How I spent my winter vacation - part 2

The second installment of my trip report on the climbing we did in Capilla del Monte during winter vacation, July 14th through the 29th

Rafi and Martín in juxtaposition at T-Rex with Uritorco rising up behind

A visit from the Fantastic Mr. Fox

Our third day climbing we decided to give T-Rex a try (this is were we'd seen the No Trespassing sign on our first day). We figured the worst that could happen is we'd get kicked out. At any rate we parked in the canyon (a note to potemtial visitors: use common sense and PLEASE DON'T park your car right in front of a No Trespassing sign).

We started with the easiest route: a goofy 5.7. Despite the fact it's a beginner route, oddly enough, it starts out with an unprotected boulder move on friable rock, after which there are very closely spaced bolts on the easier terrain above. When I got to the top of the route I found that the anchors had been smashed. Apparently the same landowner who was pissed about climbers parking in front of his fence to climb at T-Rex had scambled up the back side of the giant boulder and hammered the anchors flat. I sent down one end of the rope to retrieve some extra gear and I was able to rig a reasonable top rope, fixing some stoppers to what was left of the anchor.

Ceci ties up at the base of the 5.7

The first few moves are a little tricky

Cruising the easy slab above

The next route we did was a short but elegant crystal-studded 5.8 face just to the left, reminiscent of the climbing in Los Gigantes.

The old, fat guy climbs 5.8

Go old, fat guy

Ceci climbs the crystal-studded 5.8

We finished the day with two more routes: first we climbed the 5.8 (or maybe 5.9) located just to the right of the 5.7 and then we top roped an unbolted face (5.10c or maybe even 5.10d), more to the right. This was Cecilia's big day: not only did she do all the routes cleanly, first try, but she was the only member of our group to send the 10c/10d on the first go (it took me two turns on the top rope to climb the thing cleanly and Martin never did make it without hanging). Way to go, Cecilia!

The next day, Analía and the kids decided to take a break from climbing and spend the day doing the standard tourist activities in a nearby town called Los Cocos. Meanwhile, Martín and I headed out to explore the trad climbing area known as Los Paredones. This area is located in another canyon about 5 kilometers further down the Rio Dolores. It turned out to be an extremely nice area and I definitely hope to return someday. 

The first route we did was called Empotradictos and when I first took a look at it, I was afraid we were getting sandbagged. The start looked hard, slippery and kind of run out. Higher up, there looked to be a difficult, overhanging bulge, past the half-way mark. And I couldn't see any indication of the top anchors shown in the guidebook (although we we could see some slings on a rather precarious looking bush at what appeared to be the end of the climb).  Even though I started out with some trepidation, the opening moves went surprisingly easy, and the 90 foot long route ended up being one of the best pitches of 5.9 trad I've done in my 30+ years of climbing. My only complaint is that some confused climber had smashed the anchors at the top (I suppose under the misconception that this destruction was somehow a valuable act), so we ended up having to rappel from slings around a sketchy little bush. But even with that unnecessary risk, this is still a five star route and highly recomendable. Unfortunately I didn't get hardly any pictures. I guess we were just too busy climbing.

Martín sorts gear at the base of Empotradictos

After finishing up Empotradictos we went to a nearby wall called La Placa del Arbol. It turns out this area actually does have one of the biggest sandbags I've ever come across. The center route on the wall (which also showed a variation) was rated 5+ in the guidebook. This should be about 5.8 or 5.9 in the YDS grade. But in fact, the start of the route is a highball, unprotectable. V3 boulder problem (the left hand variation is protectable by a hard to place stopper, however the moves are at least as difficult as the V3 boulder problem to the right). Since this level of climbing was completely out of the question in my current condition, I opted to try the 5.10c/d thin crack that traversed in from the right. The crack turned out to be quite nice, although I ended up using tension to traverse past the hardest move. I hadn't brought a lot of small gear and I was nervous about pulling the lone #2 TCU I had used to protect the crux. At this point I didn't want to take any chances hitting the ground. At any rate, the route was so good that I ended up repeating it on top rope with the gear clipped, although I still didn't link it cleanly.