Winnipeg's climbing gyms are Hive Winnipeg for bouldering, Vertical Adventures, which bills itself as the city's first indoor climbing facility, and the University of Manitoba's wall, open to the public at set times. The Alpine Club of Canada was founded here in 1906, and in winter a 20-metre tower in Saint-Boniface becomes an ice-climbing wall.
Photo: The Hive
The Hive, a Vancouver-based chain, opened its only gym outside BC on Lorimer Boulevard in south Winnipeg in 2020. It's bouldering only, with a Kilter Board, hangboards and a weights area, and runs courses from Intro to Bouldering to Women in Bouldering. Youth programmes start at age 4, and the Swarm is its competition team. A Hive bouldering membership also works at its gyms in BC.
Vertical Adventures on Paramount Road, in the north of the city, has been climbing in Winnipeg for more than 30 years. It has 32 walls over 5,000 sq ft, up to 44 feet high: mostly bouldering, plus auto-belays after a short orientation and a few top ropes once you've learned to belay. It runs four-week beginner courses, Intro to Climbing and Intro to Belaying for ages 12 and over, and parties from age 6. The building is hard to heat in winter and to cool in summer, so dress for the season.
The U of M Climbing Gym is in the Active Living Centre on the Fort Garry campus. Anyone can climb at open-climb times after a short orientation, with shoes and a harness included on the first visit. The 1,500 sq ft wall stretches 50 feet across, with auto-belays, top rope and lead, and there's a separate boulder room. The university also teaches belaying and sport climbing and runs outdoor workshops on anchors, multi-pitch and ice. Open-climb hours are limited, so check before you go.
In October 2026 an adult day pass cost $20 at Vertical Adventures, or $25 with gear, $24 at the U of M and $29 at the Hive, all before tax. Hive students paid $22, or half price on the first Monday of the month. Outside the city, the Central Plains RecPlex near Portage la Prairie, about 80 km west, has a 9-metre auto-belay wall and a bouldering wall, with $10 drop-ins.
The Club d'escalade de Saint-Boniface, the Alpine Club of Canada's Saint Boniface Section, founded in 1993, runs a 20-metre outdoor tower on rue Messager, just across the Red River from downtown. In summer it's used for top-rope, lead and dry-tool climbing, with public sessions on Wednesday evenings from early June to late September: no booking is needed, it costs $15 a person or $20 for a family, harness and helmet are included, and you take a belay test before you climb. Once it's cold enough, usually from early or mid-January, the tower becomes a three-sided ice wall. Public ice climbing runs every Saturday from 09:30 to 16:00 with no booking needed: it costs $45, ice tools, boots and crampons are lent free, and climbers must be 16 or over. The tower also hosts the annual Festiglace de Saint-Boniface ice festival. From November to June the club also runs an indoor wall in the gym of École Précieux-Sang on Kenny Street, with volunteer-run sessions open to the public on Tuesday and Friday evenings for $10. See where to learn to ice climb in Canada for more.
Winnipeg sits on the prairie, so its rock is to the east, on the Canadian Shield. The nearest bouldering is at Lac du Bonnet, about 90 minutes away, where more than 70 granite problems have been developed since 2002. In the Whiteshell, Lily Pond has easy trad and top-rope routes, and White Lake has granite cliffs 30 to 50 feet high with bolted anchors, about two hours from the city. The main climbing is around Kenora in north-western Ontario, about 190 km east, where more than 350 routes on pink granodiorite are climbed from May to October. Spring and autumn are best: summer is hot and buggy, and wasps nest in the cracks. Guidebooks include Manitoba and Kenora Bouldering (2025), Kenora Rock Climbs and Manitoba Rock Climbs (2021).
In the 1920s and 1930s the Alpine Club's Winnipeg members trained for the western mountains at the Gunton quarries north of the city. Today ACC Manitoba runs volunteer-led climbs and trips to Kenora. Climbing Manitoba, the provincial body, held its senior bouldering provincials at the Hive in December 2025 and its Canada Games tryout there in September 2026: Manitoba's team for sport climbing's debut at the Games in Quebec City in March 2027 is due to be picked in late December 2026.
Winnipeg is on the prairie, but the Canadian Shield starts just east of the city. Here's where to climb outside, from Lac du Bonnet's granite boulders to the 350-plus routes around Kenora.
Joe Rushton
From Canmore's long season to ice walls and frozen falls in or near Edmonton, Quebec City, Montréal and Trois-Rivières: where to try ice climbing in Canada, and how to start safely.
Joe Rushton