Ilumination.

 

My heart was pumping hard, i did not recognize if it was precisely the efect of high altitud or the excitement  of facing one of the greatest experiences in my life, we were in the summit of El Nevado del Tolima, a mountain located in the Central range of the Colombian Andes.  Out of breath , i gave a glance to the valleys down below and i struggle to put all my thoughts in order.

A year ego we were enduring heavy winds, snow and low visibility on my quest to traverse Las Nevados National Park from West to East, Hiking/Climbing and Flying. Despite the moderate eastern wind it was hard to believe to be on the summit with such a good weather.

It was 6:30 in the morning of the 18th december 2019 . my friends, Mateo, Alex and i had been walking for several hours through  the night and at 5 270 Meters i was having dificulty to  put it all together.

 

Lets go!! wind speed is good and we had great visibility! One of my friends said, waking me up from my lethargy!

 

I hurried up,  in a matter of minutes, with out exchanging many words between us, i layed out my paraglider, carefully setting it all the fly. Carabiners , speed bar, GPS, wind direction. All good !

With out hersitation i put my glider up my head, played with it, sensing the wind, and finally i speed up in the low density air mass, listening vividly the steps on the snow.

I saw the glaciar of the mountain slowly desapearing bellow my feet, i still can not describe that feeling , I was flying towards the unknown , south direction towards Ibague. It was almous religius.!!

 

40 min after,  i was landing  sorrounded by green – tropical mountain trees at an altitud of 1600 m, between the villages of VillaRestrepo and Juntas in the Tolima Region …. Woww! i could not belive such a glide.

20 km straight line an an altitude diference of 3500 m. Nice way to get down the mountain !

 

 

Many Thanks to Mateo Isaza and Alex Villa for  sharing the beauty of El Tolima and all their  wisdom!.

Big Thanks to UP-Paragliders (Amazing toys!),Singing Rock ( Reliable Mountain Equipment), Tilak (Excellent mountain Clothing) and Rock Point Czeck Republic.

 

The Magic Carpet

El Tolima. Colombia. 5,300m (2018)

It is still hard to descript how it feels to fly down big mountains. How the simplicity of a paraglider opens a new way of seeing mountains and explores them. It Feels just great.!!

Sending el Frisol. El Peñol. Colombia.

I started my exploration career nearly 20 years ago; i remember how the fire of adventures gave so much meaning to me. I was going to the the mountains full of big alpine climbing illusions and simultaneously looking for a perfect challenge , places like El peñol and El Parque de los Nevados (Central Andes Range) near my home town made the best playing ground  in those early exploratory years.

Exploring New ground. Torres del Paine.

Playing with the wind. Termales de Cañon. El Tolima. 4000m

In  2010, when i visited Chilean Patagonia for the very first time something inside me changed, i knew that that drive for adventure had evolved  taking my constant search of exploration to a new level. i was fascinated by big walls and vertical terrain, they seem to be just so intimidating and a good way how to express my curiosity. That mixture in between sport climbing, mountaineering and good tactics seemed to be just the perfect combo.

Ready for new Adventures at Cerro Torre Base Camp. Argentina.

Torres del paine. Chile.

I kept visiting this place many times, alternating adventure between Cerro Torre Massiff and Torres del Paine , finding joy time to time. Climbing, hiking, exploring.
Almost Magic.!

Above my home town. Medellin. 

Feeling the air at El Tolima 5300m.

The Magic of a Glider. The First Trip. January 2018

The early exploratory trips to this big Volcanoes of my home country as well as the years spent in the beauty of  Patagonia, without any doubt evolved  in something new and exciting,  a  fascinating perspective of mountaineering and climbing was around the corner. Discovering The magic of a Paraglider was fascinating.

Taking off from el Tolima 2018

-Como se ve ? (How does it  look?)

I asked my friend Orlando, Looking my Paraglider and making sure that all was all right.

_ It  looks OK, There is no wind !

I thought that it was the best chance to speed up  and take off with my glider from the hills of el Nevado del Tolima (5300m). In seconds i was flying in direction of El Valle del placer at an altitude of 3800m. My friend  and me had been waiting in a small tent for several days waiting for  best time to fly down the mountain!

On the valley, i sit and laught !.Not bad to be the first person ever to fly from El Tolima. Good biggining.!

Playing in Garmish. Germany.

I remember how happiness full filled my spirit when i was giving a quick look to the mountain i   summited many times in the past, just a blast to see it from a completely different perspective!…Magic!!!. I whispered to myself .

Summit of Mt Blanc Solo. France.September 2018.

An step higher.

In early 2019 my friends (and supporters) and i were trying to Hike, Climb and fly a big seccion of the Colombian Andes Range. Just like in the early years but with a paraglider. We completed a traverse of the central Range from west to east in 8 days, from a city called Pereira to Ibague (cca 200Km), summiting two big mountains. Paramillo del Quindio (4800m) and Nevado del Tolima (5250m), my original plan was to fly from the summit of El Quindio to a¨Valley called el Placer(3800m) and then from the summit of El Tolima all the way to Juntas(1700m), just a few kilometers west of Ibague. Both of the flights  never done before. A very good personal challenge.! In short a  cool adventure!.

From the summit of Mt. Blanc. September 2018.

Hammered by heavy wind On the hills of Paramillo del Quindio. January 2019.

This time I had no nails. I thought to myself ! once more whispering an old salsa song at The hot springs “ Cañon”- El Tolima ; “if you were born to be a hammer, from the sky will rain nails” . This year I have No nails after days of Hiking  /No flying at los Nevados. 😉 summiting in poor visibility and strong winds made the flying part a bit too adventurous and risky.

Approaching el Tolima summit. January 2019.

I still belive that I was born to be a hammer ! If there are not nails this year  perhaps next one there will be some. Lets see!.

Idro Lake. Italy

 

From a different perspective. flying off from the summit of mount Blanc towards Chamonix. France

 

 

Reflexions

Patagonia has been my climbing play ground for several years, last Patagonian summer i wanted to test my years experience and give another try to a few objectives i had previously attempted. The first of them was Cerro Torre´s southeast ridge (800m WI5 7c) a real free climbing challenge and simply a dream summit.

The second, the east face of the central tower of Paine in Chile via South African Route (1200m 7b), a cool Alpine Style Challenge with No Portaledges, and with just the minimum amount of gear necessary to complete the route in a single push.

The plan was with no doubt very ambitious for a single season but like everything in this southern range, with a large amount of patience, motivation and good luck everything can be accomplished. My friends and I were extremely excited, full of these basic skills and very keen for exploration, learning, hiking and eventually get the job done!

How could we describe the feeling of these adventures and to be back in civilization? A Blast of Joy !… last 3 months have been very exiting in many ways! Escaping from the worst Patagonian weather, dealing with all mental stress of weeks waiting for good conditions, kilometers of hiking and yes, some adventurous climbing, eventually. It does make the return back to civilization so much better, adding a lot to the learning experience!

Despite of the bad weather we had in our trip, It is always positive to have some time connected with nature, sleeping under the sky is always a powerful experience!

Several days we spend zipping kilos of yerba mate in Niponino Base Camp, just below Cerro Torre, that was actually, never in conditions for climbing. A full humbling experience where nature has the complete control. The 2016-17 Patagonian summer have been without any discussion, severe and a bit frustrating!

After all, my friends and I decided to extend our visit in Cerro Torre- Fitz Roy Range, leaving our TORRES DEL PAINE Alpine style mission for a later expedition, it was anyway a good opportunity to test our skills in minor rock objectives and explore in depth the Torre Massif.

After weeks of waiting, we had to be satisfied with a very amazing 400 meters needle call Media Luna (Half-moon). Nice views of El Torre after all! a real blast of emotions after several weeks without wind less days and blue skies!

Even I am already here sitting in my working desk beside the fireplace and with a good quality yerba mate, a large amount of my thoughts remain there !..Such an intense experience! We already would like to go back with renew energy and strategies.

Big thanks to TILAK, SINGING ROCK, ROCK POINT and ERRATIC ROCK family for being part of these vertical dreams!

As well as El papo, Fabio, Jaro, Hugo, Nico, Tomas and many others.!

Get inspired and have a beautiful week

 

 

From the Equatorial granite to the Patagonian wind.

Good to be breathing warm air here in  El Peñol- Colombia after an intense and short visit to Torres del Paine in Chile….:)

I had a serious and challenging guided trip to the doubly Central Tower-north Tower :).
My Polish-Canadian client Jarek and i  climbed the regular route on the west face of the central, the super classic Bonnington-Williams., as well as the Monzino Route on Paine s North Tower.

  The bonnington is just incredible,  800 m of pure – well futured red granite, grated ( A2 / 8UIAA) which also might go free.. around 9 or 9+UIAA…;)..with an original  pitch which has not been freed yet! …. just found an amazing chance to give it a try 🙂 and test a bit free climbing skills

I found myself in a very good shape but, as many times in patagonia,  the weather conditions were not the best,, Pretty cold and windy to try any free climbing.

We found a lot of snow and ice during the first pitches ,but lucklly we were commited in our quest and managed to climbed with lots of QUICK AID,  all the hard pitches on the upper red wall, just three pitches plus a summit traverse were left in our central tower adventure.

 After our return to base camp  we were so happy to know the weather forecast for the following days,  Patagonia will give us an other day of quite OKAY weather, one more short early season weather window…

Why not to try something else? Perhaps it will be our summit gift, our last chance.!.. A bit of joy to enlarge our spirits!.

Without any doubt and with a few sore muscles and numb toes from the past hours we decided to give a try to The Monzino,  the classic and regular route of the iconic north Tower of paine (500m. 5-10)

Amazing climb and so exited climbing partner, so much commitment in the quest of climbing Monzino .  We summited in less than 3 hours and the weather was not so good as predicted by the forecast.  Ice, wind and snow on the final summit boulder. Very intimidating !!

  Afer all, nice to be living simple, sip yerba mate and climb big walls.!!

Check Out our video of the Second Ascent of OSA, Ma non Troppo on the East face of Cota 2000. Paine Massif

Big Thanks to Singing Rock, Climbing Equipment Tilak, Outdoor Clothing. Rock Point– Plzen

OSA MA NON TROPPO. Second Ascent!!! Free Attempt @@!!???*** Cerro Cota 2000.

It s always nice to take a real shower after a month living in caves and climbing Big Walls, feels a bit different to start the day sit in front the computer collecting in a few words the last intense moments of our last adventure in  the east face of Cerro Cota 2000, Torres del Paine National Park / Chile . .

I met my Colombian Friends, Orlando Lopez and Fabian Londono  in Puerto Natales and  we together, hoped to climb FREE, a beautiful route called OSA MA NON TROPPO, 700 meters, and difficultis of 7b and A3, climbed in 2007 by Italians. Fabio Leoni, Elio Orlandi, Michell Cagol and Rolando Larcher. The route is located just left of COTA s central pillar.

We began climbing in capsule style on January 29 and spent 6 nights in our DOUBLE portaledge at pitch 7.(Hard to belive but We even had some room left!!!)

Because there are no ledges, and therefore no snow to melt, we had really good workout  time hauling almost 30 litres of water J) to our upper balcony.

Eventhoght we try FREE all pitches (exept pitch 3), we did not succeed in our original plan, we felt a bit tired of Hiking, carrying loads and hauling, also Orlando had injured his hand during the hauling quest and Fabian, after a 5 meters fall injured his ankle, unable him for any hard Free push.

The rock was nearly always fantastic, allowing some unreal sustained free climbing, particularly on the crux 10th pitch—the Changing Dihedral—where a long sequence of hard moves across an overhanging section link two crack systems.  Good job by the Italians… amazing line !!!!

We reached the summit on February the 4^th with interesting windy conditions…

we all were so happy to partially achieve our objective of one of the hardest pure free climbing in Paine, and only surpassed by routes such by Riders on the Storm and South African  on the east face of the Central Tower.

We believed that the route (exept pitch 3) could go free…. !!!

Life smyles!!

Armonía y Paz…

” Las Flores no sufren y pelean por crecer, el Río no se esfuerza por correr, El Sol no lucha por brillar, el Pasto no se estresa por crecer…. El sufrimiento, la Lucha, el esfuerzo, el estrés, es ANTI NATURAL….
Se como la Naturaleza y Fluye con la Corriente”..

Loving Cloud. Torres del Paine. Chile

 

Valle del Silencio

Valle del Frances. Torres del Paine. Chile.

..Variante a Conspiración Cosmica En el Concavo

Directa al Cosmos 7c/+.. Escalada en El Concavo Colombia

Algunas imágenes de nuestra última aventura vertical en la Sierra Nevada Del Cocuy, Colombia.

40 metros de sabor!!, en los cuales colocamos 5 chapas ( Todas con Buril) y 4 pitones …

Que las Disfruten!!!..

Motivación y Buenas escaladas 🙂

 

 

 

Beuty and self – abandonment

 
 Beauty is not something put together by man. Beauty is when there is complete self-abandonment, a total relinquishing of the self, the “me”, with all its aches and loneliness, with all its despairs, anxieties, and fears. Then you will live in this world as a human being.

Less is more Thoghts

Papo. On Directa al cosmos. Sierra Nevada del Cocuy

El Aveyanal. Sierra Nevada del Cocuy. Colombia

COLOMBIAN DREAM .

DIRECTA AL COSMOS.( 7 c ).  

 EL CONCAVO PEAK. SIERRA NEVADA DEL COCUY.

El Concavo South Face.

Early in the year, my friends Orlando Lopez and his nephew Julian  traveled half of the Colombian Territory from Medellin to the most vertical range of our country. El Cocuy. Our main objective was to free climb, 8 amaneceres, located on the vertical east face  (800 meters) of Ritacuba Blanco (5 300 meters), opened a year ago for a team of Spain climbers, Dani Moreno, Edu Marin and Marko Jubes. This route is perhaps the most challenging unsolve free climb in our tropical mountains. A good Adventure – Sport Project to be done with Time and motivation, the precise combo we had plenty of….

Checking out Cosnspiración Cósmica.

 Once we arrived to the range we were sadly informed that the complete east side trails of the range, from north to south, were compleatly closed and restricted for trekkers and climbers,  that  determination was taken by Local  indian Comunitys as well as the Cocuy Natural Park Administration as a conservation  way to preserve a very fragile and sacred high land of that part of Colombia… Nothing to do….  An still no answer when this amazing master piece of rock could be touch again …..

10 days balcony on the south face of Cóncavo.

As a Salsa Singer says.. “if it rains lemons we had to learn how to make lemonade”,… learn to be flexible, the mantra of our trip …….

On Conspiración Cósmica

With a small desappointment, and a bitter “lemon taste” in our finger tips,  we decided to give a try to an existing route call Conspiración Cosmica (7b) on Concavo Peak, opened and highly recomendened for our Argentinean – Colombian friend Hernan Wilke, this  one was  located on the west side of the range, without any restriction to approach and with a big potential for new Free Climbing lines …  Good thing after all personal bitter mental dealing……

On Conspiración Cósmica

On Conspiración Cósmica

 

We were  finaly on the base of the wall after 3 exhasting approching days carrying all our stuff.  In a side of the head was already being left 8 amaneceres on Ritakuba Blanco , our dream route. El Cóncavo was showing us an other side an a bunch of new vertical challenges..  It was for sure, an Inspiring place to be based in, a good balcony, and good amount of sun during the day to keep finger tips warm and try the potential of our free climbing skills..

 Upper Balcony. On Directa al Cosmos (7c / 7c+)

We Climbed  the compleate Cospiración Cósmica (Cosmic Conspiracy) free, linking up the 2 nd and 3 ed pitch (7b) and we also spent 2 days in our “Upper balcony” free climbing a new direct variation on the head wall of Concavo that we callled “Directa al Cosmos”.. Cosmos Direct (7c / 7 c+)…

On El Cóncavo

Orlando On Directa al Cósmos

On El Cóncavo

Not that bad after so much “Lemon Frutiño” taste on our trip”…..

We kindly thanks to our friend Hernan for this awesome advise, and also we kindly thanks to SINGING ROCK, climbing equipment , TILAK, outdoor clothIng  and ROCK POINT store Plzen for its support to  this Vertical dream.

 

We share  Motivation and Love!!..

..Good climbs!..