
Rose Bloc Longueuil
Montréal, Quebec
Specs: Simon Dupuis-Collette and Emil Dupuis-Collette, brothers and owners of Rose Bloc, opened their second gym in Longueuil on October 21st, 2024. Montréal is an island, with both Rose Bloc Brossard and Rose Bloc Longueuil located just off the island on the eastern shore of the St. Lawrence River, the river that separates the island from the mainland. Prior to the opening of these two gyms, Simon, General Manager, reported that nearby climbers had to travel from the south shore through Montréal to be on a competitive team or access complete training amenities inside a gym. “As soon as I started climbing about 18 years ago, I knew that one day I would open a gym on the south shore of Montréal,” Simon said.
In the last few years, Simon has observed the climbing scene in Montréal explode—the metropolitan area now has about 20 commercial climbing gyms, over a dozen of which opened in the last 10 years. However, most of these gyms are on the island of Montréal; the Rose Bloc gyms are “basically just over the bridge,” in Longueuil, providing a shorter commute for climbers in the eastern part of the city. Simon researched the market and “all the research concluded that the south shore needed two big bouldering gyms,” he said. The Rose Bloc team chose to open the Rose Bloc Longueuil location around the second anniversary of Rose Bloc Brossard and one year after the Rose Bloc Championship, their annual competition. The south shore is a large area that had fewer climbing options on the east side, so the team wanted to open two gyms in a short amount of time, Simon added. The second Rose Bloc gym was built to host events and competitions as well, such as an NACS event in May and junior competitions.

The Longueuil location features over 8,000 square feet of climbing, including traditional climbs, a competition wall and spray wall; Kilter, Moon and Tension boards; and a 15-meter speed wall divided into three sections. The gym also has a campus board, strength training area, stretching area, cardio equipment, lounge, sauna, restaurant and shop. Rose Bloc Longueuil hosts corporate groups, school groups, training teams and youth programs. “After only two years, we have more than 80 youth athletes on our training team,” Simon said. The Rose Bloc gyms regularly see professional athletes and have a pro and elite team, with many World Cup climbers, and there are plans to eventually have a youth-focused elite team for the “young kids who will one day be professional athletes,” Simon added. The professional athletes train two to four times a week at the gyms, where boulders are set specifically for them. These boulders are set in the competition zone at the Longueuil gym.
Simon believes Rose Bloc Longueuil is successful because they have “a perfect balance between competition style and classic style—50/50 old and new school.” The competition zone is divided into eight sections, and every two-and-a-half to three weeks the setters do a full reset of this wall and then host a competition simulation, which professionals and others attend. For the first simulation, for example, Simon expected to have 15 to 20 climbers but ended up hosting between 60 and 70, most of whom were newer to climbing. The competition wall uses grades Rose 1 to Rose 5, allowing newer climbers to have an entry point to competition climbing; Rose 1 is about V2-V4, Simon explained. “The goal is to show people that competing is for everybody,” Simon said. “To do comps you can be a beginner or intermediate climber, and you can be used to only classics but we’re going to set a problem at your level so you can discover the competition movement.”
The other half of the gym, with classic climbs, uses a progressive scale of 1 to 14 that does not correspond to the V-scale. “It was important that we create our own system because, first, the V grade system is for outside. And I think when you put it inside, people are way too attached to the [grade], instead of bouldering and instead of just loving climbing,” he explained. Simon and the Rose Bloc team decided to start the scale at one instead of zero, to be more inclusive to beginners. “There are a lot of people who are going to start climbing just because they want to do a physical activity,” continued Simon. “So, if we want our society to improve with physical activity, I think it should be more inclusive with the people who are just starting.”

Walls: Nomad Walls
Flooring: Nomad Walls
CRM Software: Rock Gym Pro
Website: www.rosebloc.com
Instagram: @RoseBloc.Escalade
In Their Words: “I think you should focus more on quality than quantity. It’s the way my brother and I manage our businesses. I prefer to have, let’s say, a “less” gym but “better” gym. I also own restaurants and prefer to have [fewer] restaurants but super good restaurants. Also, always think you have to create a couple of personas and keep in mind that all these personas will come into your gym. It’s really important to offer a good diversity of styles, but it’s also important to kind of isolate the diversity.” – Simon Dupuis-Collette, Co-Owner and General Manager of Rose Bloc