Bouldering - Café Bloc (St-Laurent metro)

Join us for some bouldering at Café Bloc, a few minutes away from St-Laurent metro! (A few other people besides those listed as attending join regularly.)

Bouldering is a form of rock climbing without gear and above the safety of giant mats. No certification/experience required: simply come in, warm up, (learn to) climb with us, socialize, and have fun!

No fixed schedule, arrive and leave at any time.

If you’re attending, join our Discord group for communications:
https://discord.gg/C7QS77uWJ5
Please post a message the day before (we don’t check Meetup).

Meet at the gym section near lockers at the start of the event. Host usually wears a white T-shirt and brown pants or blue shorts. If you’re totally new to bouldering, you can ask a staff member for an intro; the text below also explains all of that.

The place sports a good 10 000 square feet of floor space that houses dozens of problems. It features a sauna, training area, terrasse, and more: you can check more about them here: https://www.cafebloc.com/

Fees

https://www.cafebloc.com/en/pricing

$24.75 (+ $3.71 taxes) for one entry (15% off for 10)
Add $7.75 (+ $1.16 taxes) if renting shoes

The entry gives access the whole day, so you can leave and come back later during the day.

Requirements

• Rock climbing shoes
• Risk form waiver (once: on their website/in person)

Advice

Bouldering (and climbing) requires particularly good finger (forearm) strength. A strong upper-body is an advantage, but is not significant with good balance, posture (abs), and feet placement.

Routes (aka problems, projects) have levels (« V » followed by a number, 0-3 for beginners/casuals). Arrows point to the start (one limb per arrow) and end. The goal is to go from the start and reach the end by touching only holds of the same color, wooden blocks (usually look like triangles), or the wall. You must touch the last hold with two limbs continuously for 2 seconds to complete the route.

Levels are interspersed so people of different levels can easily climb together. There’s no competition. (There is competitive bouldering, but that’s only at specifically competitive events.) It’s a bit like going to the gym, except you climb routes at your own rhythm instead of doing sets.

Bouldering also requires to jump from very high, good legs strength (squats) is useful to absorb some of the chock (you can then further roll backward on your back with your arms in front of you). Fear of heights can be eliminated as you feel more confident about falling properly. You cannot have a weakened spine or legs bones.

As with any activity, the beginning can be disappointing. Perseverance is key to reach a satisfying level of performance.

Doing pull ups (palms facing away) and sit ups are good basic exercises to increase performance.