Outdoor Rock Climbing in Downtown Toronto

I like climbing on rocks, that is to say I enjoy the challenge of rock climbing. I can't say why really, there are lots of other sports out there that I could participate in. I guess one part of it is the intense personal challenge it places in front of you. You are not there to compete against others, although that happens sometimes, you are there to do your personal best and improve yourself. The other part of it is I like the physical and mental challenge that it presents. It's like putting together a puzzle...while balanced on your toes on tiny pieces of rock while gripping desperately with the tips of fingers to other tiny outcroppings. OK, maybe that glorifies it a bit but you get the idea it makes both your mind and body work and it makes them work together and hard, and I enjoy that.

Lately I have been rising early on a weekday morning and making the trek to my local indoor climbing facility, The Rock Oasis and partaking in an offshoot of rock climbing proper known as bouldering. I waffled when typing that last sentence as it could be argued that bouldering was really around first and that rock climbing proper is an offshoot of it, but enough semantics and back to the point at hand. I love bouldering! It distills the essence of what I like about rock climbing into a awesomely potent form.

For those of you not familiar with bouldering it is basically a style of rock climbing undertaken without a rope and normally limited to very short climbs over a crash pad so that a fall will not result in serious injury. Now that is a very bland straightforward answer which I actually stole outright from the first line in the description of bouldering in Wikipedia. What I have discovered, and those of you that boulder will know what I am talking about, is that bouldering takes the crux moves, the most difficult part of a climb, and makes that into what you are focused entirely on. It takes the most challenging part of a normal rock climbing route and places it front of you to work on over and over until you unlock the proper sequence and poof! The problem is solved! ... or you give up because the problem is too damn difficult!

This new found love of bouldering has drawn me to think a lot about it in my off time...like right now. Usually, when I have off time I am some where in the vicinity of a machine that connects me to the internet and this has led me to a site some of you might of heard of...YouTube. On this YouTube I stumbled across all manner of different bouldering and climbing videos but one in particular caught my eye. Check it out at the top of the page if you haven't already. It is a short sort of documentary about two massive boulders that were moved from Cornwall to an area in London England and set up as an urban bouldering area.

This has got to be the best idea I have ever heard of! It was done as an art instillation but also a place for people to boulder in an urban centre. Now I live in the lovely city of Toronto and I thought to myself why can't we do something equally as cool?

So here's my the link to the Facebook group I created in order to drum up some support for this project: Urban Bouldering Installation Toronto
If you think its a neat idea sign up and let us know! Show your support, who knows maybe it will become a reality.