What's this guy talking about?

[Ecaz]

Howdy, just a general Q&A for me... well more of an explanation with a question somewhere buried beneath really. All righty, so here I am, in the nice city of Halifax, going on five months in a new city and a new province. If someone was to ask if I fit the profile of "starving student always needing a ride to some rock" then I would say yeah! But the truth of the batter is that I moved here from Ottawa out of respect to my family... I really needed to get away, but more importantly I came here for my grandparents, you know how old people can get, with the ageing and all. Anyways, I moved out here to do my first part of my Engineering degree here at SMU, which is great; smaller class sizes, less hustle and bustle.... but the bad thing is a lot less, and more expensive access to an indoor climbing gym.

Yes the rock court has done a mighty fine job over there at Dal. but it doesn't offer much for other university students. If I had wished to continue to climb there, the space isn't much (but its great), and the distance isn't far (kinda coldish now, but hey, walking is cheaper then the bus) Anyways, like I was saying, it would cost somewhere in the range of $500 for the year. Yes, it’s a bit high, but I guess that’s where I'd fit the starving student thing comes in, seeing as all my money's gone to School.

Now comes the questions: I've heard tale of another gym over theres across that water thingy. Yeah, I know its name, but what I don't know is its prices. More importantly though, I was wondering if bussing out there 3 times a week was worth it, and if it was relatively easy to get there by bus.

I suppose that I should through in the question about hours and such, but I guess that's standard across all gyms. But hey, I'm thinkin that maybe getting a crash pad and some friends together, and possibly meeting new people, that climbing in the winter wouldn't be a bad idea. Anyways, I could use some suggestions on where to go, and when. Thanks.

[*Chris*]

I've heard tale of another gym over theres across that water thingy. Yeah, I know its name, but what I don't know is its prices. More importantly though, I was wondering if bussing out there 3 times a week was worth it, and if it was relatively easy to get there by bus.

Totally...

The "water thingy" is the Bay of Fundy

It's name is "The UNB Rock & Ice Gym"

A year membership is $40

And yes... I believe the bus runs Halifax to Fredericton every day!

No problem dude.

[Jen]

Its funny how many of us climbers are engineers or engineering students! There is a climbing gym over in Dartmouth, Burnside to be exact, called Ground Zero (groundzeroclimbinggym dot com). You can take bus route 52 there during the evenings (after 6:30 I think) and on saturdays as well - during rush hour the route changes a bit and it doesn't run on sundays. Before I had a car this is how I got there and back if I couldn't find a ride. CHeck out the website for location and other info.

Another option is that one of your fellow SMU engineering students (Steve) climbs at this gym and if you suck up he might give you a lift over when he goes or at least let you know when (we're heading over tonight). Unless it's changed, a year membership there is $350, a day pass is $12 (cash/checque only in both cases - no debit). Definitely worth checking out!

[chossmonkey]

http://www.groundzeroclimbinggym.com/

[granite_grrl]

Why aren't you in school now if you just finished up at SMU? Or have you just finished your first semester at DalTech and now on a co-op term?

When I was a student at Tech I used to catch the bus at the residence downtown to Dalplex, saved a ton on bus fairs. But I know what you mean about the price of the Rock Court. It isn't so much the climbing gym that costs so much, but the initial member ship to Dalplex. I served all my co-op terms away so I never bought anything but a student's member ship to the Rockcourt.

The best thing for you to do would be to check out the bus schecdules from your area. I think the last bus to the Datmouth terminal runs at 10:30pm (??). But I've always thought the bus sytem in Halifax kinda sucked. I used to bus from Mumford out to the gym in Bayers Lake (back when Nick and Heather ran it) and it used to take forever to get there.

Another option is biking. I think that I have spent time biking to every gym in around Halifax. Another option, build a woody (if you have the space, you can make a pretty nice woody for $500). Another option, be way hardcore and keep climbing outside.

Good luck. Remember, if there's a will there's a way!

[tracstarr]

yeah, it can be a bit pricey to climb at dal, but you know what, all you have to do is a little bargaining with both the dal membership and the RC membership. You'd be suprised what you might come up with. But another option would be to get a punch pass. Both gyms offer a punch pass and sometimes (depending on how much you really climb inside) it can be much cheaper. You can also change things up a bit too between the gyms which is always nice. GZ is bigger and offers some awesome problems and routes. RC is defiantly small , but has good problems. Don't bother trying to get on a rope though. Other than being small my problem there is that they don't change things up often. I don't climb at GZ too often, so it's always different when i go

But really, climb outside!

[granite_grrl]

But really, climb outside!

See, now you know where its at .

Or better yet! Take up ice climbing!! (assuming any ice is forming for you guys this year, can't be any worse than around here).

Dude, ice climbing is where its at!

[Zamboni]

Did you not notice this post?

http://www.climbeasterncanada.com/viewtopic.php?t=2518.

All you have to do is walk down to MEC, Pick up the Halifax Bouldering Guide

http://ns.bouldering.ca/
Find out what bus goes where, and go climbing outside.

Last time I checked Climbing outside was FREE.


CB.

[Nate]

Hey dude,

Grab one of the cheap crash pads at MEC, and come climbing outside. Me and Ben are usually always psyched for climbing(all you have to say is, dude, the temps outside are super rad...even if they aren't). It'd be nice to find another car around though, Bens car only fits two people at the most.

I'm sure you'd be able to bargain yourself a membership at the rock court if you put in a couple of hours there. You can get in touch with the rock court manager Heather at hreynolds (at) dal (dot) ca

In emergency need to climb situations, the buildings of Halifax provide excellent architecture..


Peace,

Nate

[Ecaz]

Did you not notice this post?

http://www.climbeasterncanada.com/viewtopic.php?t=2518.

Indeed I did, I was something like the third one to post a replay.

Last time I checked Climbing outside was FREE.

Totally correct on the free part, however it’s not so much the outside weather that bothers me, but the whole getting lost and walking into an illegal growing operation that does. See before I had posted this, and before the first snow this winter, I convinced a friend or two of my to give me a drive out to find some boulders, which we did after a while. Thanks to an old guide by Teth, (found a website he made a while back) we decided to make a trip out to porcupine forest.

We got there, followed his directions as best we could, but we wound up finding some "illegal plants" which was kinda iffy. - Sorry to anyone whose property this was, but the Environmentalist in me was saying that the amount of fertilizer bags just left lying around was disgusting. I picked up as many as I could fit into my bag, and tossed them out in the garbage once I got home.

But that’s beside the point. We wound up not finding the actual rocks we intended to find, but we did find quite a few others. Completely untouched, and I'm not sure, but maybe not of crown land? Anyways, we got in a good hour of messin around before it began to down pour, which was not expected.

That’s why I would kinda like someone that knows the area a bit, to you know, show me around to a few locations... (mainly LOC)

Thanks for all the feedback.

P.S.

Why aren't you in school now if you just finished up at SMU? Or have you just finished your first semester at DalTech and now on a co-op term?

I am currently in second semester of first year.

[Scooter]

lol porcupine fortress
there are dozens of climbing areas much closer, and probably easy to find.
buy the guidebook at mec, it will help you out lots


GZ is awesome, best holds, solid routes, although i dont know how easy it is to bus there
RC is expensive, but routes are stellar (HARD!) but like keith said its amazing what you can get if you try to bargain. use the email nate posted

now excuse me, im off to porcupine fortress to gram me some of those 'illegal plants'.

[Zamboni]

Hahahaha.

Why is it, ( In my experience ) engineers always find the harder ( more expensive ) way to get things "done", and still not 100% correct.

Dude, you couldn't have picked a more secluded area to climb. Ya that place is pretty rad for a day of V5's and under. But it is soo far out. Your going to kick yourself in the ass once you figure out how much rock there is only a 3rd the distance. The reason why you couldn't find it; It gets visited prob about once a year, thus no defined path gets developed.

I'm telling you, pick up the halifax bouldering guide and take the bus to Harring Cove, Chebucto head. If thats too far, you can traverse the tower in Point Pleasant Park.

CB.

[tracstarr]

geish. my guess is the plats could have made you more than enough to pay for a membership......

[patzer]

I asked a while back about outdoor climbing on bus routes, and the response I got was basically there is Herring Cove and a single (as far as I know?) boulder at York Redoubt. In times of warmer weather Chebucto Head and Crystal Crescent Beach are bike distance, but I don't even own a bicycle at the moment. Nor would I dream of heading out there in the winter with a pad on my back.

I never made it to Herring Cove as I heard some nasty stories about bacteria levels on the rocks, likely due to its close proximity to the harbour and all the fun and joy that the population of Halifax flushes into it. So does anyone have a definitive word on this? Is it actually unsafe to climb there?

And I'm not sure Conan has been on the bus recently, but I'd suggest he try to take the bus somewhere to climb before telling people it's as easy as that. I've had to argue with bus drivers just to get on a bus with a pad to go to the rotary! Truth is you basically need access to a car to climb outside. You can work around it a bit in the warmer weather with a bike, but there is no other option in the cold.

[Zamboni]

I've taken the bus a total of 4 times in my life. I've had a car since I was 17, worked like a dog to pay for it.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't your SMU student fee's include a Metro Bus pass? It did a few years back.

If there is a will, there is a way.

[Ecaz]

Why is it, ( In my experience ) engineers always find the harder ( more expensive ) way to get things "done", and still not 100% correct.

That is deffinatly because we(I) don't know any better, but tottaly true, people are always telling me you make it harer than it is. SMU's student feeds do include metro transit, but the transit itself is a bit getting use to. By the amount of sugestions comin my way, this guide book is my best bet, so I guess I'll be makin a trip to Mec in the next few days, hopefully I'l have money in my account by then.

...As for thouse plants... not sure who's tey were, but I was smart enough not to touch em, you never know when you'll run into someone who will break your knee caps... Can't say the same for my friends who went with me... I guess my share went to gas money... or something.

[dquinn]

I guess it depends on your schedule, but I rarely have time to get outside during the school year. It's a big time commitment and daylight hours are limited. Plus, if you drive your own car it definitely isn't any cheaper than a gym membership (I climb about 12 days a month, so gas alone would have to be under $2.50 a trip to be cheaper than GZ, then there's the expense of actually owning a car).

I climbed at the University of Calgary for the last 4 months. It's free, but you get what you pay for - It's usually deserted (crowded sucks, but so does complete solitude), 10 foot walls, no music, no route setting, 30 degrees only, holds that never move or get cleaned, and a 2-inch top sheet (the very top layer at the RC) directly on top of concrete. I'd subsist on oatmeal and potatoes to climb at either Nova Scotia gym instead of this crap hole. I sucked it up this semester and got a membership to a local gym for 400 bones and it's worth every penny. Thank you line of credit.

[dquinn]

Alternatively, you'd only have to sell 2 ounces of that herbal medicine you stumble across and all you're money problems would be solved

[The Teth]

I have taken the 52 to Ground Zero. Catch it on North Street and it takes an hour or so to get to GZ. A quicker way to bus to Ground Zero would be to catch the Sackville Link Bus from the Scotia Square bus depot. First stop is Burnside (takes about 13 minutes). From there, walk farther down Windmill Road, and then up Akerley to the top of the hill (15 minutes, 20 tops) and you are there. It is slightly more expensive than the regular bus at $2.50 one way, but takes half the time if you are willing to walk a bit.

I do seem to remember a garden (so to speak) close to the beginning of the trail to Porcupine Fortress when I was first cutting the trail in. It was not used the following year, but I guess with less climber traffic recently they must have started using the area again. I am fairly sure that the land owner does not know about the garden. Probably belongs to one of the young local men. Hunting is another pastime popular with the young local men. It is not a commercial operation so as long as you are polite to anyone you meet and claim to have seen nothing, you probably will not have any problems. I would not suggest harvesting though.

[betaburgler]

Oh no Nate... what are you doing? The poor guy might not be ready for a Smith trek, climb, and camp out! If you bring him at least make sure Ben has more to offer him then dry oats or pita bread before you curl up under a tree stump!

[ben smith]

dave- key point- DAYtime hours- frig that- buy a headlamp- climb at night-
carless dudes

take the purcells cove bus 15- to york redoubt- badass boulders with good landings - the bus stops right at the entrance and its a 2 min walk instay on the trail and head for the flagpole- you'll see a badass boulder on your left- lots of quality problems.- climb on buildings- martello tower is good- there is rock at eagles nest off the 80 sackville bus- stop in bedford. get a bike! most areas can be biked too with enough effort. make sure to buy a streamlined pad if you choose this route- or stash a pad at the boulders. Hitchhiking also works well- hide the pad and try not to look threatening.

[Rich]

Yeah - York redoubt has a bunch of boulders scattered through the woods and a bunch of fun problems. You can also take the #20 to the Rockingston school in Spryfield and walk back to kidston lake which has a bunch of wicked problems (however - I was there recently and they had done a bit of landscaping and certain probelsm on the "boxcar" are not any more due to raised ground levels - for example the traverse is no more, bummer). As far as bussing goes - I've been doing it for years and have never had any problems with bus drivers or anybody else for that matter - people are cool with crashpads! Also, although I haven't been tested I don't think I've contracted any diseases from the bouldering at Herring Cove! If you want to climb there are lots of options without a vehicle - just do it.

[Jono Reid]

Sounds rad, I might try it.