Chalk + harness + shoes + Ecuador = happiness

I want to preface this post by giving a big shout-out of thanks to Matt Axling and Bob Warner.  They were the guys that taught me to climb, belay, set and clean routes, lead climb and lead belay, and without them I wouldn't be here today, climbing with people I've just met in a foreign country.  I've paused more than once while climbing on my own to think how lucky I am to have been given the skill set needed for it.  So thanks Matt and Bob, this one's for you.

And now for the main event.

Before heading to Ecuador, I did a little research on the internet to see if there was any rock climbing in the area.  While info was a little scarce, I did find a climbing gym in Quito, and enough about other places nearby that I figured it'd be worth my while to bring my shoes and chalk, and get a harness.  It has been sooo worth it.  Because what looked kind of cool online, turned out to be this:

Yes, it really is as epic as it looks.

This is the Rocodromo, an outdoor gym with an entrance fee of only $3.  It has bouldering and sport climbing.  There is a bouldering area, as well as what I think of as 'the ruins' seen in the front of the picture above, which is a structure made of cemented together rocks.  It has bars at the top to set top-ropes, but I prefer to boulder around the base of it.  Anna and I have the goal of completing the traverse before we leave Ecuador, a goal set the first day we were there.  I think I've got about 75% of it, but there are some problem spots.  It tears up your hands in a good way.

The bouldering area, no routes marked.

View through the center of the ruins

Anna working on the traverse around the ruins

Since neither of us have a rope or draws, but both wanted to get out to real rocks outside the city, we had to make friends.  We found a group of four, Matt (Ecuador and Ohio), Cody (Vancouver, BC), Liv (Australia) and Ale (Ecuador) on our second time there.  Matt knew how to lead belay, so with a (slightly sketchy) rented rope from the gym I did some lead climbing.  My favorite route is on the corner of the pinnacle, and involves a legit head-jam, then a hard pull-down to get past an overhang.

The bottom of the route included some wall-hugging on occasion if there were no holds handy.  Matt is belaying me.

Legit head-jam.

All upper-body to get past the overhang.  I kinda felt like a boss.

So we've been going to the Rocodromo in the mornings about once a week so far.  Then over Carnaval in a bar in Baños, I happened to meet a couple rock climbers who lived in Quito.  An exchange of numbers happened, and this week Anna and I went with my friend Fernando 15 minutes walking outside of Quito, where we found this, Las Canteras de Cumbayá.

The guy climbing was nuts, free-climbing like a monkey.

We spent all morning bouldering and top roping on some pretty sweet chunks of rock.  It also had a spec-tac-ular view of Quito.  I saw La Iglesia de Guapulo from the other side (previously seen in this post) with a river and green type things in the foreground and the skyscrapers of Quito in the background on the hill.  Cumbayá was visible to the East.

The view back towards Quito

 I toasted my shoulders a little (right before heading off to the beach...), but it was worth it.  It was so much fun to get out of the city and climb some real rocks with some good friends.

Anna on one of the crack climbs, soloing like a boss.

Really, can you imagine anything more relaxing than this?  Rocks to climb and to sunbathe on top of?

Fernando, Anna, and I.  Self-timers are awesome, even if they are hard to balance sometimes.

Oh, also.  This is part of the super-sketchy ladder we had to climb down and then back up to get to the Canteras.  Those are kind of steps you are looking at, there used to be more boards I think...  There was one part where you had to step over where the step used to be, but has since ceased to exist.  Viva Ecuador.

And now after pressing 'post' for this blog, I'm off to climb one last time.  The traverse is going down.  This girl isn't taking no for an answer.