Bouldering there and back again

Daniel and Fede in the bosque

I have to admit, I haven't been very good about keeping this blog up to date. Here it is the beginning of July and I'm writing about stuff that happened in April. Anyways, back then, we had a visit by a climber from Australia named Daniel. At first I was a lttle intimidated. I mean, who would possibly choose Balcarce as a destination on a South American tour, unless they were some kind of mutant, badass roof boulderer who had stumbled on what La Barrosa has to offer, while searching the internet for some out-of-the-way place? Not quite: turns out Daniel was a regular dude and a recreational climber who had never really bouldered but had somehow discovered my blog and consequently settled on Balcarce as a place do a little climbing while touring South America.

Daniel and I  started out by sampling the boulders at the Costa Mosquito, but when that seemed a bit stiff for someone who had hardly ever bouldered, we settled on climbing some high (but mostly easy) face problems surrounding the classic V7 face problem known as Hanuman.

Daniel on an easy, but beautiful boulder face

Higher up on the same boulder

All and all, we climbed four easy (V0 or V1) beautiful and exciting face lines (only one of which I had ever climbed before) and worked out another very nice (and new for me) V3 line..

Big easy boulder problems

Last shot of Daniel (before my new camera went on the blink)

We also bouldered at Aracnofobia and did some routes in the bosque before Daniel had to leave for Buenos Aires.

In May, Gaby still wasn't bouldering much, but I did boulder with Fede. A couple of times we went to the area known as "El Huevo".

There are three easy but interesting roof problems on this little boulder located above el Huevo

One of the problems finishes straight up this short  crack 

There are actually a couple of  jams on this problem

Another boulder traverses out the bulge going right of the crack. 

.The problem finishes with a big move to a jug

Mica checked out the view

Fede worked on the classic V4 version of El Huevo

The V4  version of El Huevo starts from these good holds

El Huevo has a couple of big moves

There are three other versions of El Huevo: a V5 that starts a couple of moves down and right; a V8 sit start even further right and a V10 that traverses a fingery roof (out of sight) before linking to the sit start. 

We both did a V3 roof problem that begins from the sit start of El Huevo. 

Fede getting ready to heel hook on a V3 roof problem

Fede also worked a harder traverse problem that starts at the same place

Fede working a roof traverse

Fede working on a roof traverse near el Huevo

A few weeks later, I was back at El Huevo and tried El Techo de la Morsa, a beautiful V3 roof problem to the left of El Huevo

El Techo de la Morsa, Take 1

El Techo de la Morsa, Take 2

El Techo de la Morsa. Take 3

There are also some fun, easy problems at El Huevo, like this crack

A fun easy crack with a weird exit move on top

A weird topout with paragliders above

To the left, a couple of big moves lead to a funky traverse

More bouldering at El Huevo

Getting ready for a big move

Now comes a funky traverse

There are several problems, some easy, some harder, that top out here

Eyeing the topout

Hasta luego, baby!