Description:

This is a delightful shaded little box canyon that lies 30m beyond where the trail heads right up to the rising wall for Morning Side Crag from the creek drainage. The small venue is named after a very “BIG” spider and it’s web that were hanging out back in 2016 just left of what Andy Genereux thought would to be the first climb established at this newer venue. Turned out the route might actually one of the oldest climbs at the Moose Mountain Crags?

During the early fall of 2016 the first four routes were established by Andy. Initially out of the gate, was the obvious water polished groove, done on lead with a power drill via rope soloing techniques. The line climbs the right side of the obvious polished water chute. It’s called Itsy Bitsy Spider. According to Allan Derbyshire this climb was actually first climbed on marginal trad gear (graded 5.8, “old school” with a possible ground fall potential) back in the late seventies. There was a lone badly hand-drilled self drive bolt with a homemade hanger at the belay (still in place). Andy thought this ugly badly drilled bolt was a residual anchor leftover from passing ice climbers. Allan also mentioned that the wide moss covered chimney/crack on the left side of the bay was also climbed on gear to reach a two piton anchor at roughly 30m, located below a small roof. Details on this line are few but this wide crack line for now is called Trad Special and is included for
a more complete picture of the available climbing at this venue. If this wide gapping dirty crack/chimney appeals then bring a well stocked trad-rack. The remaining climbs established at this venue all went in top down requiring extensive cleaning. The routes were then rope soloed by Genereux while building these lines over two seasons at Spider Brook.

All the routes at Spider Brook are located in a shady mostly north facing recessed pocket for much of the year this shady sector sees virtually no direct sunlight. This makes for a good venue to avoid the heat of mid-summer. It houses some nice moderate climbing and is a great place to hang out if one is waiting for the nearby east facing Morning Side Crag to come into shade on blistering hot summer mornings. This is usually around 1:30 pm.

Directions / Travel Info:

Generally there are no crowds due to the extra 30-40 minutes of travel time but the climbing on offer is well worth the extra effort to get there. continue west over the big hill on the access road. This takes 30-35 minutes by bicycle from Ing Mine Parking to reach the compressor station below the Moose Mountain Ice Caves. Located on the former parking lot before the road was closed to public vehicle access over twenty years ago. On the far side of the big hill continue straight for another 500m to reach the compressor station. Skirt the compressor station to the left (south side).
Stash your bikes and take a faint trail about halfway along the retaining wall on the south side that drops south down a small hill then crosses southward over the Canyon Creek drainage. On the far bank a side drainage joins Canyon Creek. Take this side drainage up hill for ten minutes to reach Spider Brook and Morning Side crags.