Finally got in! I heard about the malt over this forum and had made two previous (failed) attempts to get in over the past few years. Both of them got me over the surrounding fence but never into the actual building. I made one more attempt this September with a couple of friends, and oh boy was the trip interesting.

It was around 3pm when we decided to go in. I know, I know, we were super exposed, but we wanted to watch the sunset on the roof while having time to thoroughly explore. I'm pretty sure a bunch of people witnessed us trampling around in the courtyard (before we found out how to get in), but they didn't say or do anything--not even when we were blatantly climbing the side of the building, in broad daylight, in front of their eyes.

Getting inside the actual malt is difficult. We ended up building a contraption out of nearby industrial debris and using that help us climb in. I can't enclose any pictures of what we built, but if you visit the malt (assuming it hasn't been taken down), you'll see what I'm talking about. This was the part where you're exposed to the sight of everybody nearby, but, once again, nobody reacted. I suppose that might've been more of us being lucky than of the people being indifferent.

Once inside the malt, we immediately started climbing up. This was done on a very narrow and very tightly winding staircase. Climbing those stairs are a trip, and can make you pretty dizzy. Every once in a while the staircase would open up to a floor of the malt, wherein we would get off and explore. There was mostly rusted over equipment. All of the gaping holes in the floors had been patched over, but there were still a few suspicious and patchy areas, so if you ever visit you have to be careful where you step. You don't want to go plummeting fifteen floors down. Any windows in potential suicide-jump locations were welded over, but there we still a few that you could crawl out through to atop the silos. During daylight, the tops of the silos are pretty exposed, so we crouched about and didn't stick around. We figured being seen around the bottom of the malt was one thing, but to be seen so high up might warrant a 911 call on grounds of a jumper.

We stuck around for a bit at the very summit of the malt (the highest roof). There we had a pretty nice view of of the Billy Bishop Airport--great for watching planes land and take off. The view of the city is even better, seeing as there was an 'exclusivity' element of having a vantage point very few people had experienced before. A couple of times we were spooked by CP24 choppers, which, luckily, did not see us. After the sun set (and after a couple of great pictures) we raced down the stairs as to avoid navigating the malt in the darkness.

About halfway down the malt, we began hearing sirens in the distance. To our horror, they stopped nearby. We were in denial until we reached the place from where we'd come in from and saw flashing blue and red lights. Sure enough, there were several cop cars and, one ambulance, and one firetruck parked right outside. A couple of the firefighters were already out and were pointing and laughing at the thing we'd built earlier to help us climb in.

Because we're a bunch of paranoid folks we immediately turned off location services on our phones, turned off our flashlights, and hunkered down to hide. We checked the TPS live dispatch site and apparently there'd been a couple units dispatched to the malt on grounds of a life in danger.

We reckoned there were two reasons as to why they were dispatched. Either:

1) We were seen at the top and taken for jumpers, or

2) Somebody fell off the nearby quay and drowned.

I mean why else would an ambulance be sent? The speculation didn't do us any use, however, as they all left after ~twenty minutes. After they left I wanted to stay hiding in the malt for another hour or two as to completely make sure there were no police cars lurking around. But, it was getting close to 9pm, and we wanted dinner.

Climbing down the side of the malt meant being exposed again, but I don't think anyone noticed, what with it already being dark by then. Now back in the courtyard, all we had to do was go back over the fence. It was decided to go over one-by-one, and in different places, as to not attract attention. Unfortunately, just as the first person had gotten one leg over the fence, we saw it: one single police car, parked in an unassuming and dark alcove, pointed directly at the fence our guy was climbing over. We immediately hissed for our first climber to double back. He jumped off and quickly ran back to hide behind the abandoned industrial equipment with us.

The police car didn't notice us. However, a woman working in the nearby daycare did. We stood stock still, praying under our breaths that she wouldn't report us. One of her kids came out to stand next to her, and they both squinted through the fence at us. Then she walked over to the parked police car.

Darn! We ran deeper into the courtyard and laid down in the overgrown shrubbery. One of us considered climbing back into the malt to hide, but figured we didn't have the time. When the first flashlight beam moved over our crouched bodies, I thought we were dead on the spot. But the beam kept going. Very slowly, the two cops made a circle around the malt, and then left. We waited another twenty minutes and then legged it out of there. The police car was gone, the lady was gone, and then, so were we.

We got dinner at Tim's and then went home. Whew! What a ride. 10/10, here are some pictures:

1. View out the highest window right after sunset.


2. Rusted machinery.


3. Windows.


4. Spooky CP24 chopper.


5. The adjacent dock.


6. View down from the highest point, part 1.


7. Part 2.


8. Part 3. See those taxis off to the right? They're always there, and have drivers in them, waiting to be dispatched. Watch out for 'em.


9. The sun just before sunset.


10. A couple minutes before sunset; the sun is behind the clouds. I liked how the lit-up billboards looked.


11. Atop the silos, looking east.


12. Machinery.


13. Some more machinery.


14. Toronto just before sunset. Sorry for the iffy resolution, the image compressed strangely.


15. Edited version of the sunset.

Glad it worked out in the end for you all, and it is a great set of photos! Sunsets are magical from there.
But it is PAINFUL to read about all that UNNECESSARY risk that you guys took. Whether authorities were there for you or not, with few changes to your plan all this could have been avoided. Some decisions described are baffling. Also, have people lost the ability to scout...

Right on not getting caught, you managed to catch a pretty sunset! But if you're trying to grab some pics of the place during the daytime, it's best to infiltrate late at night, sleep over and then shoot the sunrise and morning glow. This helps keep you and the spot safe. However I went here recently again and I think I used your contraption to get up, now I know who to thank!

edit: Mr Strange Places has a good point, I think the biggest really is to do things like this under the cover of darkness, daytime is asking for trouble. I never like the thought of wasting tax payers money over my shenanigans. Aside from that, great write up!

it's best to infiltrate late at night

If that is difficult this cold time of year due to logistics, pre-dawn is an option too!

Posted by strangePlaces But it is PAINFUL to read about all that UNNECESSARY risk that you guys took. Whether authorities were there for you or not, with few changes to your plan all this could have been avoided. Some decisions described are baffling. Also, have people lost the ability to scout...

I know... we were pretty dumb. I was joking when I said "we wanted dinner", if that helps. One of our concerns was that all of us lived out of the city and didn't want to miss the last 1am subway north. But yeah, overall we made some questionable decisions. Our next trip is planned for late in the night, though--we've learned our lesson.

Posted by Theninjalobster I never like the thought of wasting tax payers money over my shenanigans.

We felt pretty bad for taking TPS's time when they could've been elsewhere.

Posted by Theninjalobster I think I used your contraption to get up

Hey! It came of use. Thought it would've been taken down by now.

Great write-up on the place man!

Back when I did this location early July we went up at 4:00am and stayed up there taking in how special this spot was. One of us ended up looking down at the airport parking to see two cop cars at the base with officers searching the perimeter. They were gone in around 30 minutes. This place is always guaranteed for a crazy mission! Congrats on it due!

Posted by strangePlaces If that is difficult this cold time of year due to logistics, pre-dawn is an option too!

Predawn is usually the best option.
If there is interior ambient light wait for enough daylight to move about safely!
Moving through locations like this is very dangerous...
Cops aren't your biggest worry, a free fall is.

Posted by Simsyb Great write-up on the place man! Back when I did this location early July we went up at 4:00am and stayed up there taking in how special this spot was. One of us ended up looking down at the airport parking to see two cop cars at the base with officers searching the perimeter. They were gone in around 30 minutes. This place is always guaranteed for a crazy mission! Congrats on it due!

I read your post a couple months back. To be honest I think TPS is fed up with responding to calls about this place now, because they didn't search very enthusiastically for us either.

Posted by blackhawk Predawn is usually the best option. If there is interior ambient light wait for enough daylight to move about safely! Moving through locations like this is very dangerous... Cops aren't your biggest worry, a free fall is.

The interior of the malt has all of its gaping holes patched up, but there are still a few questionable areas where the flooring flexes up and down when you walk over it. It's probably best to keep a flashlight and an eye on where you're walking. Some parts atop the silos (which are outside) are not patched up. None of the holes are large enough for someone to fall through unless they forcibly squeezed themselves through, but it's still something to watch out for.

Another thing to keep an eye out for is the wildlife. As we were ascending the stairs a raccoon ran down the stairs, right between our legs. Scared the crap out of us! And the stairs are very rickety and steep... The first landing is a popular pigeon/bat hangout place as well.

Posted by bluetl The interior of the malt has all of its gaping holes patched up, but there are still a few questionable areas where the flooring flexes up and down when you walk over it. Another thing to keep an eye out for is the wildlife. As we were ascending the stairs a raccoon ran down the stairs, right between our legs. Scared the crap out of us! And the stairs are very rickety and steep... The first landing is a popular pigeon/bat hangout place as well.

If the floor flexes under your weight get off it immediately.
I had floor do that to me and just barely out ran it's collapse when it buckled in completely without any other warning.
That flexing is the warning... if you're lucky enough to get even that.

At the very least lay a plank down to help brace it. However it may still collapse, perhaps even at the support beam ends. Points of failure can be unpredictable on heavily damaged structures.
Never bunch up if there's more than one of you under those conditions. At least 10 feet preferably 20 foot or more of spacing.
Best to leave it be... no joke.

Wildlife is the very least of your concerns unless you allow it to cause you a misstep.

Posted by blackhawk If the floor flexes under your weight get off it immediately. I had floor do that to me and just barely out ran it's collapse when it buckled in completely without any other warning. That flexing is the warning... if you're lucky enough to get even that. At the very least lay a plank down to help brace it. However it may still collapse, perhaps even at the support beam ends. Points of failure can be unpredictable on heavily damaged structures. Never bunch up if there's more than one of you under those conditions. At least 10 feet preferably 20 foot or more of spacing. Best to leave it be... no joke.

Yeah, we stayed spread out as to avoid concentrating all our weight on one area, and left landings where the flooring flexed. If my memory serves me correctly, that one risk area would be the far south end of the second or third landing. There's a mummified body of a raccoon nearby, and a bolted down trap door as well.

I remember reading a bunch of old posts about the malt and the most prevalent message in nearly every single post was how dangerous it is, and how easily it is to free fall through the dilapidated flooring. So yeah, no joke.

Hoo boy! Regardless of what decisions you made, props to going there at all! Whether it be because I've grown used to relatively structurally safe buildings, or I just don't have the guts to brave heavily guarded locations, I commend anyone with the bravery to go to a place like the Malting Plant.

Posted by bluetyranitar Finally got in! I heard about the malt over this forum and had made two previous (failed) attempts to get in over the past few years. Both of them got me over the surrounding fence but never into the actual building. I made one more attempt this September with a couple of friends, and oh boy was the trip interesting. It was around 3pm when we decided to go in. I know, I know, we were super exposed, but we wanted to watch the sunset on the roof while having time to thoroughly explore. I'm pretty sure a bunch of people witnessed us trampling around in the courtyard (before we found out how to get in), but they didn't say or do anything--not even when we were blatantly climbing the side of the building, in broad daylight, in front of their eyes. Getting inside the actual malt is difficult. We ended up building a contraption out of nearby industrial debris and using that help us climb in. I can't enclose any pictures of what we built, but if you visit the malt (assuming it hasn't been taken down), you'll see what I'm talking about. This was the part where you're exposed to the sight of everybody nearby, but, once again, nobody reacted. I suppose that might've been more of us being lucky than of the people being indifferent. Once inside the malt, we immediately started climbing up. This was done on a very narrow and very tightly winding staircase. Climbing those stairs are a trip, and can make you pretty dizzy. Every once in a while the staircase would open up to a floor of the malt, wherein we would get off and explore. There was mostly rusted over equipment. All of the gaping holes in the floors had been patched over, but there were still a few suspicious and patchy areas, so if you ever visit you have to be careful where you step. You don't want to go plummeting fifteen floors down. Any windows in potential suicide-jump locations were welded over, but there we still a few that you could crawl out through to atop the silos. During daylight, the tops of the silos are pretty exposed, so we crouched about and didn't stick around. We figured being seen around the bottom of the malt was one thing, but to be seen so high up might warrant a 911 call on grounds of a jumper. We stuck around for a bit at the very summit of the malt (the highest roof). There we had a pretty nice view of of the Billy Bishop Airport--great for watching planes land and take off. The view of the city is even better, seeing as there was an 'exclusivity' element of having a vantage point very few people had experienced before. A couple of times we were spooked by CP24 choppers, which, luckily, did not see us. After the sun set (and after a couple of great pictures) we raced down the stairs as to avoid navigating the malt in the darkness. About halfway down the malt, we began hearing sirens in the distance. To our horror, they stopped nearby. We were in denial until we reached the place from where we'd come in from and saw flashing blue and red lights. Sure enough, there were several cop cars and, one ambulance, and one firetruck parked right outside. A couple of the firefighters were already out and were pointing and laughing at the thing we'd built earlier to help us climb in. Because we're a bunch of paranoid folks we immediately turned off location services on our phones, turned off our flashlights, and hunkered down to hide. We checked the TPS live dispatch site and apparently there'd been a couple units dispatched to the malt on grounds of a life in danger. We reckoned there were two reasons as to why they were dispatched. Either: 1) We were seen at the top and taken for jumpers, or 2) Somebody fell off the nearby quay and drowned. I mean why else would an ambulance be sent? The speculation didn't do us any use, however, as they all left after ~twenty minutes. After they left I wanted to stay hiding in the malt for another hour or two as to completely make sure there were no police cars lurking around. But, it was getting close to 9pm, and we wanted dinner. Climbing down the side of the malt meant being exposed again, but I don't think anyone noticed, what with it already being dark by then. Now back in the courtyard, all we had to do was go back over the fence. It was decided to go over one-by-one, and in different places, as to not attract attention. Unfortunately, just as the first person had gotten one leg over the fence, we saw it: one single police car, parked in an unassuming and dark alcove, pointed directly at the fence our guy was climbing over. We immediately hissed for our first climber to double back. He jumped off and quickly ran back to hide behind the abandoned industrial equipment with us. The police car didn't notice us. However, a woman working in the nearby daycare did. We stood stock still, praying under our breaths that she wouldn't report us. One of her kids came out to stand next to her, and they both squinted through the fence at us. Then she walked over to the parked police car. Darn! We ran deeper into the courtyard and laid down in the overgrown shrubbery. One of us considered climbing back into the malt to hide, but figured we didn't have the time. When the first flashlight beam moved over our crouched bodies, I thought we were dead on the spot. But the beam kept going. Very slowly, the two cops made a circle around the malt, and then left. We waited another twenty minutes and then legged it out of there. The police car was gone, the lady was gone, and then, so were we. We got dinner at Tim's and then went home. Whew! What a ride. 10/10, here are some pictures: 1. View out the highest window right after sunset. click to view 2. Rusted machinery. click to view 3. Windows. click to view 4. Spooky CP24 chopper. click to view 5. The adjacent dock. click to view 6. View down from the highest point, part 1. click to view 7. Part 2. click to view 8. Part 3. See those taxis off to the right? They're always there, and have drivers in them, waiting to be dispatched. Watch out for 'em. click to view 9. The sun just before sunset. click to view 10. A couple minutes before sunset; the sun is behind the clouds. I liked how the lit-up billboards looked. click to view 11. Atop the silos, looking east. click to view 12. Machinery. click to view 13. Some more machinery. click to view 14. Toronto just before sunset. Sorry for the iffy resolution, the image compressed strangely. click to view 15. Edited version of the sunset. click to view

you posted this a while ago but, that must have been wild. i’ve been in it atleast 5 times and never caught once. although, each time we went we had to find a different way through the fence. i guess the city tends to it often to keep people out.

Posted by toronto123 you posted this a while ago but, that must have been wild. i’ve been in it atleast 5 times and never caught once. although, each time we went we had to find a different way through the fence. i guess the city tends to it often to keep people out.

Haha, when you comment on the original post as a whole, no need to "reply with quote". Just find the fat reply button at the top or bottom of the page and go from there!

Welcome to the world of UER.

You will receive a lot of criticism from experienced members for some of the shit you wrote about, but don't take it with any offense or hostility. Take it and remember it and learn from it.

It WILL help you and your safety in the long run. I speak from experience. I went from a "Heatscore" in 2011, to a senile old man.

Especially the Mods.


That being said, great set, thanks for sharing!

Myself, ZenCanadian and MattK visited just shy of 2 years ago and I haven't seen or heard too much since... Much higher risk than it used to be.

Here's the thread from our trip.

http://www.uer.ca/...=124092&currpage=1

The place was pretty accessible at that time, but the constant assaults on it and vandalism made the city take notice.
If everyone was careful and discreet, and put thought in how to access it, then everybody could have had their piece of Malt.

https://www.youtub...atch?v=nyemubcgsP8

Yesterday (well technically today) me and UrbanShinobi decided to give the Malt a go. We've been eyeing it for close to 3 years now. What a beast of a place to be in the dead of night.

We had virtually no resistance going up to the entrance spot.

I can only imagine what an overnight + sunrise would have produced in terms of photography.

My DSLR totally pooped out on me, but I was able to get my GoPro footage bumped up for a few screenshots. Between the both of us, we probably documented a solid 50 minutes of footage of this historical landmark.

Definitely a sense of accomplishment, and grateful all the factors came together for a swift and stealthy in + out. Looking forward to an overnight til sunrise visit. What a beaut.

click to view

click to view

click to view

My last malt trip was 8 years last weekend! (that was a hot bastard of a day, and I was insanely hungover)

Posted by saros Yesterday (well technically today) me and UrbanShinobi decided to give the Malt a go. We've been eyeing it for close to 3 years now. What a beast of a place to be in the dead of night. We had virtually no resistance going up to the entrance spot. I can only imagine what an overnight + sunrise would have produced in terms of photography. My DSLR totally pooped out on me, but I was able to get my GoPro footage bumped up for a few screenshots. Between the both of us, we probably documented a solid 50 minutes of footage of this historical landmark. Definitely a sense of accomplishment, and grateful all the factors came together for a swift and stealthy in + out. Looking forward to an overnight til sunrise visit. What a beaut. click to view click to view click to view

finally i can post something!

We're def gonna hit this up again..maybe during the day?
still gotta hit up the basement area!

Really nice photos. I see the malt everyday and I have enough experience with the one in Montreal to know how hard they can be to get into. Thanks for sharing with us!!