The routes in the bosque

A younger, thinner Tim climbing in the bosque, circa 2003

I met my wife Gaby, in the city of Córdoba, in 1995. We quickly became regular climbing partners, heading to the Sierras of Córdoba on weekends and traveling to Patagonia during summer vacation. We moved to Balcarce in 1996 and continued to climb together weekends, holidays, whenever we could. I believe the year was 1999 when Gaby was given the word, from the University of Buenos Aires where she had been working on her Master's degree, that it was time to wrap up her thesis. She already had a full time job at a national university near home, so it had been easy to let the task of concluding her thesis, slide. Then, all at once, she was on a deadline to finish. Since Gaby would need weekends and holidays to write her thesis, I suddenly found myself without a climbing partner. At that time, except for Gaby and me, no one else in Balcarce climbed. Bouldering alone on weekends was one possibility. However, I had already scoped out a modest area of big boulders and small walls hidden away in a wooded part of La Barrosa and I thought it might be interesting to put up a few roped climbing routes for future enjoyment. While Gaby worked on her thesis, I headed out weekend after weekend, cleaning and hand drilling routes on rappel, using the bolting procedure I'd learned from the local climbers in Mar del Plata. More out of laziness than some grand ethic, I tried to avoid bolting where obvious good gear placements were available. It's just easier to place gear than hand drill  bolts. When all was said and done, I ended up with 17 little routes: two 5.8s, two 5.9s, six 5.10s and seven 5.11s, the hardest two routes checking in at 5.11d. The small area of routes is now known as "las rutas del bosque", or more simply as the bosque. When I put up the routes, I never imagined they might be used by groups of twenty or more climbers who I didn't even know. But lately that's what's been happening.

The weekend of April, the 14th and 15th, would mark exactly two months after my revision surgery. Since I had begun training in my bouldering gym, three weeks earlier, I had been hoping to climb outdoors, for my first time post-op, at the two month mark. As the time drew near, the weather forecast for Saturday was looking pretty dicey, but Sunday was supposed to be drier, cooler and sunnier: This is a classic weather pattern for Balcarce: hotter, humid weather gets blown out by a south wind and is replaced by perfect climbing weather: cool, dry and sunny. So Sunday would be the day. I hoped the forecast wouldn't let me down.

My good friend Martin, his wife Analia and their son Rafael came out to climb with us that day. Gaby wouldn't be climbing, because of a chronic shoulder pain that is giving her a hard time. When Sunday came, the weather turned out to be perfect. Here are some photos:

High stepping the gate at the start of the approach

It's about a 2 kilometer approach to the the climbing area and it was my first time with a backpack since the surgery, so I was a little anxious how that would go. It turned out fine.

Blue, Gaby and Tim hiking into the rutas del bosque

Tim, Rafi and Ceci on steeper terrain 

Tim and Ceci head up the hill

This was my first time climbing outdoors in more than six months and only my second time out in more than eight months. After these last two times outdoors, I wound up in pretty bad pain, limping around for more than a week afterwords. Sunday in the bosque, things went much better. I started out by climbing a straightforward 5.8 crack to face route.

The old fat guy climbs a 5.8

Placing a stopper

Placing a camlot

Finishing up out on the face

My daughter top-ropes the same 5.8 crack to face

Using opposition in the corner

Stem

Ceci takes a rest after moving out on the face

Topping out

Our next route was a short 5.10a face just to the left

The old fat guy climbs 5.10a

Ceci top-roping the same route

Ceci gets the jug

Martin climbed a bunch of routes that day

Martin prepares for the clip on a tricky 5.10 route

Martin cranks through a tricky 5.10 crux

Here goes the old fat guy on a 5.9 arete. I was happy about this one, because it requires a bit of a high step up with the left leg to mount the arete. It's a move that always gave me a hard time when I tried it with the my previous hip resurfacing.

Tim steps up onto a 5.9 arte with his operated hip

The old,fat guy gets the clip

More use of the operated hip

All and all I climbed five routes on Sunday: a 5.8, a 5.9, two easy 5.10s (one is a top-rope) and another elementary climb, where I placed some gear that Ceci could clip on lead. It was a beauiful day and felt great to be climbing again.  

Ceci sends a route on lead

Ceci skips a clip

Rafael climbs the same route

Rafi high stepping