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!

Back to climbing on La Barrosa: Part 2

Gaby having a seat and Analia belaying in the Autodromo

Like I've said before, La Barrosa is awesome for bouldering but kind of mediocre for routes. For roped climbing, you're much better off going to the nearby Sierra La Vigilancia or Sierra de los Difuntos. However, there are more than 50 established climbs on La Barrosa and it's not a bad place to go, if it's within walking distance from your home. The routes are very short (two bolts to four bolts in length with a few short gear routes mixed in) but tend to have hard moves for their grade and be suprisingly continuous and pumpy. .

There are three main areas for roped climbing. El Autodromo, on the west slope of La Barrosa above the Juan Manuel Fangio Racetrack has a total of 16 routes: 13 bolted and 3 short gear routes. El Bosque, in the tree covered area further south on the west slope also has 16 routes (five of which require some gear). The Matrix, on the south end of La Barrosa, has 27 routes, and handful of which require gear (some of my original routes have been retrobolted, which is fine by me).

Getting the clip on an 11a in the Autodromo

It may be short, but it's a five star route

Even after you do the crux, you still have to get to the top

In difficulty, the routes range from about 5.8 to around 12a, with one other bolted route that is much harder (some kind of bouldery 5.13, I suppose). My hardest send since the surgeries was an 11d in the Bosque called "North American Invasion", that I did last Friday, on my third go. This is the hardest sport climb I've been able to do in around a decade.

Local guy, Cristian "Segu" Segura, getting the clip on North American Invasion in 2012

Climbing an 11b face in the Bosque

So far this year I've managed 10 out of 16 of the routes in the Autodromo, 12 out of 15 in thr Bosque and 13 out of 27 in the Matrix (the weather hasn't been very conducive to climbing in the Matrix up to this point) for a total of 35 out of 58.

Martín on a short 10a face in the Autodromo

There's a tricky move here

I'm hoping I can climb 50 routes on La Barrosa this year (that will involve climbing some new ones that are kind of hard for me) and at least 150 different total pitches (so far, including the routes in Red Rocks and Prescott I've managed 69). We'll see how that goes.

Mica

Sunset from the Autodromo

Paragliding above the Autodromo on La Barrosa

Buster the dog

Hi Buster

Close up

Descending from the Autodromo with the last light

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Back to climbing on La Barrosa: Part 1

High stepping with the resurfaced hip

So I've been climbing a lot recently. Well, a lot, I suppose, considering that I'm a 57-year-old math professor, father, husband and home-owner who really needs to do some yard work. I guess I'm just lucky enough to be able to take some free time at this point in my life. The new hips help, too.

The weather has been almost continually dry and warm, although, perhaps, with a bit too much humidity to achieve absolute climbing perfection. The farmers aren't too happy about the lack of rain, but I've been able to average at least three days a week climbing outdoors since returning from the USA. Except for a couple of times in my gym, all of my climbing has been on La Barrosa. .

When there's no one else to climb with, I go out bouldering alone. This suits me fine. Gaby is climbing with me on the weekends, but she hasn't hardly climbed for years and she's a little too wigged, right now, even for easier bouldering. She's mostly interested in doing moderate climbs on top rope. However, she did go to the boulders with me a couple of times and take some pictures. For example, she took this sequence of  me on an old V2 problem at the Middle-earth, that involves a couple of steep finger jams in a short crack.

First shot of a sequence on a problem at the Middle-earth with Mica looking the other way

Jam the fingers on the left

Jam the fingers on the right and set up for a big move. The chalk bag shows how steep things are

Mica's watching now, but the rest is a cakewalk

Gaby managed to send a long V1 traverse across the main face in the Middle-earth. Although it used to be easy for her, she had to work it some before completion and this was her first time across in many years. 

Gaby does the right to left version of a long V1 traverse.  

Me doing the left to right version of a V2 traverse in the Middle-earth

V2 traverse shot 1

V2 traverse shot 2

Shot 3

Shot 4

Just before the end of the V2 traverse, there is a is a beautiful and classic V2 problem, called Bilbo, that goes up to the right of the triangular roof seen above. 

A beautiful and classic V2 problem called Bilbo

This reach to a jug is followed by a big move to the horizontal crack above

Finishing up Bilbo

To left of Bilbo is a semi-highball V3 that goes up and over the left side of that triangular roof. On this V3 problem, the big jug on Bilbo is too far to the right to be any help. The problem was first done by Mariano Maceri and Diego de la Torre some years back and I managed to do it for the first time in my life, just recently (no pictures, though). It's really not so bad: one just has to commit to an intimidating, off-balance move out right in order to get up and reach a solid side pull in the triangular roof. That intimidating move out right is pretty much all there is to it.

Buster at the Usual Boulders 

About 100 meters northwest of the Middle-earth is the area we call the Usual Boulders, where Gaby snapped some photos of me on a long traverse. Done in its complete form, this traverse probably weighs in at V4.

Heel hooking on a long traverse problem

With all this climbing, my back is starting to get ripped again. 

Still a few moves left on this V4 traverse

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