Stage 49 Jul 2012 - 27 Aug 2012 |
Hot Rock South America 2012 |
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The final stage of the expedition is a loop of Colombia and Venezuela, taking in the best climbing in both countries together with the Carribean sea at the northern tip of the continent. The loop starts and finishes in Quito, and this is a new venture for hot rock - we've not been to Colombia or Venezuela before. It will be adventurous and exploratory! |
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We start with the short road trip across the border from Ecuador into Colombia. Colombia has a well established climbing scene, and we begin out cragging tour at Genoy, near Pasto, with routes from 30-35m and plenty of bouldering potential. The star of the scene locally is the Galeras volcano, which is active and has been threatening to erupt for a while now. We'll seek the latest advice on where to camp!
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After a few days in Pasto, we'll head north, to Armenia (no, not the country...) whch is home to the Penas Blancas, a 280m-high outcrop that is being developed at present. Equipped routes currently range from 5 to 7b. It is always good to climb with local activists, and we will try to do so here; local knowledge is always best in terms of finding the best routes, crags and bars, and we may get the drill out to help them extend the climbing here. Armenia is best known for its coffee however; it has one of the country's biggest coffee markets and we'll be sure to try a few varieties en route.
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Our next destination is Mesa de los Santos, in San Gil. San Gil is the extreme sports capital of Colombia and Mesa de los Santos is the most developed crag. The rock is a compact, cracked sandstone set in a beautiful location, as you can see from the photo. We'll spend several days here.
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There's plenty of climbing in Colombia that we haven't yet touched - don't worry, it'll be waiting for us on our way back! For this is border day, as we head across into Venezuela, the most northerly country on our expedition. Vast swathes of Venezuela is jungle covered, and the northern andes push through this in a chain running north east, from the colombian border to the carribean sea. Broadly, this is our route.
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There are a lot of developed climbing areas in Venezuela, and the trick will be to choose the best of them. For that, we'll again be aiming to hook up with some local activists. Our first destination is La Azulita, near Merida. Boasting a range of rock types, and both sport and trad potential, La Azulita has a lot of individual cragging destinations such as Cara del Indio, and bouldering at El Burro, too. Owing to the fact that there are no roads there, Hot Rock can't go to Angel Falls, though for many folk this will be a highlight of a trip to Venezuela. If this is something you want to do, it's easy enough to leave the truck in Merida and take a couple of internal flights to get there for a few days - speak to me. |
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The Morro de San Juan are a national monument, with a few excellent looking routes on them. Climbing has been established on the limestone on 3 of the outcrops, with masses more potential We'll spend a few days here, developing new routes before getting back on the road for a venezuelan highlight... |
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The deep water soloing in Mochima marine park is certain to be a highlight of Venezuela. The climbing is on a number of the rocky islands that dot this reserve, just off the venezuelan coast at Puerto La Cruz. We'll hire a boat and head off for a couple of day trips splashing around. The DWS in this part of the world is not exactly developed - it'll be a case of finding a good line, checking the depth, and going for it! |
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Leaving the carribean coast, we'll retrace our steps, stopping first to tick Venezuela's highest peak - the rocky Pico Bolivar. A scramble leads to the top though there is plenty of technical climbing potential as well for those that want to search out new routes.
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Back in Colombia, we'll stop again at Mesa de los Santos to tick any unfinished business, before moving south to a new crag. Suesca, just outside Bogota, has an amazing variety of routes, from 1-4 pitches, sport, trad, from 5.5 to 5.12 all on hard sandstone 5 minutes walk in. An ideal final crag of the trip! Bogota is not on the itinerary for the trip but some folk are bound to want a night out there. They can leave a couple of days early, and bus the 88km to the city centre - we'll pick you up on the way through. |
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Suesca |
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We'll max out our time at Suesca (unless there's other crags folk are desperate to go back to) before hitting the road again for the journey back to Ecuador, Quito and the end of the expedition. D-Day is the 27th of August, for this is our final night party. We will have climbed virtually every developed piece of rock along our route; we'll have bouldered, scrambled, climbed and mountaineered our way from the southernmost tip of south america to the carribean sea! What a place to celebrate. We'll party hard, share some memories and some photographs, and then say farewell as we go our separate ways. If you like what you've just read, check out the dates & prices and get in touch! |
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Quito adrenalin junkies! |
