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| Joe tries out some mellow boulders six weeks after breaking his collarbone |
Once again, I'm way behind the times. The weather in Balcarce has been awful this fall. Quite possible, the worst fall weather in 20 years. It was cloudy, cold and damp for weeks on end with maybe three nice days. In spite of that, I was still able to climb outside at least a couple of days a week (frequently bouldering alone). Today is Wednesday, and I didn't drive to Tandil for work (which is typical for my schedule this fall semester). Wednesday is for climbing, but for the past few days we've had strong winds and horizontal drizzle. I won't be climbing outside today. Shortly, I'll be putting on a rain jacket and going jogging with the dogs. After that, a training session in my home gym. When I'm done, I'll try and finish up with a photo bomb of Joe's visit back in March.
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| Cupps sends a V0 six weerks after breaking his collarbone |
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| Don't fall, Joe! |
Well, it's been nine days since I started this post in the paragraph above. After finishing my training session (a week ago) last Wednesday, I got hammered by the flu. It was four days before I could get back out of bed. Today I'm feeling a lot better and the weekend weather is looking up. However, right now (Friday, June 10th) the weather is awful: cold, with wind and intermittent drizzle.
Back to last March. After Joe returned from a four day, solo bus trip to Peninsula Valdés and seven weeks after breaking his collarbone, we finally went on a hardcore climbing binge. We started at La Vigiliancia, with Joe top roping.
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| A little boulder move at the start of a short 5.9 in la Bosque de La Vigilancia |
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| Working a tricky 5.10 move |
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| You got it, Joe! |
Viejolandia is a small sector in Sierra de los Difuntos and it sports the largest concentration of easy routes to be found in the Sierras of Balcarce. So that's where we went when Joe was ready to try some leading.
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| Joe tries out his first lead, a 5.7 with a bouldery start in Viejolandia |
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| Working the bouldery start. |
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| The rest is cake |
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| Working the 5.7 moves |
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| Getting the clip higher up |
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| Joe steps up his game and does a 5.8 |
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| Another bouldery start |
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| Interesting features up higher |
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| Getting stood up |
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| More cool, juggy features higher up |
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| Joe working the 5.8 moves |
The next route over is a bit harder, maybe 5.8+ or even 5.9.
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| Joe powers through the bouldery start of this 5.8+ route |
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| Old guy using footwork |
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| Gaby looks distracted |
The second hardest route in Viejolandia is a short 10b with a weird, powerful crux.
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| Eyeballing the crux on a 10b in Viejolandia |
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| Undercling with the left |
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| Getting through the crux |
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| Gaby climbed well on the 10b |
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| Does this guy look spaced out? |
We also spent a day each climbing at Paredes Naranja in Sierra de los Difuntos, El Nido at Sierra de La Vigilancia, as well as El Autodromo, La Matrix and El Bosque on Sierra La Barrosa. In El Bosque, Joe stepped up his lead game. He sent my 5.9 arete route in good style.
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| Joe getting ready to make an exciting move on the 5.9 arete in El Bosque de La Barrosa |
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| Getting the second clip |
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| Got it! |
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| More footworking from Joe |
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| In a nice position |
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| A high-stepping move |
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| Old guys know to use horizontal handjams to rest their forearms whenever they can |
All in all I managed to send more than sixty different routes (including a few onsights) those two weeks climbing with Joe. With all the bad weather we've had recently, I've hardly climbed on a rope since (maybe five different times in the past two months).
