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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Yellowknife and its surrounding areas are shaped by towering, rough rock faces: a climber's paradise. Now, climbers have another avenue to scale higher and higher, even in the winter months.

Hugo Coutu, president of the Yellowknife Climbing Club, clambers over the club's new bouldering wall located in Kam Lake on Tuesday night while club member Eli Purchase spots. - Katherine Hudson/NNSL photo

Last Friday, the Yellowknife Climbing Club opened its new bouldering room to members. Although a few finishing touches are yet to be completed at the Kam Lake location, such as replacing old mats with new ones, the wall is ready to go. An official grand opening is scheduled for the beginning of March.

"It's a good activity, good training, good for the body and all the muscles," said Hugo Coutu, president of the club, who started climbing in 1995. "Everything's included in the climbing. You're using your arms, forearms, back, abs, legs ... As a climber, you need good technique, good physical strength and some mental work as well. It's like one-third of each, especially when you go in higher routes, it becomes a mental game."

The bouldering wall reaches the ceiling of the basement space, a little less than three metres high. There are 20-degree, 30-degree and 90-degree angle climbs. Climbers can clamber upside down on the ceiling or sideways across a straight wall.

Eli Purchase, a club member, started climbing while he was at school in Edmonton in 2009. When Purchase moved back to Yellowknife in 2010, the first thing he looked for was a climbing club.

"The club started in the summer of 2009. A group of people got together because they love climbing," he said.

But for six to eight months of the year, outdoor climbing isn't an option in the North - although one of the club's plans is to introduce ice climbing. So in the winter of 2010, the Yellowknife Climbing Club started to brainstorm and fundraise for an indoor facility.

The club, made up of volunteers, received funding for the project through a grant from the City of Yellowknife, donations from the Yellowknife Community Foundation and monetary and in-kind donations from businesses and residents. A final price tag for the project will be between $10,000 and $15,000, according to the club's treasurer Eric Frenette.

The club moved into the rented space in December and after hundreds of volunteer hours, the wall was constructed by the end of January.

"I just love the problem-solving aspect of it," said Purchase of the activity. "You have to figure out how you're going to move to get to that next hold, how you have to place your hand."

There are multiple levels of difficulty: for beginner climbers to advanced. Climbers can go barefoot, wear their indoor sneakers or use a pair of climbing shoes that are available at the club.

The club started with about eight members and now boasts about 35. In the summer months, members climb on the rock face on School Draw Avenue as well as sites near the Yellowknife Ski Club and along the Ingraham Trail.

The club is now open Monday to Friday from 6 to 10 p.m.

This is not the first climbing wall in the city. Ruth Inch Memorial Pool has a climbing wall overhanging the deep end and William McDonald Middle School has a Freedom Climber - a circular wall that turns as you climb. It is only used by students of the school and was installed last summer.

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