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pebblewrestler
Sep 19, 2002, 2:16 PM
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Let me know what you think
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math
Sep 3, 2003, 5:57 AM
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Registered: Sep 2, 2003
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http://www.ryerson.ca/map/campus.html
thats the campus map - which building is it?
The roger's media centre thats on the NE coner of church & gould has some sandstone blocks in
3 layers together each seperated by 6 inches of smooth cement, before another 3-block layer
of sandstone. But, its sandstone, gritty and sandy (obviously) - comes apart in your hands. There
are few positive holds that I found, but I only checked about 5 blocks wide on the wall.
With alot of searching, you could probably find a 5.11 or 5.12 solo upwards. Traverse doesnt
look too promising either, would be a high rating with the lack of positive holds.
So which building did you mean? This obviously isnt a granite buildering situation, so I must have
the wrong building.
Check the map url and let me know which building it is with more accuracy. Its right near my office so Im quite interested ;)
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math
Sep 4, 2003, 4:10 AM
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Registered: Sep 2, 2003
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aha, with a little googling, I found "Devonian Square" is the square around the fountain at ryerson, and 'mt devo' must be the big rock at the back of the fountain. Amazingly, images.google.com provides me with no photos of it at all, though its a Toronto landmark.
There are many big boulders around the fountain, though. One set is setup all against eachother, and offers an opportunity for some traversing, which seems to be the only safe thing you can do around there - the big rock at the back is a 12-15 foot solo above solid concrete (well some grass on one side), and my initial investigations for holds leads me to believe its at least 5.11+. (one side is a pretty viciously smooth overhang).
A few of the holds are chalked on all of the rocks, but there doesnt seem to be a clear route - perhaps many attempts were made on the big rock at the back, but the only route puts your back and side against the small skating rink changeroom building the rock is kind of 'embedded' in.
All of the boulders are 'squared off' to some extent - big slabs with vertical faces for the most part, but many not too much taller (if at all) than myself. You could probably do some traverse excercises on a number of them, doing a lap or more around the boulders - a fun one would be finding a round around the boulder thats on the edge of the fountain - penalty for coming off is a dip in the fountain!
The big round fountain becomes a skating rink in the winter - at some point in mid-late oct the fountain turns off and is emptied. This provides excellent skateboarding (been there done that :) and allows access to the middle of the fountain.
The middle of the fountain is two big monoliths of rock, about 5-6 feet on a side, placed beside eachother -- providing a nice off-width crack between them! Get your heel-toe (heel-instep?) combinations out! Would love to try some laybacks on that, but again, only in late oct, when its cold out and the water is removed (though I suppose you could just wade over there with a towel and a milkcrate, setup shop, dry your feet off, put your shoes on and ascend - the shallow fountain is not even equiv to a thin crashpad though).
Overall, I think the place would be far more popular already if it was really great climbing. There is some chalk around as I mentioned, but I fear overall it would be relatively poor climbing. Possibly useful for more mundane excercises (mantle-traverses for footwork excercise off the head-height near-flattopped boulders?)
Ill bring the climbing shoes and check it out.
Routes up or traverses on the Rogers Media Centre would be far more exciting, though as I said, sandstone...
--math
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jerryw
Nov 1, 2003, 6:03 AM
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New photos of Devonian Square added. I took these beginning of Sept when I was in Toronto. here and here.
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