Outdoor climbing near Winnipeg: Lac du Bonnet, Whiteshell and Kenora

Winnipeg is a prairie city, but the Canadian Shield begins just to the east, and within a couple of hours there's granite bouldering, small trad crags and, across the Ontario border around Kenora, hundreds of routes. This guide covers the main areas as of October 2026. Most of the rock is granite, the season runs from May to October, and spring and autumn are best: summer is hot and buggy.

Lac du Bonnet

The closest bouldering to Winnipeg is at Lac du Bonnet, about 115 km north-east, which Sendage says is reachable in 90 minutes. It has more than 70 granite problems, first developed in 2002, in sectors such as Low Ball Land, the Lookout and the Waiting Room. Gripped described it in 2020 as excellent granite bouldering at the western edge of the Canadian Shield.

The Whiteshell and Manitoba crags

• Lily Pond, in Whiteshell Provincial Park on Highway 44, west of West Hawk Lake: a handful of trad and top-rope climbs from 5.3 to 5.9, including the classic Nose (5.9).
• White Lake, about two hours from Winnipeg via PR 307: granite cliff lines 30 to 50 feet high, with bolted anchors on every route.
• Gunton Quarry, about 42 km north of the Perimeter on Highway 7: moderate and easy top-roping. Mountain Project says it's probably on private property. Alpine Club members trained here for the western mountains in the 1920s and 1930s.

Kenora and north-western Ontario

The main climbing area for Winnipeg climbers is around Kenora, about 190 km east, on the south-western edge of the Canadian Shield. The rock is mostly pink granodiorite, with less solid metamorphic and volcanic rock in places, so wear a helmet. The ACC's Manitoba Section, whose guidebook covers the region, says nearly 100 routes had been described by 1986 and more than 350 are known today, at crags including Jones, Gooseneck Rocks, Echo Creek, Panorama and the Narrows.

Jones, about 25 km north of Kenora, has more than 40 routes, with bolts updated for safety, and most can be top-roped. Its 30-metre OV Wall is on Crown land, so you don't need a permit, and parking and camping at Turtle Rock are free. Gooseneck Rocks, north-east of Minaki, is where climbing in the area began in the 1970s. Watch for wasps nesting in the cracks, and for black bears and moose.

Guidebooks and clubs

Manitoba and Kenora Bouldering (Chris Tarry and Matt Gain, 2025) covers more than 500 problems across thirteen areas, Kenora Rock Climbs (Mike Brown and Ryan Munro) covers more than 400 routes in eight areas, and Manitoba Rock Climbs (2021) covers Gunton, Lac du Bonnet, Lily Pond and White Lake. The Alpine Club of Canada was founded in Winnipeg in 1906, and its Manitoba Section still runs volunteer-led trips to Kenora's crags. In winter, climbers head to the Club d'escalade de Saint-Boniface's ice tower: see where to learn to ice climb in Canada, and climbing in Winnipeg for the gyms.