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