Everything is Ready!

The Bloqueando 2009 is on the go on August 6 to 9th, 2009. It was more difficult to organize it this year due to the complexity of the place we chose but the good news is that the event will take place thanks to the sponsors: Entel, Tatoo, Planetaventura.com, Deuter.

Departure begins on Wednesday the 5th at 19:00 from La Paz. Prepaid transport for the first 20 registrants. Cost for the event is 250 Bs (36 USD).

The venue is the famed Valle de las Rocas, 15 kms from Villa Alota (160 kms from Uyuni), on the road to Avaroa (Ollague) in the Department of Potosi. This area was described by Tony Lamiche as the "El Dorado of bouldering". See: THE SEARCH - Adventure Boudering in Bolivia By Lionel Daudet and photos by Stephan Denys

For more information visit: www.rocktripbloquenado.blogspot.com

On July 19 and 20, we celebrated the second edition of “Bloqueando”, a bouldering event. It was of a gathering of participants rather than a competition with mostly Bolivian's but also some French, English, German and Mexican climbers who measured their skills and strengths over the weekend on some sweet volcanic boulders.

Preparation
Since May, 2007 we had been looking for a good place for this event. After driving and exploring many miles in the Bolivian territory, we reached Challcupuncu, located 30 kilometers from Curahuara de Carangas. This place had the necessary conditions for bouldering but also offered beauty and peace, at slightly more than 4,000 meters above sea level, in the midst of the impressive Bolivian Altiplano and very close to Sajama National Park.

As in every big dream, we encountered some difficulties which, added to the lack of available time for the organizers, who all had work commitments. We were left without the vital hours needed for organizing this event, considering the proximity of the date chosen for the event, the distance of the place and the lack of facilities to carry out a big ado, left it hanging to a thin string.

We had two choices: the easy one, moving the date forward, or doing it, in spite of the short time and scarce money. The Club started moving and we managed to get Tigo Telecommunications and Red Bull sponsorship, thanks to whom we could go ahead, and had only to wait for the participants.

THE EVENT
For the group of organizers that got there a day before at 9:00 AM, there were no participants in sight. Apparently they had a mishap with the bus on the road and we had no communication with La Paz to find out what was happening. Finally at 10:00 AM we heard the noise of a bus in the distance. The participants arrived after 4 hours, all willing and eager to give their best effort to solve the problems suggested.

The music started, the climbers filled their chalk bags, put on their shoes and got ready to solve the 20 problems proposed by the organizers. One by one, they were all sent leaving only injured fingers and exhausted climbers. It took the participants almost 5 hours to solve the problems, from a 6a–7a.