Escalade de bloc au parc Les Bouleaux

A short day of exploration for climbing bouldering at Parc Les Bouleaux in the Laurentians. The aim was to see what the boulders look like in this little-known area. It could become a good alternative to Val-David, whose boulders are often overcrowded on summer weekends.

How to get there

Parc des bouleaux is located in Morin-Heights in the Laurentians, Quebec. If you're familiar with the area, the park is located before Saint-Adolphe-d'Howard and after Saint-Sauveur.

Here is thePARKING LOCATION.

You shouldn't have any trouble getting there. Parking isn't great, but the park isn't very busy, so you shouldn't have any trouble finding a place to park.

Access

The park is free, and there are no access fees to pay. Nor is the site part of the FQME, so you don't need to be a member to climb it.

The bouldering area is not located next to the parking lot. It takes about 20-30 minutes to walk to the bouldering area. 'The bouldering area is not located next to the parking lot. It takes about 20-30 minutes to walk to the bouldering area.

This is where things get a little complicated. The trails aren't well marked, and there are a lot of them. I felt a bit like I was in a labyrinth. I recommend that you follow the directions on this site.

The blocks

Around ten boulders have been opened, but there are probably others, potentially openable, with more or less routes. In all, there are just under 70 routes available on the topo. These range from V0 to V11. Most of them are between V3 and V8, but we were able to make a day of it without worrying about anything above V3, depending on how much you're used to climbing outdoors.

The few problems we encountered were quite interesting and were well protected by two crashpads.

I found the rock rather violent on my fingers, the rock seemed abrasive if not sharp, making certain routes rather difficult and limiting the number of attempts.

Conclusion

This new bouldering area is a wonderful discovery for us. It's really isolated from the rest of the world, and we only came across a few hikers throughout the day.

There's a great diversity of boulders and routes.

The only drawback is that you sometimes have to walk a little between two boulders, and between the not always well-marked paths and the difference in altitude, you can find yourself a little lost and needing to make unnecessary detours.

But if you've had enough of Val-David and you're looking for a little more seclusion, go for it, there's plenty of bouldering to be done at Parc Les Bouleaux.