Allez Up Montreal Climbing Review

Not everyone wants to rule the world, but people sure do like to travel. I’ve often lamented the lack of places I’ve seen, but perhaps more important to me now is the way I experience them.

Climbing-Wall-Closeup

To really understand a place, you probably have to live there. A walking tour with celebratory beers after is fine, but I want more.

One way I’ve found to gain a deeper understanding of new places is to bring my climbing shoes. Even if time won’t allow a visit to the local crag, rolling solo into the gym can illuminate the culture. With this is mind, I knew that on my recent visit to Montreal, that I’d end up in their premiere gym, Allez Up, at least once.

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Bearpen Mountain Hike with Ben Lane

In the four years since we posted an interview with Russ LaChapelle, about the Catskills’ enigmatic Bearpen Mountain — the one that got away — that article has become far and away NY Ski Magazine’s most popular, both in page views and comments.

Bearpen-License-Plate

Between my conversations with Russ, his many forum posts on the Snowjournal website, a feature article on his Lost New York website, and a 2014 trip report from Matt Lucas here on NYSB, I felt like I already knew Bearpen even though I’d never been there.

The closest that I’d ever come to the former Princeton Ski Bowl was seeing it from afar while at other Catskill ski areas, after which I’d always post photos in trip reports captioned with “Bearpen Mountain In The Distance.”

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North Creek Ski Bowl MTB

Two winters ago, on a bit of an impulse, I asked my friend and professional trail designer Steve Ovitt to evaluate the potential of our property for dual purpose nordic/mountain biking trails.

North Creek Ski Bowl MTB

Steve’s evaluation was enthusiastic and now, two summers later, we are all in, doing trail maintenance and riding on our land. I never imagined biking out the back door could be almost as much fun as skiing. Indeed it is.

After two days of blowing, raking, trimming and riding our trails, I ventured down to North Creek Ski Bowl to check out the relatively new trails that Steve designed and built for the town of Johnsburg.

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