Thunder Bay Climbing: A Guide to Northwest Ontario’s Best Kept Secret Aric Fishman, 2023
To write a good guidebook takes expertise, patience, good communication skills and thousands of hours of work. Aric Fishman poured his soul into this book, which, even if you don’t plan to ever visit Thunder Bay, makes it a must-have. There’s just something great about having printed guidebooks on your bookshelf to areas you’ve never been. Fishman is more than just a guidebook author, he’s the local climbing guru and owner of a guiding company in northwestern Ontario. There’s no better climber to compile this second-edition guidebook.
The book includes over 900 climbs, 18 areas, hundreds of photos, and easy-to-understand topos. It includes old areas such as Terry Fox Monument, Mount Godfrey, Silver Harbour, Pass Lake, Orient Bay, Claghorn and the Bluffs, and new areas, such as Greywolf. The newest area is Outbreak Wall, which has a free campground on Crown land, dozens of splitter cracks and steep sport climbs. Fishman said it’s designed to be extremely informative, accurate and very visually appealing—showcasing just how spectacular the climbing is within this region. It covers all the climbing within 90 minutes of Thunder Bay, which is a lot.
It includes the histories of each area, it gives star ratings, it includes every detail of each climb from length to bolt count and is so visually pleasing that you’ll flip through it just stare at the detailed photos. The book is $70, which is a steal in 2023 for such a big book with so many images. Congratulations to Fishman for pulling off such an ambitious project. You can buy it at