Venga!

We first heard about Piedra Parada from the Petzl Roctrip, but didn’t think we’d make it there on this adventure. After talking with a lot of Argentinian climbers and seeing their faces light up when they told us about Piedra Parada, we knew we had to go. They were right. When we got off the bus, we stood in awe of the huge lonely rock in the middle of the desert. “Piedra Parada” – or “standing stone” – looks like a forgotten piece in a cosmic game.

Getting to Piedra Parada is quite an exercise in planning and patience if you don’t have a car. The bus that goes to Piedra Parada only runs on Tuesday and Thursday morning from Esquel, 160 km from El Bolson. So, we took a bus the day before from El Bolson to Esquel and stayed the night. After loading up on groceries, we caught the morning bus and we were on our way. As usual, the desert road was unpaved, and the bumpy, loose road eventually broke the bus. This time, the driver was more prepared and was able to repair what seemed to be a leaking pneumatic line relatively quickly. Eventually, all the normal commuters had gotten off the bus at Gualjaina, the last village before the park, and only 10 or so climbers were left for the remaining 60km through the rocky desert valley.

Piedra Parada is impossible to miss once you see it. It is about 600 ft tall and takes about 20 minutes to walk around. Walking down the dusty road towards the camps, we could also see a steep canyon cut in the side of the valley behind the rock. This canyon is called “La Buitrera,” and all the climbing we did, and almost all the climbing in this area is in there. We set up camp in “El Calamar,” a pseudo-clandestine climbers’ campsite across the river from La Buitrera, just past the informative “no camping” sign. We set up our camp under a shady tree with a nice view of Piedra Parada and took a quick siesta.

Afterwards, we explored the canyon, guidebook in hand. Everyone we met welcomed us happily and shared climb recommendations. We were consistently impressed by the climbing community there! The walls of the canyon rise around you as you enter from the valley floor, and soon we were flanked by 500 ft vertical walls on either side, covered in sport routes. The canyon is long – it took us about 45 minutes (including frequent stops to observe climbers and scout routes that we wanted to try) to hike the two thirds of it that we did that evening. Along the whole canyon, developed climbing walls with distinct styles were calling us to climb. We left the canyon with a lot of anticipation for the days to come.

Every day was new and exciting with such variety of climbing. Being part of an ancient, extinct supervolcano, the rock is beautifully weathered igneous rock. Time has carved not only the canyon, but caves, arches, chutes, and of course all the climbable holds! At “Gruyere,” we spent Mel’s birthday climbing incredible vertical and overhanging routes on cheese-like features in the volcanic tuff. Two of our favorite routes were a pair two pitch climbs on a wall called “Mordor”, which featured interesting lieback/cracks followed by super steep jug climbing. “Garden of Eden” is in a side-canyon with perfectly vertical walls featuring unique balancey climbing on holds that seem to be just sticking out of the otherwise sheer wall. We could go on, but it suffices to say that the variety spans most types of rock climbing technique and style. There were some other cliff activities happening as well. We saw some BASE jumpers fly off the 600 ft cliffs of “Parliamento” one morning. We hugged them once they landed, thankful that everything went as planned, and showed them pictures of their jumps. They were going to spend the afternoon in the canyon over “relaxing” on a high-line – a tightrope setup just a couple hundred feet in the air.

Each day after climbing, we took a quick nap, rinsed off the dust all over us and filtered water at the river. Then we cooked dinner at our dinner table, two nicely sized sitting rocks across from our trusty cardboard box filled with food. We ate gourmet camping meals including: gnocchi with a rustic tomato sauce of lentils, onion, and garlic, and fresh bread three ways (steamed, baked by the campfire, and roasted on sticks over the fire) and homemade flan for dessert! Over the campfire, we got to know an incredible couple from Europe, Sebastian and Elisa, and we took some fun nighttime shots with our headlamps.

After talking and climbing with them for a couple days, they offered us a ride back to Bariloche. After a final day of climbing, we set off at maximum capacity in the somewhat shoddy rental Chevy “Classi” down the bumpy dirt road.

The ride back was so much more fun than the bus was! The car definitely had some issues, but even going to the gomeria, getting new headlights, and asking for jumper cables was fun with this pair. We had a great parilla at a campsite in Esquel for our final dinner together, and they kindly dropped us off at our hostel in Bariloche.