A Passion for the Mountains - The Alpine Club of Canada

above: Cathryn emerging from Mac’s Book into blackfl y terrortory; photo by Mark Lord
top right: The joyous (and no longer stranded) crowd cheers at the arrival of the club yacht; photo by Mark Lord
panorama: Lake Mazinaw, located in Bon Echo Provincial Park, Ontario; photo by David Brown
Imagine
yourself standing
with a rope and
lead rack, one foot on the bow of a boat,
the other on a tiny foothold at the base of
a 70-metre granite wall. Your guidebook
reads, “Belay from a ledge two metres above
water level,” but fails to explain how to get
there. You look down at the deep water
directly below you. As you hesitate, the
boat drifts slowly away from the wall. Your
instinct is to step back into the boat, but
instead you lunge forward and up onto the
rock, committing yourself to Boris’ Route,
a classic 5.5 climb at the heart of Ontario’s
Bon Echo Provincial Park.
This scenario is repeated thousands of
times every summer, on Boris’ Route and
other Bon Echo climbs that rise directly
from the lake. Most of us look forward to
a cooling swim after fi nishing our climbs,
but at least once a year someone hesitates
too long, does the splits and takes an
unintended dip before starting. Despite
these occasional mishaps, most Bon Echo
climbers return year after year to enjoy the
pleasures of climbing high over water on the
exposed granite cliffs.
Bon Echo Provincial Park is located on
the shores of Mazinaw Lake, several hours
northeast of Toronto, well within reach
of weekend climbers in Toronto, Ottawa,
Climbing Treasure