A five mile hike on the flanks of La Barrosa

Sunrise over the Sierras of Balcarce from my back porch

The Province of Buenos Aires is perhaps best known for the sprawling metropolitan area of the city of Buenos Aires, home to more than 13 million inhabitants. However the province itself is quite extensive, covering more land area than the country of Italy. As a state in the USA, it would weigh in as fifth largest. Most of that territory is flat farmland, although two small systems of hills, or "sierras", as they say in Argentina, can be found in the southern part of the province. The highest system of hills, the chain of the Sierras de la Ventana, rises about 4,000 feet above the surrounding farmlands and is located just north of the city of Bahia Blanca, in the southwest part of the province. The other system, the Tandil chain, runs roughly from the city of Olavarria in the south central part of the province and traces the national highway, Ruta 226 for about 150 miles to the city of Mar del Plata on the southeastern coast. In general the hills in the Tandil system rise about a thousand feet or so above the surrounding farmlands. They tell me these hill are more than two and a half billion years old and the rock found here is some of the oldest exposed rock on the planet.

There are principally two different types of hill formations found in the Tandil system, representing the two different kinds of rock that occur. On the one hand, there are rounded, softly-curved hills like those found near Azul, the sierras in Tandil and Cinco Cerros near Balcarce. The rock in these types of formations is granitic and the climbing possibilities are fairly limited. On the other hand, there are flattop, steep-sided. mesa-type  formations like the sierras near Barker and most of the sierras near Balcarce. In these tabletop  formations the rock is a quartzitic sandstone and climbing possibilities abound.

The Sierras of Balcarce are part of the Tandil system and run from a point roughly 35 miles nothwest of Balcarce, for 70 miles in a southeasterly direction, finishing up in Sierra de los Padres a few miles from the sea. These sierras are home to some of the best climbing in Argentina. La Barrosa (the sierra behind my house) and Sierra de los Padres have outstanding bouldering, while Sierra de los Difuntos and La Vigilancia are host to some of the best sport climbing in Argentina. In terms of available rock, new climbing possibilities are basically unlimited, however there are serious access problems due to the fact everything in sight is private property. Luckliy, we've had continuous open access to climbing areas on La Barrosa since I arrived sixteen years ago. Let's hope it will stay that way.

La Barrosa from my front gate. A starting point for hikes and bouldering expeditions

The day before yesterday counts as six weeks and three days since my hip surgery and I went for my longest walk to date: around five miles total (using the trekking poles). Accompanied by my dogs, Blue and Mica, and the neighbor's dog Flash, I took some photos to catalog the event and to try and capture some of the gentle beauty of the surrounding sierras. I'm sure glad to be hiking my sierras again. Good job, Dr. Koen de Smet!

Only 200 meters into the walk, here is the view looking southeast towards La Vigilancia:

My companions and I reach a bench on the flanks of La Barossa

The view looking northwest

Various estabilished bouldering areas are visible in the following picture, including: La Media Tierra, Opere Doctor, Los Boulders de Siempre, Los Techos de Mierda, the roof of  Culito Reggaetón (El Panal) and El Coloso. Established boulders in these areas range in difficulty from easy, to about V9, with at least one outstanding unsent project yet to be completed.

The east side of La Barrosa

Sierra La Bachicha and the town of Balcarce

About one mile into the hike I headed half way up La Barrosa to hike past a bouldering area known as El Huevo:

El Huevo is the collection of boulders on the right skyline, half way up the hill

Flash the dog with the bouldering area known as El Huevo, up and to the right

The Sierras of Balcarce from El Huevo

My companions rest under an overhang

Here comes the old, fat guy

There goes the old, fat guy

The forested area behind me is simply known as the "bosque" and is home to some of the hardest boulder problems in South America

Preparing to enter the bosque

The trail through the bosque is pretty

Hiking through Eucalyptus trees

My final destination is an old, abandoned quarry. Now it's time to head back:

The climbing in this quarry sucks