Cajon del Maipo climbing 7th to 12th Jan, 2012

 Up into the mountains we went without any real idea what the climbing would be like.In my role of climbing researcher i had failed miserably to find any decent information on climbing in this area. As per usual the drive into the mountains gave fabulous scenery. We arrive at a lovely campsite by the river with showers that were so cold youd be out suffering from hypothermia, it was like a return to the tough guy race.

Scenery on drive into Cajon del Maipo.

 We were based in a small town called Banos Morales which was pretty lively! It had a chocolate shop, some thermal baths and a tourist information office that looked like it hadnt been opened for decades.Everyone including small children rode around on horses and the place was full of dogs. It was quite charming.

The buzzing town centre of Banos Morales.

 The first day we all went to the crag we actually had a topo for. In my role I had been for a reccy run the previous night and it was quite easy to find the hitchcock crag. Right by the road and up some scree which the northbounders had moaned about in the new routes book.

Hitchcock and Punta Zanzi crags. Hot rockers strip off after the sweaty 1 hour march up the quarry road.

 Once up to Hitchcock it gave some lovely single and multi pitch climbing up edges on faces, great stuff and 5 routes on the 1st day was a good start to the week.

Huw climbing a Hitchcock 5+, lovely face climbing.

Me and Tom on the 1st belay of Psicosis.

Tom ´The Hamster´ Mackenzie about to pull over the roof on the 6a+

 The second day was to be a big day for Tom and I. Above Hitchcock on a crag called Punta Zanzi we planned to do a nine pitch E2 up a lovely system of cracks. We left the camp at 6am in anticipation of at least a 3 hour walk in and battled with the scree for hours. The problem was getting to the base of the route was probably more dangerous than the climb itself. To approach you had to traverse a sloping terrace of loose scree with a 200m drop below. I hopped across to the end of the traverse and waited for Tom and waited and waited. I retraced my steps and found him paused on a boulder in the middle of terrace. "Its a death trap" he shouted and that was that. We descended back down the terrace slowly and resumed climbing on Hitchcock.

Climbinga  great 6b+ at El Hongo crag.

 The next crag we visited was one I had found in the Chile climbing guide purchased (amongst other things in Santiago). The crag was called El Hongo and had only recently been bolted. Both Huw and I fell off a brilliant 6b+ roof in aid of cleaning the cliff of its remaining loose rock!! Its now cleaning up nicely. I managed to climb an excellent 7a through a roof (which is rare for me) on this crag on the final morning which filled me with happiness.

Alpine flowers and glaciated peaks on my ´rest day´ walk.

 After three days of climbing it was time for a break. I hiked for four hours up one side of the valley for beautiful views of sulphur lakes, and glaciers winding their way down 5000m peaks. That was in the morning. In the afternoon after a dip in the orange coloured thermal baths and lots of chocolates Becky and I walked up the other side of the valley where we planned to bivuoac in the mysterious hut marked on the map. When we arrived 3 hours later the ´hut´made me laugh hysterically. It was a wooden box at 3000m that looked like a dog kennel but you could squeeze a maximum of three people into it. After a delicious meal of noodles with tuna and a game of card we settled down into our bags for a nights sleep.

From the opposite side of the valley pointing out the next days objective Dentro del Diablo.

Thermal baths dispensed with it´s time for chocolates before the big ascent!

Happy Christmas Toby! A cam as big as my head to help protect me on those big Patagonian cracks!

Trekking up the rib to the valley

Our luxury accomodation for the night (the wooden box)

 We woke up at 6am a bit dreary and plodded up to the ridge on the skyline which looked really promising. Of course we had no idea of any established routes in this area so the previous night had just picked a line and decided to go for it! When we got up onto the ridge it was fairly nightmarish. We scrambled up through and over ribs of the loosest rock ive ever experienced. Nearly every hold came off in your hands or under your foot, i certainly wont be recommending our chosen route. After dispensing with the disgusting ribs of choss we got onto a broader ridge of scree which lead us slowly to the summit. I was knackered, i hadnt felt good the whole way up. I regretted carrying the rope and climbing gear as the quality of the rock rendered it completely useless. We sunbathed and slept on the summit just under 4000m for a good hour before running down the scree slope (MUCH FUN) back to the bivvi hut for a dip in the river.

Early morning wake up in the box

Becky storming up the loose and nasty ridge

Summit just under 4000m - Woo hoo!

 With one remaining day  Huw and I went back to El Hongo to finish my little 7a roof and retrieve my quickdraws which had been in the rock all week.  Successful we went back down the quarry road enjoying all the waves from the friendly truck drivers but failing to hitch a ride to the campsite and then went back up the other side of the valley to check out one last crag. La Mina was a big disused quarry which Id been sceptical about visiting but positive reports from Steve made me change my mind. Glad I did, gave excellent climbing and was a nice way to end our stay in the Maipo. Lesson learnt, never judge a quarry!

La Mina - awesome sport climbing.

Huw finds time for some last day bouldering.

One last walk down through the tranquil village.

Our time was up , on our last night I enjoyed one last arctic shower and a glass of melon wine from some local chileans up visiting and some of the best beef ive ever tasted. The next destination was to be very exciting; the valley of the Condors.