More rock climbing in Ecuador

Paute is another crag near Cuenca. It's got about 70 bolted sport routes. We spend couple of days there enjoying sunny weather and climbing many nice routes with our Colombian friends.

Nice 15 minutes walk from the parking area to the crag.

Again we were surrounded by remote countryside. The altitude of this place is lower than the other climbing places we have visited, so the weather is milder and warmer.

Only our crew climbing. The crags in Ecuador aren't busy places, very few climbers around, so we could happily scatter our stuff everywhere.

Iitu flashing La Primera 6a+

Struggling on the crux.

Caro on a Roba Bolts 6b+

Me on a crux of Roba Bolts, doing it hard way as usual.

King Arthur of Colombia climbing La Primera. He had been climbing only 7 months, but flashed alredy 6b routes. Pretty good progress.

Juan leading easily the route Complemento 6b+.

Ileana climbing the strenuous La Faraona 7a+. Tensión, tensión!

Iitu climbing the cactus route. There was a very spiky cactus growing above the crux as you can see...

...she fell on the crux. It took some time to pick all the spikes up from her knees. Nasty route, poor brave girl.

Gabriel climbing the classic overhanging Dona Pili 7b.

Our kid Malik.

Mateo smoking and Ile passed out. Common view.

And after some tobacco Mateo climbed very easily Arista del Haztelo 7c.

I tried to flash it too. Didn't quite make it.

Ile on a route Don Polla 7a+

Caro enjoying the day

One day Chiva and Juan Gabriel invited us their for a dinner. Guess what we ate? Guinea Pigs off course. Delicious!

Rock climbing in Cojitambo, Ecuador

There are plenty of good climbing spots around Cuenca. The biggest one is Cojitambo with about hundred routes, and approximately 200 routes more are still waiting to be opened. We found a climbing store from Cuenca, it was again Monodedo, as it had been in Colombia too. Again they gave us all the information and gear we needed. From the store they told us that there is a very nice climber dude living near the crack and we should contact him. And so we did.

The Cliff is very visible from it's surroundings. Nice crag with all sorts of routes from short sport climbs to five pitch traditional ones. Below the cliff there is a small rural village of Cojitambo. The type of rock is volcanic, but it is solid and feels a lot like limestone. Never before have I climbed rock like this. photo by Malik

This is the house of Juan Gabriel Carrasco. He is the only climber who has a house near  the spot. Outerior of the house looks big and fancy, but interior is not finished yet, and so there are rock climbers camping inside. We conquered the parking place as usual and Malik put up his tent in the front yard.

Juan Gabriel and Javier who is the owner of local Monodedo, telling thrilling climbing stories. Those guys have opened most of the routes in Cojitambo.

From the house we also found six colombian climbers, all great guys. Here we are having a feast with 3 whole chickens after a long day of climbing.

Cheers Caro and Juan!

The center of the Village viewed from the cliff. There was a party going on and everybody was very drunk dancing on the streets.

One classic route we climbed was Chillin', Iitu was resting and spending family sunday with Juans parents and family so I climbed with Malik. Here Malik is starting the first pitch, which was a sensitive 6c+ slab.

Malik slowly but surely making it for the first achor, fingers bleeding, but his smile never vanished. It never does. Malik hasn't been rock climbing for 4 years, but he's still in a good shape. He started climbing 7 years old at school, like most French do.

Fourth pitch of the route Chillin'. Slab still continues and toes are sore.

Is this never going to end?

Finally We did get to the top. There you can find small Inca ruins.

Another cool route was Quapac Ñan. Iitu, me and Malik climbed it together with one 60m rope so it included some simultaneous climbing. Here I'm belaying on the first belay point.

When Iitu got to the first belay she looked like this. The first pitch had an overhang crux and she fell couple of times and fingers hurt and she wanted down. We didn't let her go.

On the 3rd belay point everybody was happy again. It was easy for them to smile as they  didn't have to lead the last two 6b trad pitches...

...which was my task. Very nice climbing though, especially the last 80 meters. Two long  pitches with variable techniques, including a long section of layback.

Suomiurpo vuorella.

 

The last belay point was hanging and very limited. Luckily there was a good crack to put many camalots.

   

The long, last pitch of Quapac Ñan. High up I'm negotiating the last crux. Iitu and Malik had to climb this one simultaneously. They were about 10m lenght to each other. Apparently it was an exiting experience as there was plenty of hard sections where other had to wait when the other was solving the next part.

When we finally got to the top it got dark very quickly. We just made it. Maybe we should have started a bit earlier as the Columbianos were climbing the same route above us and we had to wait quite a lot in some anchors.

Cojitambo was nice place with super friendly atmosphere. It felt good to be welcomed by hospitable, smiling and warmhearted couple as Juan and Chiva was. One could easily spend there months and open many new routes...

Muchas gracias Juan Gabriel and Chiva, Hasta Pronto!

Las Cajas national park

Near Cuenca, up in the mountains is a beautiful national park Las Cajas. We decided to go there and refresh ourselves after the new years party. So we packed the van and slowly climbed to 4000 meters where the ranger station was located. The parking area was suitable for us to camp couple of nights and the guards were friendly. From the ranger station we quickly found us a new dog and with it we head to the wilderness.

The refugio at 4000m. We used the kitchen but slept in a van. Photo by Malik.

Is there any better cure for a hangover than to go hiking to the beautiful place like this. Our temporary new dog followed me closely like a shadow.

Soon we realized that the park was full off rocks which looked suitable for climbing. There was actually some routes established allready. The rock was volkanic but quite solid. The grass covered higland is called Paramo here in Ecuador.

Some areas were covered with these tangling guinea? trees. This was first time we saw trees like that. The bark was similar to pines in Finland, but there was no needles, and the trunks were all twisted.

Iitu chilling with Pikkarainen.

This cliff had about ten bolted routes on it. We climbed couple of them. The rock was sharp and the routes had plenty of delicate moves.The sector was called Toreadora.

In this picture taken from the refugio you can see two developed climbing sectores. By the lake is Toreadora and behind the hill is a Chica Toreadora.

Hundreds of small ponds and lakes everywhere. The view got broader as the second day we climbed up to 4400m.

Iitu taking care of navigation, as usual.

On the top. No snow this time, but the wind was very strong.

In Las Cajas there was real Hattiwattis growing in many places. A lot of them. How cool it was to see them in reality!

We found this happy but tired French kid from the national park and adopted him. He's Malik. Photo by Malik.

Llamas, and the trip continues.