Tuesday, May 15, 2012

The old fat guy rebounds in Viejolandia

The crew back in Viejolandia last Sunday
Today is exactly three months after my revision surgery. So far, all I can say is: thank you, Koen De Smet! Last Sunday the crew (me, Martin, Analia, Rafael, Cecilia, Gaby and another friend named Hugo) returned to Viejolandia. My new hip rebounded like a charm and this time I actually began to feel like a real climber.

The week before, after three consecutive days of hard activity, including the day I got spanked in Viejolandia, my thigh muscle was feeling tight and sore. This was nothing like the set backs I'd had with the first surgery, where I ended up limping around for extended periods of time. However, considering my previous experience, any kind of pain makes me feel a bit anxious. I took it easy for a couple of days, more because I was busy at work and home than because my leg was really bothering me. Then last Thursday, I took out the headlamp and went for a brisk 4 mile nighttime walk after work. When I got done my leg felt tighter and more sore, which made me even more nervous. Still, I wasn't even close to walking with a limp. Then, by the next day, my leg started feeling a little better. Even though, I decided to do a 40 minute ride on the stationary bike, instead of going for a walk. After the ride, my leg felt even better. Saturday, Martin and I climbed pretty hard in my climbing gym and then took the dogs for a 4 mile walk. By then my leg was hardly bothering me at all. I was feeling ready for my first attempt, since surgery, at climbing two days in a row. Sunday I'd go another round with Viejolandia.

The old fat guy climbs an easy, beginner 5.8 in Viejolandia
Hugo races the old fat guy to the top of the cliff
Looks like Hugo is winning
Martin and Hugo worked the 5.11 on top rope. Martin managed to climb it without any hangs
Hugo on the 5.11. The crux is passing the big roof above. 
All and all I did seven routes that day, including a solid lead of the 5.10 that kicked my butt the weekend before. Sure, most of the routes were 5.7 or 5.8, but I felt good and my new hip was working great. 
Watch out for the ferns
Pretty orange lichens
Rafael showing his stuff
Make the move, Rafi
Analia watching over her son

Rafi goes for a high step












Wednesday, May 09, 2012

The old fat guy gets a butt kicking in Viejolandia


The climbing area in Sierra de los Difuntos known as Viejolandia
Leaving Balcarce and heading southeasterly towards the town of Mar del Plata, the national highway Ruta 226 winds its way through the steep-sided mesas of the Sierras of Balcarce for a distance of about 30 miles until reaching the hills of Sierra de los Padres, a few miles from the sea. The last major formation on this journey, before the smaller collection of hills that make up Sierra de los Padres, is known as Sierra de los Difuntos. Since I first saw Difuntos, almost 17 years ago, the sight of this pretty mesa rising above the surrounding farmlands has carried a special meaning to me.

In the year 1995, Gaby and I were recently married and living in Córdoba. My two year stint at the University of Córdoba was ending and Gaby didn't seem interested in moving to the US. We had both been able to get jobs near Balcarce and decided to move there. The catch was I'd never even seen the place. I had seen a few promising black and white photos of climbing in Sierra La Vigilancia and some climbers from Córdoba had talked about a basically undeveloped climbing area near Barker. But none of the local climbers from Córdoba seemed very enthusiastic about the climbing possibilities in the Sierras of Balcarce. On top of that, I wasn't too excited about settling down to live in Argentina. But at least Gaby and I would both have jobs, which was good. What would we find?

Gaby had left Córdoba first, to begin her job as a statistics professor working in the agricultural school of the University of Mar del Plata, which is situated about 10 miles outside of Balcarce. I left about a week or so later, after a prolonged vacation climbing in the Sierras of Córdoba. Before leaving, I could tell from phone conversations with Gaby, that she was not doing very well alone, so when I left to join her I was anxious, to say the least. For the time being, she was staying in an apatment in Mar del Plata that belonged to a relative and we planned to find a place to rent in Balcarce after I arrived.

The 700 mile drive from Córdoba to Balcarce traverses a part of Argentina that is almost entirely flat and empty. For hours and hours one passes through farmlands, marshes, fields and the occasional small town. It was winter time, the dry season, and the surrounding fields looked flat, brown and barren. Dust and  tumbleweeds blew across the road and the small towns looked meager and uninviting. Looking around, I thought: I could never live in a place like this. By the time I was anywhere near the Sierras of Balcarce, it was nightime, so I had no idea what kind of territory I was driving through. When I finally got to the apartment where Gaby was staying I could see why she was depressed. It was a cold, one room cell block, stacked full of stored up junk, with one tiny window looking out on a gray, cement wall. That night Gaby and I squabbled and I got so pissed I went out for a walk alone. Things were looking pretty grim for life in Balcarce.

The next day dawned cold and clear. One of those beautiful winter mornings we sometimes have, when the wind is calm, the fields, green with a hint of spring, are blanketed with white frost and the sun suddenly awakes to a brilliant blue sky, radiating the surrounding countrside with a myriad of colors. I drove Gaby the 40 miles to work from Mar del Plata. This stretch of road, in my opinion, is one of the prettiest in the country. Where  the road passes below the steep sides of the Sierra de los Difuntos, I impulsively pulled the car over to the side and went running full speed across the fields to check out the nearest boulder. Was the rock suitable for climbing? I'm sure Gaby needed to get to work, but she was tolerant with my sudden burst of enthusiam. When I reached the boulder, the rock was unlike anything I'd seen before, but it was angular and very solid. I could tell it would make for excellent climbing. I looked up at the line of cliffs above and imagined the possibilty of dozens, maybe hundreds of routes. I felt like I'd found a home.

The old fat guy ready to cross the field below Sierra de los Difuntos

There are several different climbing areas spread out over Difuntos. The sector known as Viejolandia is the official beginner area and perhaps the most popular climbing zone in the Sierras of Balcarce. It supports about ten short routes from 5.6 to 5.8 range, one 5.9, one easy 5.10, one solid 5.10 and one 5.11 route. I had climbed there a few times, years back, but generally looked down on the area as too easy and uninteresting. Just another overcrowded beginner area. Actually, even when I was climbing stronger, the routes in Viejolandia had felt greasy and awkward. I found myself forcing highsteps to get past weird, slippery sections. Now that I'm an old fat guy with a recent hip replacement on one side and osteoarthritis on the other, Viejolandia could be a whole different story.

Last Saturday, Martin, Analia, Rafael, Gaby, Ceci and I went out to climb at Viejolandia. Two months and 20 days since my revision surgery. In spite of the easier grades, this would prove more of a challenge than the routes in the bosque because, for one thing I had already relearned how to do many of the routes in the bosque with my botched hip resurfacing. Last time I'd climbed in Viejolandia, I didn't even know I had osteoarthritis. Even then, the routes had felt awkward and high-steppy for the grades. So I would be putting myself in a a more insecure situation than simply repeating harder graded routes from the bosque that I already had wired.

Martin points the way to Viejolandia
The sector of Viejolandia as seen from the approach hike
I started the day with a couple of 5.8s. These went pretty smoothly, in spite of some greasy, high-stepping  starts.  
Ceci toproping the first 5.8 we did
Nice footwork, Ceci.
Smile fot the camera
Meanwhile, Martin and Analia started out on the long 5.10a route. 
Ananlia toproping the 5.10a route
The 5.10a section is passing the roof above, on the left
Martin looking scary.
The next route I did was a 5.9 with a very greasy high step at the start. The first time up I slipped, because of a wishy-washy foot placement. Then I led the route two times, feeling pretty solid. 
The old fat guy working the high-steps
The old fat guy's butt going up a 5.9
The next route I tried was the 5.10 and this one spanked me. I fought hard to get the second clip, because I was afraid of the fall on the crux. After that I struggeled to pull the move. I ended up hanging just after the crux, because I was pumped and once again afraid to fall. Near the top, I ended up lowering off, after flailing at the last move, which is a vicious highstep with a potential hip-wrenching fall back on a ledge. It's been a long time since a route left me a blubbering mess. Years. But I guess putting yourself in that kind of situation is part of what climbing is all about. At any rate, this simple 5.10 sport route is not nearly as heroic as I'm making it sound. It was just hard for me, that day.

After my attempt at the 5.10, I led a 5.7 bolted crack. Then I went back and successful sent the 5.10 on toprope. I had to balance over my left knee for one brief moment on the vicious highstep at the top, but the move worked out just fine. 

All and all a wonderful day, in spite of my humiliating performance, and the muscular soreness I felt afterword was accompanied by a healthy sensation of recuperation. 
Unknown climber on the 5.7 bolted crack

My dog Mica imitates the big eye effect of Puss in Boots












Tuesday, May 01, 2012

Back to the bosque

Heading back to the bosque
Because of weather and work constraints, I was unable to get outside and climb again the next two weeks after my first post-op outing. However I continued with my moderate training regimen. Each week I  walked 12 or so miles and also climbed three different times in my home bouldering gym. Even though I didn't feel I really needed to use the trekking poles, I still took them out them on my longer walks. I also did some leg exercises and light stretching. I have an exercise bike at home, but I've been mainly using it to warm up before working out in the climbing gym.

At any rate, Monday April 30th was a holiday in Argentina and the weather, although cool (almost cold), was much nicer than it had been the previous days. So once more we went out to the routes in the bosque.  This time I managed to do seven routes including three solid 5.10s on lead.  I guess that's OK for an old fat guy who's only two and a half months out from revision surgery. Didn't get very good photos of me climbing this time, although my daughter did snap the following picture of yours truly, just after the crux move on a tricky 5.10.
The old, fat guy sends 5.10
Later on in the afternoon, some of the young climbers from Balcarce showed up to give a few of my routes a go. The most experienced climber of the group, Mariano, who has been going at it for about 10 years, can send the hardest of my routes with ease. However, I was not unhappy to see that the other kids, who are getting pretty strong on the boulders but lack route experience, can still get spanked by my more difficult creations. Here are a few shots I took of one of the local kids, named Segu, trying out one of the two 5.11d routes I put up in the bosque. Hopefully I'll be able to give this one a go myself, some day soon!

Segu starts up the 11d route "North American Invasion"
Get the clip
This is as far as Segu will get today
I set up a route for my daughter Cecilia to do on lead. Here's a set of photos I took
Go Ceci

After the first clip
The second clip

Gaby watches Ceci move up to the ledge
Ceci works up the headwall

Clipping on the headwall
Ceci moves left past the last gear