"Hugging Rock And Liking It" Stcairns’s photos around Cojitambo, Ecuador

A TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow of a travel blog to Cojitambo, Ecuador by TravelPod blogger Stcairns titled "Hugging Rock And Liking It" Stcairns’s travel blog entry: "Jenna and I rock climbed an hour outside of Cuenca this weekend. It was dirty. Dangerous. Painful. And Fun! One of the other long-term huespedes /residents,Nicolas, at the hostal was an avid rock climber and had rock climbed several weeks in a row near Cuenca. Jenna also has the rock climbing bug so once we had a free weekend we arranged a trip with the rock climbing maestro of the area Juan Gabriel. Nicolas had described him as quite a fun character. On the phone Juan Gabriel had a western drawl to his voice and we found out he had been in Montana for four years in college and had been in the states off and on for 20 years. We arrived at his place, a smart 2 story house with huge windows facing lovely volcanic cliffs of Cojitambo. Having never rock climbed before I was introduced to all the gear... the tiny tiny shoes (usually 2 sizes smaller than your normal size), the harness, figure eight loop, griggy, various "quick draws" and other karibeners, and rope. Lots of rope. Juan first took us on a multi-pitch route that led us to the top of the mountain. At the top we checked out some ruins and then rappelled back to the grotto basecamp. In Yosemite Decimal System (difficulty rating system), we did a 5.08. Curious how difficult and different it could get, our next climb was a 5.10. To set it up, Juan ...

Channel: YouTube Video Length: 1m 51s Date Found: Tue, Mar 29 2011 5:59 PM Category: Travel Date Produced: Tue, Mar 29 2011 5:39 PM View Count: 0