It is not only the hiking trails that disappear when the right of access is lost: walls can also disappear from the climbing guides. The reasons for these access losses are multiple, but they are often linked to reprehensible behavior on the part of certain users.
This is how one of the most popular sites in the Quebec City region, Val-Bélair, recently had to stop welcoming climbers. This is a disappointment that could be repeated elsewhere in the province, unless we learn from it.
“Val-Bélair was a very popular site, both for its proximity and its difficulty levels,” says Charles St-Louis, director of sites outside the Fédération québécoise de la montagne et de l’escalade (FQME). “It is located about fifteen minutes by car from downtown Quebec. It was very handy after work, when it was clear until 9:30 pm It would appeal to novice climbers as well as experienced climbers. There was initiation, there could be families with children. ”
However, the City of Quebec has just noticed that the site does not respect the zoning by-law, which does not allow the holding of recreational activities there. The FQME therefore had to dismantle the existing facilities and close the site on September 30.
However, it had been at least 30 years since there was climbing in this place. The site was part of the FQME network for 15 years. “The City knew that we were climbing there,” notes Mr. St-Louis.
Inadequate behaviors
But now, complaints from residents have multiplied over the years, especially recently with increased traffic. “There was the impact of COVID-19, the closing of gyms, the craze for climbing,” enumerates Mr. St-Louis. There were more practitioners who came from different backgrounds, with different backgrounds. They considered it a gym, with inappropriate behaviors, and we are there. ”
Some went so far as to make fires at the bottom of the wall, to play music.
There are people who shouted a lot. There were intrusions on the land of some neighbors, there was excrement in the middle of nature, which did not respect the No Traces principles.
Charles St-Louis, director of sites outside the Fédération québécoise de la montagne et de l’escalade
“There was too much traffic on the small access road, overflowing parking lots, cars parked on the side of the roads,” he adds. It’s a mixture of all of that. ”
The FQME wanted to educate by putting up posters on the site and posting an employee on the weekends, but the situation has not improved enough. The City studied the file and finally found that the site did not comply with the zoning by-law.
The FQME is not losing hope. But before asking for a zoning change, she wants to make sure that she puts together a project that does not risk falling into the same ruts. “We let the dust settle,” says St-Louis. We may hope for negotiations in order to find compromises that will make it possible to have an accessible site, under conditions that will make everyone happy. ”
Not just in Val-Bélair
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, PRESS ARCHIVES
Climbing is experiencing a new craze. However, there is education to be done so that everyone adopts appropriate behavior.
The closure of Val-Bélair is another misfortune for climbers in Quebec, who have been deprived of the Vieux-Stoneham site for two years because of an access and parking problem.
“The people of Quebec are very upset,” says Mr. St-Louis. We try to give them love, we work on good news, ”he says, noting that the Quebec Mountain and Climbing Club is also working very hard.
Access problems are not limited to the Quebec City region, however. There are also problematic situations in the Bas-Saint-Laurent, with new sites. “We work with owners of agricultural land, who have a different dynamic. Be careful. ”
In the Laurentians, the Baldy site, near Sainte-Adèle, has also given rise to a large number of complaints in the past.
In general, access rights are fragile, we must be careful on all sites.
Charles St-Louis, director of sites outside the Fédération québécoise de la montagne et de l’escalade
The problems are not necessarily always related to the behavior of the climbers, but to the simple fact that such growth in the practice was not anticipated. For example, in many cases, parking spaces have become insufficient.
However, there is good news: new sites are emerging, such as the one in Saint-Alphonse-Rodriguez, in Lanaudière. “This region is blessed! Exclaims Charles St-Louis.
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