On arrival back into Santiago I met up with some Chilean friends I made back in Portillo, who gave me the insider info on places in Santiago, showed me around and even invited me back to there house for a meal and drinks! 3 days of Santiago and then I had to go and check out how to get to the most important aspect of this trip, oh yea, the climbing man!!!
All packed up and ready to go with food and camp supplys, trekking through the Santiago underground with a seriously heavy pack to get to the estacion central then onto the bus terminal, one way ticket to Las Chilcas please!!! About an hour on the coach then the bus stops and this guy ushers me off I collect my bags, and the bus roars off leaving me in a cloud of dust and exaust fumes to find im in the middle of nowwhere!! My first thought was how the hell am I gonna get back,my second thought was holy shit look at those crags!!!!!
After setting up camp in a not so desirable area (near to the road and on hard ground) I took a stroll around mouth dragging on the ground looking at these awsome lines, but something was missing, where are all the climbers? and so Wednesday passed-no climbers, Thursday- no climbers, Friday-a small boulder session on uninspiring rock then by the afternoon HOLA! there be some climbers, conversation was small due to my awsome linguistic skills, but none the less afew climbs in the bag. They then showed me a much nicer area to camp as aparently its unsafe to be so close to the crags on a weekend due to people who like to see you climb then steal your things.
Anyway woke up Saturday and my new amigos had gone and left behind 4 other people who then became my new climbing partners they helped me with my spanish and I with there English, an excellent day of climbing followed, lots of hard routes attempted and mostly failed but heh all good training. There be not many easy routes in this place Chileans dont mess around when it comes to this climbing game. In the evening followed a fire and food to be shared by all.
Sunday once again another beautifull day of climbing but only a few routes done as a warm up on a 7a (the hardest grade i climbed back in new zealand) really took its toll on a guy who hasnt climbed in a month or so.The sun goes down and time to catch the bus back, (you just have to wave the bus down on the busy road). One of my fellow climbers named Christian offered to put me up for a few days at his place as he lived in the mountains with so much rock around teasing him to climb but with no partner. It didnt take me long to decide.
Christian and his family welcomed me in to there home, fed and gave me shelter for 5 days, truly amazing people I am forever grateful and in their debt (muchos gracias). For 4 days Christian showed me a new area to climb each day weather it be sport routes with a backdrop of the snowcaped mountains or bouldering infront of a fierce river, always top quality climbs and together with Christian great company.
PURA VIDA!!!!!
If you are interested this is a website created by Christian about all the climbs in the Cajon Del Maipo area where he lives and we climbed (im on there with a couple of first ascents woohooa)
Pura Vida!!!
Las Chilcas.
Probably the nicest part of Santiago I have seen, my hostel is right behind me.
Camp area numero uno, many a restless night.
Dani climbing hard.
This is the really hardcore wall, with a 2meter incline and routes at around 20m in height.
Sunset at Las Chilcas.
Christians pad.
So close to the on-sight, really beautiful bouldering on the first day at Cajon Del Maipo.
PURA VIDA!!
Christian cranking his way up.
The first day of routes.
This is Chile.
Whats what?
New boulders, new problems. SIC!
A view from the bouldering.
2 comments:
All sounds great man, glad it's all going well. The scenery looks amazing.
On the climbing front, I was taught to lead the other day. Climbed an easy route with an incline at Stow leisure centre, my technique must be shite or something, as at the top I so was fucking knackered that I struggled to get the rope through the last two carabinas :|
Keep us updated mate.
Dear Tom: Today I was searching for Christian Webpages, but his server was down. So I used Google and found your Blog. Simply to say that I enjoyed your post, photos and comments.
Whenever you come down here, please don't hesitate to drop down into Christian's pad, you'll be very welcome again.
Many greetings,
Roberto, Christian's pop
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