Well, after two more scheduled and then canceled attempts, today I finally got a chance to see the place close up. Pretty much all I have to say is 'WOW.'
This thing is one massively enormous hunk of granite. It also happens to be perched on top of a very steep hill with an entirely unmaintained 'trail' which consists of a series of slightly leveled patches of grass followed by dried mud slicks where mother nature has carved out her own lines for the disbursement of rain waters (and the ascension of determined climbers). Fortunately, the view from the base of the cliffs is rather priceless and well worth the precarious approach.
Once we'd caught our breath from the hike in, it was time to try out some routes, all of which consisted of ridiculously balancey moves on gritty but hardly featured granite. Almost every route consisted of a series of thin crimps and barely-there slopers on a slight incline with tiny but surprisingly solid foot holds, and an infinite array of viable smears.
Luckily, this is precisely my style and hence I had a blast scrambling up the slightly pock marked routes with little more than thin foot holds and something with just enough grip for your hands to aid in balancing you against the shear cliff that abounded on both sides.
Now, I should probably mention that the one pitch routes we were working on were never more than 25m high, but as such they couldn't have comprised more than a tenth to a twentieth of the height of the monolith that rose above us and for the first few hours at least, sheltered us in its lengthy shadow.
Once we'd done a couple routes at the first area we came to, the sun had started to catch up with us, so we ventured into the jungle along the base of the cliff on something that I seriously hesitate to call a trail.
As we pushed through vines and budding flowers of all varieties, at least the now scorching sun was fairly well blocked and we were able to stay cool while taking turns on our next route.
As I sat in the shade waiting my turn, it quickly became clear that despite the large barren granite block dominating the landscape, we were in fact in the midst of a jungle teaming with life. Most of that life tended to come in the microscopic to 3-inch range, but some of it was welcomingly pretty nonetheless.
When my turn came, I had to move quickly to keep from sweating myself off the rock, but about half way up I took a second to look around and was pleasantly shocked to discover a well secured hammock happily swinging beneath the enormous roof I was ascending to. Even better, our next route apparently commenced directly below said hammock!
At this point, the sun was in full force, causing the dark rock to become shockingly hot to the touch in an alarmingly short period of time, and I was pretty much ready to call it a day. However, that lazy blue hammock so beautifully perched up above was just too good to pass up, I'd have to get back on the rock just to get a chance at such a unique experience. So, hiding in the shade for as long as I could, I laced up my shoes, tied in, slathered my hands in as much chalk as they could hold and took off. I'm not sure that at any point in the 8+ years I've been a fairly serious climber that I've ever attempted to climbed rock that was quite as hot as this. It was so steamy that you literally couldn't hold on for more than a few seconds without your fingers beginning to scream that they thought you were holding onto a lit stove. Inside the black rubber of my shoes, my feet didn't fair much better. Absolutely the only option was to keep moving. Luckily, that hammock was beckoning from beneath a happily shaded roof, so there wasn't much to hold me back. A few minutes after leaving the ground I found myself looking out at a spectacular vista of the Guatape valley with that precious little hammock dangling invitingly from only a few feet away.
In the interest of not causing my mother to go into cardiac arrest, I will skip a graphic description of exactly how you get into this free hanging hammock, and move right along to the simple joyful feeling that came from hanging comfortably cradled in soft fabric 30m from the base of the cliff, but a good 100m from the level ground below. It was shear heaven!
Well aware that my climbing partners were sweltering away at the base while I enjoyed this exquisite experience, I regretfully couldn't spend long swinging in the breeze. Fairly soon I clambered back out of the hammock and made my way back down to my friends who by this time were well over the ridiculously hot sun and ready for some shade.
We ended up hiking all the way around to the other side of the mountain, which included a rather shocking passage over the wall that separates the tourists from the technical climbers, and on through a parking lot full of trinket sellers, cafes and visitors milling about at the base of the stairway. By the time we got past all that and over to the shady side of the rock, it was beginning to get late, and the only routes we could find that were readily available were a 5.12 and a 3-bolt something that looked a whole lot harder. So, happily exhausted and finally cool for the first time in several hours, we were all content to turn back to the road and take the easy, long way back to the car.
All in all, a rather perfect Sunday if you ask me!
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