Get back to it: rock climbing after revision surgery: Long weekend in Sierra de la Ventana

Near the start of the hike in to the climbibg area

Argentina celebrates a buttload of long weekends. In fact, it's the country with the most holidays in the world. I don't know if that´s good or bad in some absolute sense, but I´d be a lot happier with the situation if we´d get a break with the weather. This has been an "El Niño" year and that means instability, humidity and rain. I miss the cold, dry south winds.

At any rate, there was a four day holiday weekend in September and we decided to head out to Sierra de la Ventana. These sierras are the highest in the province of Buenos Aires, rising up to more than 4,000 feet. They are also home to one of the few existing provincial parks. The province of Buenos Aires is a huge region, bigger than the country of Italy, and essentially devoid of public lands. Unfortunately, the bureaucrats who run the park don't want any rock climbing and the access problem there is at least as complicated as with the almost exclusively private lands around where I live.

The local climbers from Bahia Blanca have put up a small area of bolted routes, tucked away in a picturesque, hidden location. With a little discretion it is possible to climb without being harassed by the park rangers. I'd climbed there one time before, but only a couple of routes, so I was excited to return and try some new stuff.

Sierra de la Ventana is about a four and a half hour drive from Balcarce and since Analía and Martin had to work on Friday (in their gymnasium) we didn't leave until Saturday morning. By the time we finished the drive and got settled down in the cabin we were renting, there really wasn't much time left to take advantage of the climbing area, so Martín and I decided to do some hiking instead and save the climbing for Sunday (and hopefully Monday).

For me, the approach to the climbing area is one of its special charms. The hike in starts out in a beautful, wide valley and then crosses the high ridge to the left, with views of Sierra de la Ventana, before dropping down the back side to the hidden and remote climbing zone.

To get to the climbing area, we will need to cross that high rigde behind

Ceci on the hike in

Gaby and Ceci on top of the ridge with Sierra de la Ventana behind

The first two routes we did were 5.9s.

Ceci climbs one of the 5.9s.

Rafael takes a rest higher up on the same 5.9

Next we climbed a 10a, a 10b and then another 10a.

Martín starts up a 10a

The old fat guy climbs 10a

Higher up on the same 10a

Ceci starts up the 10b

Ceci and Dad simul-climb

The last climb I did was was easier, maybe steep 5.8 or easy 5.9 and I managed to finish just as it began to spit rain. The rain didn't interfere with my climbing plans, because I was already so pumped that I could barely finish the last route. This had been a most satisfying day but it was time to head back and enjoy the comforts of the cabin we were renting.

When we woke up next morning, we were greeted with antarctic blasts of very cold wind. Since the climbing area was exposed to the wind, we decided to go on a hike instead of climb. We hiked up a small mountain called Cerro Bahia Blanca and got an early start back home.