Sierra La Vigilancia – Day 2
Aug 2, 2005 – Tues
We woke up, ate a little bit for breakfast, then headed for the walls. Mara, a cute little black dog that looks like a fox, accompanied us up to the walls all day long.
We were carrying all of our gear, so the load was pretty heavy. The hike in was tough. Yesterday, we had only begun to hike in. Today, we found the gentle path turned into Class 3 climbing — having to use your hands to assist you on the way up.
We explored the walls, crawled through some areas to the path, and found Las Placas. We were going to try to climb here. The area to the left of the crack looked extremely hard — completely vertical with few features. So we moved further along the wall.
Sean tried one route, got 2 clips, but couldn´t pull the bulge. If it was hard for him, it would be more difficult for me, so I didn´t try the route. Plus, it began to sprinkle on us. The weather was pretty crappy — solid clouds, no sun, impending rain.
We hiked back to the forest with the ´peligro´tape and found a way up over the sierra. We hiked over the top to set up a top roped route. Mara followed us as well. We thought about rappelling down, but it was a bit dangerous as we would have to take a little fall to get to the bolts…so rather, we hiked back down. And the chains on the bolts looked…precariously weak (we´re used to the thick chains they have on the walls around Austin..we´re spoiled).
It was starting to get late, and we wanted to head to Balcarce to stock up on groceries. We knew our time on the sierra was limited. The route that Sean put the toprope for was practically impossible for our skill level. The start and then some was completely…nonexistant. Sean tried to use a feature one route over, tried a few times, then we called it a day. We pulled the rope and left the quickdraws at the top.
We headed back to the refugio. On our hike back, we found a baby sheep in distress. It was laying down, baaing, and wouldn´t move. We walked on, got to the refugio, got settled, then thought about going to town to buy groceries. It was already getting dark. Mauricio probably thought we were crazy, but we decided to chance it and try. We walked to the road and waited across the street, to try to catch an El Rapido bus. By then, it was completely dark. We couldn´t figure out which tings were busses or trucks. We gave up and headed back to the refugio to find the baby sheep still alone and in distress.
When we got back to the refugio, Mauricio asked what happened. We told him we ditched the idea and would go to Balcarce tomorrow (after walking over 2 miles to the road and back!).
Sean cooked and I helped prepare the food. We used whatever was at the refugio and made tomato rice with carrots and onions, and grilled white eggplant. It turned out to be pretty tasty. Mauricio helped himself to 3 servings, so I assume he liked it.
We told Mauricio about the baby sheep, and he went to find it after dinner. We went out to check up on him later. Mauricio carried the baby sheep, possibly only a few days old, baa-ing all the way back to the refugio. We think that Mara scared off the mom (Mara loves to chase the sheep off), and the baby, too young to walk much on its own, was left behind. The sheep ended up sleeping underneath one of the couches.
After that, Mauricio taught us how to play a dice game called Generala — similar to Yahtzee. Then we called it a night.
Tags: Escalada/Climbing, Sierra La Vigilancia, Travel
Marisa