Topo Escalade
Saint-Georges, Quebec
Specs: Topo Escalade, a mixed-discipline climbing gym owned by couple Jenny Dumont Blais and Thomas Pozer, and Samuel Beaudoin, opened in December 2025 in Saint-Georges, a city in southern Quebec. Dumont Blais and Pozer started to miss climbing after moving to the Saint-Georges region, where Dumont Blais said the closest gym “was about one and a half hours’ drive from where we live.” Additionally, the couple was looking for a way to encourage their children to “move more,” Dumont Blais said, adding that they “love climbing so much and we wanted our kids to grow up learning how to climb.” They started to think about opening the first commercial climbing center in their city and launched a survey in 2023 to gauge community interest. “We had like 2,000 reviews,” Dumont Blais recalled. “So, we thought, ‘Okay, yeah, we’re not the only ones [wanting a gym].’” After the perceived strong demand for a climbing gym in their region was validated by the survey, Dumont Blais said they began trying to “make this idea something more real,” with serious business planning and a building search.
It was important to Dumont Blais to have a taller climbing wall, so height was a major driver in the building selection. “I wanted to have a 40-foot wall,” she said. “It was hard to find a building with that height.” When they found the current building for Topo Escalade, they asked the owner if it was possible to remove part of the floor to increase the wall height, and he agreed. The building was vacant for 10 years and had “no electricity, no walls, no plumbing, no toilets, no lights, nothing,” Dumont Blais said, which required collaboration among city officials, engineers and Nomad Walls to bring the team’s vision to life. The ownership group wanted to create something visually distinct in their market and cultivate a high-quality client experience, so they hired a non-endemic interior designer with 30 years of experience to help with the project. The result was a three-story facility with a custom-built staircase, removed floors to achieve the desired wall height, and 4,917 square feet of climbing wall surface.
The main floor of the gym features roped climbing walls, bouldering terrain, a fitness and training area, and a café with sandwiches, salads, desserts and coffee. The upper level has a sound-insulated yoga studio with heated ceiling panels for hot yoga, as well as a lounge and a physiotherapist’s office. Visitors can access taller roped walls on the lower level via the staircase behind the climbing wall. The staircase was incorporated into the wall structure and built to fit between the beams, creating a tunnel-like experience for visitors.
Additionally, the Topo Escalade team provides a range of programs and community offerings at the gym, including after-school youth programs, and is preparing to launch outdoor climbing groups next year. They also established Youth Topo, which Dumont Blais said was created to receive funding from institutions to provide youth participants with gear and activities.
Walls: Nomad
Flooring: Nomad
CRM Software: Wellness Living
Website: topoescalade.ca
Instagram: @TopoEscalade
In Their Words: “Surround yourself with people who are good at what they do. I surrounded myself with people who were good in finance, with people who were good in climbing, and with people who were good in design. That’s why I think I have such a beautiful gym, is that I have my own interior designer for my gym…Surround yourself with experts who know what they’re talking about and can help you to build the best gym you want.” – Jenny Dumont Blais, Co-Owner and Managing Director
