28
MOUNTAINLIFEBLUEMOUNTAINS
SUMMER2016
Formany climbers, any time they head to anOntario cragone of the essential
pieces of gear they throw in their pack is
The Escarpment:AClimber’sGuide
.
Published in 1991, this 270-page book is a fairly thorough look atmost of the
crags on the Escarpment inOntario. Listing the routes up the face,where to
climb, howhard each climb is,where toplace protection,who climbed it first,
and the etiquette for each and every crag, it’s an essential tool for climbers.
But the rumours of a newguidebook have been circulating for nearly a decade.
In fact, they’ve been circulating so long, they’ve takenonmythical proportions.
And former
Gripped
editor GusAlexandropoulos has been at the centre of
those rumours.
Meanwhile, JesseWonggot sick ofwaiting.“For the longest time, I climbed
outside of Ontariobecause of the lack of a goodguidebook,”he says.
“Throughoutmy travels, I've alwaysmaintained that Lion's Head is themost
beautiful place I've climbed at. I was at Lion’s Head last year and itwas a
perfect day and I was the only person there. I thought, ‘Wow, it’s kindof sad
that this beautiful place has just lost its traffic.’”
SoWongdecided to tackle theHerculean task himself.“Honestly, I didn't have
any solidplans tobecome a guidebook author,”he says.“If another guidebook
had come out last year, I would've
bought it andmy projectmay never
havematerialized. I startedbuilding
the content for the app first because
itwas lower-risk, butwhen friends
sawhow far I got andhowmuch
work I did, they pushedme togo all
thewaywith the print guidebook.Thiswas a lot ofwork onmy own. I had a
lot of people helpme in the final months.”
That help came in the form of nearly $11,000 raised on Kickstarter.Then
climbers likeGregWilliamson,Mark Smithand LeslieTimms startedhelpingout.
WhileWong’s
OntarioRockClimbingGuidebook
hasn’t yet printed, he’s proud
of the design.“It’s a really pretty book. It’s got a really beautiful theme to it. I
can rave about that for sure.”
"It's sad that this beautiful
place has lost its traffic."
ONTARIOCLIMBINGGETSTHE
GUIDEBOOKS ITDESERVES
FROM
ZERO
TO
FOUR
LeslieTimms atMetcalfeRock. COLIN FIELD
UP
FRONT
