Mathieu Fontaine

Vengah! Vengah!  That’s his trade mark call of “sendergy.”  On any given day sunny or otherwise you can find Matt working on his latest sick project and cheering on anyone else who might be trying hard.   Before the snow has melted he’s snowshoeing his way into the back woods to scope out new crags and crazy project.   We’ve try to encourage Matt because of his absolute love for the sport and the dedication he shows it. 

Orford is quickly building a reputation as a quality crag for climbers of just about every level.  Not only does it offer great routes,  but it also offers some good boldering too.  The success of Orford is largely due to the efforts of Matt and some of the other local climbers.  Who were able to organize a major bolting effort in conjunction with Orford Provincial Park.  Ecological trails were built and a large parking lot was created to accommodate the ever growing recreational area. 

One of the other great advantages of  Orford is the  minimal bugs in the spring, especially when you compare it to the Laurentians, or Rumney, New Hampshire. But Matt’s hasn’t stopped there, he’s also bolted several smaller crags in the area most of them hosting hard 13‘s and 14‘s

Matt is straight about his effort when it comes to developing new routes and areas.  His motivation come from the lack of  routes available at the level he wants to climb.  Often times he pays for much of the bolting efforts out of his own pocket.  It can be easy to criticize that he doesn’t bolt enough easy stuff but hey when it’s him who pays and does all the work he decides what he want to work on, and can you really blame him?

 Mathieu Fontaine may not be big in the front pages of  all the magazines, but he’s no slouch.  His summer 05’ tick list included, All day slacker,14a/b Rumney, N.H. Red Moon, 14 a/b Orford, Qc. Alfa Beta, 14 a/b, Orford, Qc.  Not to mention  Naellange a 14 b/c, .  A route he bolted then named after his new born daughter.

Since the birth of his daughter  Matt’s admitted that his focus has changed, he still thrives on the hard sends, but he seems to have re-founded his passion for the sport on a whole new level.  His pleasure seem to come from the discovery aspect.  Discovering  a new crag, a new project, even just a  sweet route, perhaps a new texture, or even something as little as new beta.  Point in case.

 I tagged along with Matt, his girlfriend and daughter for a week-end get away in the lower St-Laurence area.  The week-end was about friends, family, climbing and relaxing.  My goal was to get some information about Matt for this article.

Our 1st. Stop was  “La Pocatiare” where we met up with our host Samuel Lavoie.  La Pocatiare  is another one of Matt’s many bolting efforts and Sam is Matt’s long time friend.  Sam just happened to be working  “permutation, 14 a” one of Quebec’s 1st 14’s.  and  as life would have it, A key hold  snapped off in Sam’s hand.  He was obviously disappointed due to the fact that he’d been working the problem most of the summer and felt that he was really close to sending.  Regardless of his personal frustration, within minutes the two guys started joking about changing the name of the route to “mutation” and wondering where they could get some glue or if they thought the route could still be done with out the hold. 

The mood was light and the subjects kept flowing, and buy sunset and a few more broken holds later Matt and Sam were ready to call it a day.  Infused with excitement and fatigue we headed toward Sam’s for some pasta and down time.

Sam live on a magnificent 110 acre farm that is nestled in the most beautiful cliff line that over looks the St-Laurence seaway.  After Eating and well after dark Sam and Matt took me on a flash light tour of the cliffs.  The potential here is just incredible, not just for a few stiff routes either. This cliff could easy host several great climbs at just about every grade. And to top it all off there is plenty of quality boldering to be had has well.   The best part is that Sam and his family are open to the idea of having climbers come and take advantage of the rock. 

Once again the issue here is time and money.  To many routes to be bolted  and not enough time for one or two men to do all the work.  The other issue is bolts, due to the enormous route potential the cost of putting in all the bolts becomes very expensive.  We at Rush think that this is a very worth while project and want to help see this project through to completion.  There are no access issue and all that they ask is that you ask the permission to climb and that you climb at your own risk.  They are also very open to anyone who might be interested in doing some bolting.  The name of their farm is La Raku, if you would like more information on this site and how you could get involved in helping them realize this sites potential you can contact us at info@rushessentials.com