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Canada's first climbing gym opened in Toronto in 1990. Since then the city has gained roped gyms in old cinemas, a wave of bouldering gyms and shared passes: here's how Toronto's climbing scene grew.
Toronto has a place in climbing history: Joe Rockhead's, which opened in 1990, was Canada's first indoor climbing gym and only the second or third in North America. Thirty-five years on, the Greater Toronto Area has dozens of walls, from roped gyms in old cinemas to bouldering gyms with board rooms and cafés. This is how the scene grew, using the opening dates in our listings.
Joe Rockhead's, on Fraser Avenue in Liberty Village, still has top-rope, lead, auto-belay and bouldering walls. Toronto Climbing Academy followed in East York in 1993 and now has more than 110 roped climbs and 60 lead stations, and Of Rock and Chalk in Newmarket, from the mid-1990s, is one of Ontario's oldest gyms.
Ajax Rock Oasis opened in the Ajax Community Centre in 2004, Climber's Rock in Burlington in 2008, and the original Boulderz, in the Junction Triangle, in about 2009.
The pace picked up in the 2010s. Hub Climbing Markham opened in 2014, and in January 2016 Basecamp Climbing turned the former Metro Theatre, opposite Christie station, into a roped gym with walls of nearly 40 feet. Boulderz added The Cave in Mississauga in November 2016, Up The Bloc opened in Mississauga in February 2017 and Toprock in Brampton a month later, and Hub Climbing Mississauga, which bills itself as Canada's largest indoor climbing park, followed in January 2019.
Boulder Parc in Scarborough opened in January 2020, and Basecamp's second gym, Basecamp Queen West, opened the same year in the basement of a former cinema on Spadina Avenue, with a work and study room in the old projection room. Aspire Climbing Whitby opened in autumn 2020, and Steel Peak in Vaughan, which began as Aspire Vaughan, in June 2021.
RockHaus, a small bouldering gym in Vaughan, arrived in 2024, and around 2025 came Ethos Climbing on the waterfront at Queens Quay and Hogtown Boulders in North York, with 12,000 sq ft of bouldering and a room full of training boards. In December 2025 Aspire Milton moved into a bigger building.
As the city filled with gyms, some began to share. Joe Rockhead's, The Rock Oasis in Leslieville and Up The Bloc call themselves sister gyms, with punch passes and a multi-gym membership that work at all three. Boulderz's Multi-Gym Gold covers its three gyms, and Basecamp and Hub passes work at both of their locations.
Toronto's climbers were heading outside long before 1990. The Alpine Club of Canada's Toronto Committee formed in 1910 and recorded outings to the Niagara Glen and Rockwood in 1922. In 1971 Gerard Clement set up bouldering at Sunset Rock in Milton, modelled on Fontainebleau, and Ontario's first bolted sport route went up in 1983. See outdoor climbing near Toronto for where you can climb outside today, and climbing in Toronto for every gym, with prices.
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