McGill Outing Club. The McGill Outing Club in 1972 enjoyed another very active year of rock climbing and mountaineering both within and outside of La Belle Province. The annual Fall Climbing School was well attended with over 50 new participants this year. Although our members travel to New Hampshire’s Whitehorse and Cathedral Ledges for challenging routes outside the province, most of our climbing activity centers at Val David, Mount King, Mount St. Hilaire, and Shawbridge Cliffs. Over half a dozen new routes of high standard have been opened up on Shawbridge Cliffs, and a new trail has been built along the base of this escarpment to improve the access. A guide book for climbs in this area will be published shortly. Two trips were made to Park Laurentide, where two new Grade III routes were started, if not yet completed on L’Ours.

A successful climbing instructors’ school was organized in the spring with the help of the Federation of Mountain Clubs and the Quebec School of Mountain Sports. In the field of conservation, briefs were submitted on the Village Lake Louise development in Banff National Park and on the protection of the wolf species in Quebec. The past year witnessed a rather phenomenal growth in the popularity of cross-country skiing. The club was successful in obtaining two large Federal Opportunities For Youth grants for the development of X-C ski trails in the Laurentians. A comprehensive bilingual map has been published jointly with the Laurentian Ski Zone.

The trend for members to obtain summer jobs in the National Parks to fulfill climbing ambitions continues as in the past. During the summer many members traveled to various parks in western Canada where ascents were made of Victoria, Lefroy, Shaeffer, Wiwaxy via Grassy Ridge, Huber, Hungabee, Louis, Baker, Olive, Assiniboine, Andromeda via the Skyladder, St. Nicholas, and Eisenhower via the Brewer and South Tower routes. Farther afield, the club organized a very successful climbing trip to Mexico in December. Climbs were made of Orizaba and Nevado de Toluca, and two technical climbs were made at La Huesteca Canyon, including a traverse of Pico El Diablo.

Kevin O’Connell, President