The birth of a sport climbing destination
Feb. 8, 2023, 1:47 a.m.
#Development
Six months ago, while day dreaming about my next climbing destination, I was looking for a place that could meet my two basic requirements: a well established 5.13d sport climbing route and something that was not way too expensive for a short one week trip.
Being based in Panamá, the two first options that came to my mind were La Mojarra in Colombia and Cachí in Costa Rica. After much thought I decided that a road trip in my car to Costa Rica sounded way more convenient and a 5.13d established by the famous climber Edú Marín was too much of a temptation for me to resist.
Cachí itself has some benefits that as a climber you rarely find in other crags, as I well knew from my short trip four years ago: this crag saw it's first sport routes around 17 years ago when a climber from Singapore who was staying in Costa Rica for a while was looking for climbing spots and run into this special crag.
The place has well maintained trails, bathrooms, showers, camping spots and cabins, kitchens, trash cans, a river, and even a natural pool, all of these within a three minutes walk from the rock. The crag has around 40 routes from 5.6 to 5.13+, this 60 meter tall wall doesn’t get wet during the raining season due to it's overhanging inclination.
This was not always like this, as the family that runs and owns the place told us that years ago they had no clue of what climbing was and the land was used mainly to raise bulls for rodeos, until the Asian climber came knocking at their door with the glowing eyes of a pirate who just found a treasure, asking for their permission to climb on their property.
Getting my car across the boarder was a hell of a bureaucratic paperwork, but getting by in your own car is a luxury that is well worth it. After driving for about six hours from the border we finally got to the crag where we were about to disconnect with no electricity for a couple of days.
The first route I jumped on was “5 minutos mas” a 5.6 in the American grading scale, my first go was to have a feel for the rock, which at some parts felt like breaking. Walking with a helmet is mandatory around the crag because of the constant fall of little pieces of rock but nothing to worry about as most of the routes feel solid.
It is hard to imagine such a great climbing spot as something else than a climbing destination, locals have known this for a while - reason why they brought Spanish climber Edú Marín to climb and bolt in 2010. Edú back then did the first ascent of “La Warefex” 5.13d which was the main objective of my trip. It took me three days to work out the beta and clean the route as this was already way beyond my previous sport routes red pointed. By the third day I was way to tired to give it a serious attempt so I had to bail and postpone for another trip.
It has been a long while since the first routes were bolted under the good faith of the owners of just allowing the climbers to have fun in their property, and multiple groups of people the family quickly realized that there was a business opportunity more promising than the cattle and they have put a lot of love in the place ever since, I highly recommend this crag out of any other that the country has to offer. This has been such a great trip that has only left joy and good memories.
~luis
