Although the Glen is within earshot of Niagara Falls and is probably one of the coolest spots on Earth, it’s not necessary to describe the bouldering with wordy imagery. It’s hard bouldering at any grade and it’s brought the sport of bouldering to many climbers.

The Glen had been relatively untouched until the summer of ‘96. Moss and lichen felt at home on the untouched boulders. The finger-tweaking pockets housed every spider in Ontario, and the vines crept their way up the boulders that now spit people off daily.

The Glen contains hundreds of problems with great landings. It also has many of the worst landings you’ll ever find – bold, daring, problems are capped off with horrendous, powerful topouts. Crash pads are cheap and work quite well. We’ve made every effort to clean up the landings without disturbing too much of the surroundings. Some of the problems are magical because of their horrendous landings and it takes a set of big ones to jump on these. Dangerously Desolate (V3), Brave New World (V6), Bolero (V2), and Just like ADR (V2), all come to mind when speaking of bad landings. Whatever your forte’— crimps, slopers, or endurance problems, you’ll find it at the Glen.

History

We were bored for the obvious reasons. We didn’t have any nearby crags, or at least any that we cared to visit. The only logical option we had was to start climbing around at the Glen. It didn’t take long to realize that there were thousands of undeveloped problems. The V0 race was on! Everyone scrambled for the most F.A.’s. This was the period when Walking Spanish Down the Glen went up. This highball, arete-squishing, problem was one of the first “hunt and climb” problems to be documented. Herbie, The Pump Traverse, Hat with no Tassle, and Knee Bar, all became immediate moderate classics. This was also the era that Brian Penner put up the Glen’s first V4, Achilles Heel. Pete Millard and myself put up All Aboard shortly after. Justin Goslin added the classic sloper problem Thunder and Lightning (V6) shortly after.

The day Pete Millard bought John Sherman’s, Stone Crusade is when our “Age of Enlightenment” began. Reading about people like John Gill, Jim Halloway, and Sherman made us realize that if we wanted to cut up our ropes and boulder as a means to an end – we could. I did cut up my rope, it was spent anyway. I just chose to replace it with a crash pad.

The Stone Crusade era was when The Crusade Wall was found. The wall lent itself to many 3 star short problems under V3. Gillranamo may be one of the most pleasing problems in the Glen (V3). The landing was cleaned shortly after Pam Anain took a chunk out of her leg that required 18 stitches. It wasn’t until months later that the more difficult Speed Kills (V5) and Karn Evil 9 (V4) were put up. The Crusade Wall still contains potential high-ball problems on it’s left side for the daring and bold.

The period following the Stone Crusade era saw massive development by Pete Cimasi and myself. We bouldered everyday, got strong and put up harder problems. The end of the bouldering season of ‘96 saw numerous new problems going up at V4 and above. Several classics were ticked including Brave New World (V6), The Great Wall of China (V5), and Cimasi’s powerful link up of Delicatessan (V4) and Pica (V5) to create Energy Crisis (V8).

Gary Valincourt is solely responsible for The Cave. He found it one day while searching for problems and was telling stories that we all found hard to believe. While we were giving him shit about his phantom cave, he was busily crushing 1000’s of pounds of rock from the landings. Gary seldom put up problems and we figured anything good would have been found already. We were wrong! The Cave contains some of the most difficult and pleasing problems in the Glen.

Valincourt graciously showed off his yet unclimbed problems. Gary had a great eye for lines and he was always willing to let anybody on them. Valincourt showed me the line that eventually made up Stitches (V5). This problem got it’s name from the 13 stitches Gary took while attempting to beat me to the first accent! (If it’s any consolation I gave him my sock as a bandage.) Other “stolen” classics include Pressed for Time (V5), a wonderful “intro” to manteling and Novacane (V6), the latter being one of my favorite lines in the Glen.

We certainly got caught up in grades – it happens to everyone. The result ended up being strict, consistent, problems at all grades. Bouldering has taught us that grades just don’t matter. Fuck grades anyway. I pity the lycra-clad, anorexic-looking, skin-stretched-over-bone, twig that insists on only climbing area test pieces and misses the ultra-classics under V4. If you insist on knowing grades, we’ve included an index in the back with the appropriate (V or YDS) grades.

We’re only human and I’m sure we’ve made mistakes. The topos, maps, descriptions, and photos are just a guide. That’s why it’s called a guidebook. If you have additions or new problems call the gym. You’ll find it.

This is a guide book. There will be inconsistencies. We’ve managed to assemble something that is useful to boulderers. We weren’t writing a computer program for NASA, even though Pete probably could – or maybe even has. We’re climbers, excuse me, boulderers. In this day of opinionated mouths like myself, people want to find the worst in everything. If you don’t like the book, toss it aside, and hop on a problem. Even without a guide, bouldering is way cool. I hope you climb safe and enjoy the following pages.

What’s the future hold for the Glen? We hope that interest and development by local and out-of-town climbers continues. This guidebook, will no doubt, spur interest in the area. We hope that those who climb will adhere to the local ethics and respect the headwall climbing ban. We’re anxious to see what (and who) the upcoming bouldering seasons bring. We have no doubt that continued development will unearth those Glen classics that are still lurking behind some hidden boulder.

Climb Hard,
Darrell Porter