it year after year. “Go higher this time…just go for it!” Plaguing my mind, I kept going back a couple times a season. Every time I would get a bit higher, but after realizing I couldn’t get any good gear in because all the cracks were super choked up with ice, and couldn’t get in an ice screw, I would carefully downclimb back to the ground.

This winter I decided I would commit to climb this thing, and equip the first pitch with bolts so that it would be safe to climb. When I got to it this season though there was barely any ice on the first pitch, and the small cracks would now take gear. I debated for a long time if I should just go for it again, or if I should just rappel in and put in bolts on the first pitch so that it could be climbed safely whether it not there was ice blocking up the cracks or not. The demons and angels in my mind had a battle with each other, and in the end I decided to just put in bolts on the first pitch so it could be climbed again safely in the future when the cracks are fully choked up.

So I rapped in one day with my buddy Erik, put a bolted rappel anchor at the prominent ledge, and continued rappelling down to the ground. I came back another time with my friend Keegan and took the day to put bolts in on pitch one. It was crazy cold that day, and my drill battery died with only one more bolt to go. So I had to come back another day myself to finish bolting it.

Now that it was ready to go, I had to wait until a mega cold snap that hit the region would calm down a bit, so that I could climb it without freezing my absolute butt off. Right after my birthday on the 23rd of Feb, the forecast looked super primo. So I messaged Keegan and Erik to tell them it was time to go free the route, and thankfully they were psyched and available to come along for the adventure. It was STELLAR! The first pitch was a solid mix of challenging and engaging.

Feeling safe though to really go for it, I finally sent the pitch. Next was the rad ice on the second pitch that I’ve been dreaming of climbing for years. I belayed Keegan and Erik up to the ledge, along with trad gear, my drill kit, and a few bolts just in case. In previous years, the ice on the second pitch was much fatter, touching down from the top all the way to the ledge, but always had an absolutely massive umbrella at the very top that would be super tricky to navigate. This year however with there being less ice formed on the route in general, the second pitch didn’t have a massive umbrella at the top, but also the ice did not touch down all the way to the ledge.

So instead of it being like a WI4+ to the top, this time the 2nd pitch had a couple of thin overhanging ice daggers that I would have to climb on in order to get established on the thicker ice above. I was committed though, and started up the pitch taking it one step at a time. When I got below the hanging dagger, I saw that I would not be able to get any trad gear in to protect these crux moves. So I pulled up my drill with a tagline, and got everything organized on my harness so that I could put in a couple bolts on lead while hanging off my tools, until I could get in a stubby screw at the top of the second dagger.

I have lots of experience bolting rock routes ground up in the summer, so I have my system dialed, but doing that on this winter route felt super exhilarating and pretty hard. I got it done though, and was able to climb through the thin daggers safely! Now all that was left was to climb up the rest of the ice to the top of the wall. Getting to the top felt amazing, and let out a bit ol’ “WAHOOO!”

Belayed Keegan and Erik to the top, and we all celebrated a bit, talking about how epic the route was, before rappelling back down to meet my doggy Summit who was hanging out at the base of the wall. Such a fun day.

You can find this route in the prominent chimney just to the left of the rock routes Shadow Warrior and Master of Reality. Take the Outbreak Wall base trail for about 15 minutes until you see a new pink flagged trail on the right leading straight up to this wall.

Fishman is a local guidebook author and climbing guide – find out more about his most recent guidebook with over 900 routes here. He’s also hosting the 2025 Nipigon Ice Festival, one of the oldest ice climbing events in North America, which takes place this weekend. Rockies ice climber J.C. Dubeau will be on hand to present – find out more here.

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