Back to the boulders: 10 months post surgery

Bouldering at the Usual Boulders, 10 months post-op.

The past month has been bouldering month. After a slow start on the boulders, I feel like I'm starting to pick up steam. I've done my first V3s in almost three years and I've been able to send a number of problems that I couldn't do with the botched resurfacing. I'm still not at the level I was five years ago, but the possibility is starting to look within reach.

One of the areas I've most frequented is known as the "Usual Boulders" (I've also visited the "Middle Earth", the "Mosquito Coast", the "Egg" and the "Boulders in the Bosque"). The Usual Boulders is one of the closest areas to my house: a steep half-hour walk, straight up the hill from my front gate. It has shade after 2:00 PM and tends to be cool and breezy even on hot afternoons, so it's nice for summer. And it sports a number of moderate boulder problems, most of which I hadn't done in about three years. All in all, there are almost 30 established problems, of which one is V6, two are V5 and everything else is easier. Just right for a guy trying to get back into bouldering after a couple of years of hip problems. So far I've managed to send 16 of those problems, so I guess that's good.

This traverse is one of the first boulder problems I did in the sierra, more than 16 years ago:

The old, fat guy sends a stout V2 traverse that's still good after 16 years

This V2 roof problem that has two, distinct variations. Here is variation number one:

Twist in the right toe, to make this first reach

This part is hip intensive.

I never got here with the botched resurfacing.

Variation number two of the V2 roof problem:

My revised left hip is working pretty good here

A crimpy V2 problem that often gave me a bit of trouble even before hip surgery:

Big reach

This problem is rated V1, but it´s no give-me:

The next move would be pretty hard if it wasn't for the knee lock below

The happy sender gets a V1

My 10 year old daughter has had a pretty good year bouldering outdoors, sending a variety of problems including three V2s. Here she is cruising a long, pumpy V0 traverse at the Usual Boulders: 

Ceci hanngs out on jugs, half way through a V0 traverse

Cecilia finishing up the V0 traverse with ease

The Matrix: closing in on 9 months

Tim roping up to climb in the Matrix

Like I said before, La Barrosa, the sierra behind my house, is exceptional for its bouldering. However, there are also two small areas I opened up for roped climbing. One of these areas is the Bosque, which I wrote about earlier. The other area is known as the Matrix. The Matrix is located on the cool, shady, south side of La Barrosa and makes a fine destination for sunny, low humidity days. Last summer it wound up becoming the hot spot for new, hard boulders, but it's also home to about 16 short routes ranging from 5.8 to easy 5.12.

On a beautiful Sunday, almost five weeks ago we (Martín, Analía, Rafi, Ceci, Gaby and yours truly) spent the day in the Matrix. This turned out to be sort of a breakthrough day for me. For the first time in almost three years, I began to feel like I might realistically be able to put all this hip stuff behind me and someday, in the not so distant future, return to my previous level. Since that weekend, things have only gotten better.

At the entrance to the Matrix, is a gently overhanging wall, which hosts six short routes, ranging from 5.8 to bouldery 5.10. We started out there, climbing three of the routes. One of these, perhaps the best on the wall, is a surprisingly good 5.10a  (to look at it) and I was happy to see my 10 year old daughter Ceci climb strong through the tricky crux.

Ceci approaching the crux on a tricky 10a

Pulling the 10a crux on top rope

After finishing the three warm up routes, we headed to the steep overhang of the Matrix proper. The easiset route on this little wall is a 10c called "Have a cookie" and was put up by visitng climber Mike Pleinis, from Ogden Utah.  

Still old, but not quite as fat, Tim climbs "Have a cookie"

Place the red camalot

I was curious to see how my hip would work on this move.

Place the yellow camalot

"Have a cookie" is steep

The next route we did was "There is no spoon", a 10d just to the right of "Have a cookie".

Martín on belay duty while Tim climbs "There is no spoon"

Contemplating the crux

My operated hip does the job on the 10d crux

The old, fat guy is back in action

In spite of the fact I was more than happy to send the 10c and the 10d, I should say these are two routes that I had also managed to do with the botched  hip resurfacing. My big advance came on the next two routes, a couple of stout 5.11a's that sometimes gave me trouble even when my hip was not a factor. Although I didn't get any photos climbing these routes, I want to report I sent the first one clean on my second go and the other route I managed to lead in relatively good style with one hang to rest. This is the first time I've climbed these routes in about three years, so it counts as a milestone for me.

Here's a photo of our friend Pablo from Buenos Aires sending the second hardest route in the Matrix (an 11d). The route the kids are top-roping on the left is the 11a  I sent clean.

Pablo sends "The Matrix reloaded"

It's been three weekends since our visit to the Matrix and I've been mainly focused on bouldering. I have to say it's been going pretty well. I've sent my first V3 since before the botched hipresurfacing and each weekend has given me a new breakthrough. I'll try to write a blog post about bouldering in the near future.

Long weekend in Sierra de la Ventana

Near the start of the hike in to the climbibg area

Argentina celebrates a buttload of long weekends. In fact, it's the country with the most holidays in the world. I don't know if that´s good or bad in some absolute sense, but I´d be a lot happier with the situation if we´d get a break with the weather. This has been an "El Niño" year and that means instability, humidity and rain. I miss the cold, dry south winds.

At any rate, there was a four day holiday weekend in September and we decided to head out to Sierra de la Ventana. These sierras are the highest in the province of Buenos Aires, rising up to more than 4,000 feet. They are also home to one of the few existing provincial parks. The province of Buenos Aires is a huge region, bigger than the country of Italy, and essentially devoid of public lands. Unfortunately, the bureaucrats who run the park don't want any rock climbing and the access problem there is at least as complicated as with the almost exclusively private lands around where I live. 

The local climbers from Bahia Blanca have put up a small area of bolted routes, tucked away in a picturesque, hidden location. With a little discretion it is possible to climb without being harassed by the park rangers. I'd climbed there one time before, but only a couple of routes, so I was excited to return and try some new stuff.  

Sierra de la Ventana is about a four and a half hour drive from Balcarce and since Analía and Martin had to work on Friday (in their gymnasium) we didn't leave until Saturday morning. By the time we finished the drive and got settled down in the cabin we were renting, there really wasn't much time left to take advantage of the climbing area, so Martín and I decided to do some hiking instead and save the climbing for Sunday (and hopefully Monday). 

For me, the approach to the climbing area is one of its special charms. The hike in starts out in a beautful, wide valley and then crosses the high ridge to the left, with views of Sierra de la Ventana, before dropping down the back side to the hidden and remote climbing zone.  

To get to the climbing area, we will need to cross that high rigde behind

Ceci on the hike in

Gaby and Ceci on top of the ridge with Sierra de la Ventana behind

The first two routes we did were 5.9s. 

Ceci climbs one of the 5.9s. 

Rafael takes a rest higher up on the same 5.9

Next we climbed a 10a, a 10b and then another 10a.

Martín starts up a 10a

The old fat guy climbs 10a

Higher up on the same 10a

Ceci starts up the 10b

Ceci and Dad simul-climb

The last climb I did was was easier, maybe steep 5.8 or easy 5.9 and I managed to finish just as it began to spit rain. The rain didn't interfere with my climbing plans, because I was already so pumped that I could barely finish the last route. This had been a most satisfying day but it was time to head back and enjoy the comforts of the cabin we were renting. 

When we woke up next morning, we were greeted with antarctic blasts of very cold wind. Since the climbing area was exposed to the wind, we decided to go on a hike instead of climb. We hiked up a small mountain called Cerro Bahia Blanca and got an early start back home. 

Starting up Cerro Bahía Blanca 

As if she might confuse up with down, signs point the way for Gaby

The group on the summit

Rafael and Ceci by the summit sign

Six months and beyond

The six month check-up: De Smet says the x-ray looks perfect

The six month check-up came and went. I sent the above x-ray to De Smet and he wrote back saying: "the x-ray looks perfect". "Perfect" sounds good.

The weather hasn't been very cooperative this spring for weekend climbing, although I've gotten out some. We've climbed in the bosque, Paredes Naranjes and another area on La Barrosa that I established called the Matrix (I hope to write up a report on the Matrix when we climb there again latter in the spring). Highlights include my first redpoints of 5.11 in more than two and a half years (an 11b and an 11c in the bosque) as well as climbing a few interesting new routes I'd never done before.

One of the new routes we tried was a nice crack squeezed between two bolted face climbs at Paredes Naranjas. I wouldn't be surprised if this was the first time the crack had ever been lead. 

The old fat guy placed gear in a crack right next to bolted faces

Here are three shots of Martin flashing the crack, using the gear I placed:

Martín flashes the crack using the gear I placed

No problem here

Go Martín

El Groso, Gaby and Matoco, down from the Himalayas to climb at Paredes Naranjas

Another highlight was Cecilia redpointing the 5.8 crack to face route en el bosque (her first serious redpoint  in Balcarce). This is the same route where I reinitiated my climbing in the fifth blog post.

Ceci redpointing the crack to face route in el bosque

Ceci looking strong before a tricky move on the face

I went bouldering a couple of more times, but I haven't really been able to get into an outdoor bouldering rythmn yet. I hope to put in some nice reports on some of the local bouldering areas once I get my mojo working, Meanwhile, by supplementing my outdoor climbing with sessions in the home gym, I have been able to maintain about three days of climbing per week. I also try to go on hikes at least two of my non climbing days. Typically these hikes range from 4 to 6 miles, but today, for example I hiked around 8 miles. The highlight in this category was hiking the length of the sierra, La Barrosa from end to end on top and then returning along the base. This is a fairly intense three hour hike which I hadn't done for several years. Now I've done it three times since the revision.

How I spent my winter vacation - part 3

The last installment about our winter vacation climbing trip to Capilla del Monte during the second half of July.

Analía climbing on Nasca, on our last day

We only had three days left in Capilla del Monte, when Gaby finally came to join us. She had been staying at her parent's house in Rio IV, helping with her father, who was recovering from a head injury he had obtained from a fall. Unfortunately, she would be unable to climb on these last three days. For almost a year now, Gaby has been suffering from a chronic shoulder injury. She's gone to several doctors and worked with physical therapists, but to no avail. I have my doubts about the abilities of these doctors (look what happened to me with my hip!) but we're hoping Gaby can find a surgeon who knows what to do, when she returns to Córdoba, later in the spring. Meanwhile, her shoulder is not improving.

The day Gaby arrived, we had been climbing four days in a row, so we needed a break. Martín and Analía wanted to hike up Uritorco. The kids, as well, seemed psyched to go. However, I felt my hip could use a rest day and since Gaby and I had hiked up Uritorco a few years back we decided to spend the day loafing together.

The next day we were back to climbing. We went to a steep, outlying slab called Nasca. The first route we did was an elegant and technical 5.9 crack.For me, this route. along with Empotradictos (described in the previous blog post), were the highlights of the whole trip. Not only are both routes excellent and challenging climbs, they were also the most difficult (albiet only 5.9) trad onsights I've done in several years.

Rafael starts up the 5.9 crack.

A series of four shots showing Cecilia styling the technical moves in the crack:

For the next climb, I set up a top rope to work the challenging 5.11 face to the left of the crack. I was hoping to work the moves and then, perhaps, red point the route, if not today, then tomorrow. I took three different tries on top rope and on the last go I finally linked the thing without a hang. The problem was, by then, my fingers were toast and there would be no more climbing that day.

Here are three shots of Ceci top roping the 5.11 slab:

Smaller hands actually help for these holds

Ceci sticks a key hold on a crux move

For our last day of climbing we returned to Nasca where I was hoping to get a shot at redpointing the 5.11. Because there were some climbers on the easiest bolted route (a 10a/b to the right of the crack) I decided to start with a 10c just to the left of the 5.11 slab. However, the start had me a little worried. I had actually onsighted this route some years back and I remembered the start being a bit of a thrill, with some slippery footholds, but today it was looking more like a terrifying ankle breaker (or I should say a terrifying hip implant breaker). Had something about the route changed, or had I just lost my nerve? In the end I decided to rappel the route and preclip the first bolt. Good thing too, because when I tried the climb it became apparent that at least one key hold had broken off, making the route considerably harder than 10c. I ended up hanging a bunch and even tensioning past the first bolt. When I tried the route on top rope for a second go, I still couldn't link the thing cleanly. In fact, I couldn't even do the move at the first bolt without a bit of tension. In the end, this route finished with me before I could finish with it, and I had absolutely nothing left for a shot at the redpoint on the 5.11 to the right. After six days of granite, the points of my fingers had deteriorated to painful, little red circles and I was  ready for a break. And so was everyone else. So we ended up finishing off the afternoon in a local bar, eating an enormous "picada" (a shared plate of salami, meats, cheese, olives, etc.) and drinking beer. A fine end to a fine vacation.

Analía climbing what used to be a 10c