Arenales Six pitches off the ground we find ourselves surrounded by a dozen Condors circling in the sky. The more curious of these enormous birds, ranging to ten feet in wingspan, flies just above our heads to get a better look. There’s magic in the air…

El Cajon de Arenales is an extensive valley of granite walls and towers in the outskirts of Mendoza, Argentina. Unlike Patagonia in the South, the weather is usually spectacular. Deep blue skies contrast the red granite walls and stark dry landscape. Climbs in this zone consist of multi-pitch alpine routes up to 500m and technical sport climbing.

El Teton
In recent years a new sport climbing area has been developed in the valley of Arenales. Named El Teton for its womanly shape, the wall forms a steep canyon just beyond the Murallon Central (Central wall). The glacier-molded granite here offers slopey and balancey climbing. The steeper portion of the canyon wall has more features, however, the rock maintains its slopey quality. The pitches stretch up to 30m in length with spacey bolt placements obligating the climber to preserve a clean style. The latest additions are a couple of new lines that start one pitch off the ground, accessed by a 6c (5.11) slab pitch. The second pitch of this headwall presents another 6c/6c+ of top quality. The rest of the headwall is bare of routes, thus inspired, Juan Tarditti and I gathered up a Bosch drill and some bolts. One of the lines went at 6b+ “Asi es la cosa,” which has a bolt that connects to a wildly undulating crack, finishing with a bolt at the crux where the crack dies out. It is truly fine! The second route we bolted was a 6c++ “Manos de Manteca,” the line starts with some airy face climbing past five bolts to a thin crack that continually widens; another gem.

Campanille, Cara Norte
The walk up into the canyon took about an hour and a half, before we arrived at the base of the north face of the Campanille Tower. In the early nineties a handful of aid-lines had been developed from A1-A3, since then the wall has been ignored. Now these aid- lines, consisting of long and slightly overhanging dihedrals are starting to go free at grades from 6c-7a. A couple of months ago friends Luis Molina and el “Mechas” Rocamora climbed and anchored a new five pitch line with the crux a lovely offwidth splitting up the middle of the face. The crux pitch was not climbed free in that ascent and there had not been another repetition until we headed that way.

The first pitch Juan lead, starting with bad rock, to some funky moves entering into the offwidth. From there I led the offwidth reaching a ledge where it surprised us with a sweet finger crack finish. It went free at about a 6c grade. From there the route continued left but we were intrigued by a crack branching out to the right. Juan headed up that wide crack and disappeared around the corner. For the next half hour I couldn’t see him but heard continuous pants and screams, and saw rocks flying as he cleaned his path. He managed to free climb the pitch despite the loose rocks and lichen. It was a little dirty but still great climbing at 6c+/7a (5.11+).

From there I looked up at what was in store for me, ugggg! The thin seam of this crack was guarded by patches of “Cuerno de Cabra” (a durable and prickly bastard of a bush) growing in various patches inside the crack. Above I could see an offwidth roof with a thin finger crack splitting out of it. At that point I started thinking of any excuse I could to avoid climbing, it’s getting late, these stupid bushes are gonna sting me…but none of them were good enough so I had to give it a try. I free climbed past the bushes with long reaches to finger-locks and stemmed my feet. The crack thinned down to a black alien size, posing the first crux, and ended at a ledge.

From there, the crack split into two, to the right a short hand crack to a ledge, to the left an offwidth crack to a roof. My second crux was to not take the right easy out. Entering the offwidth was awkward, but I was able to place small gear in a finger crack deep inside. Finger-locking up and over the bulge a couple hundred feet off the deck was quite airy and exciting. Yet again we were surprised by the excellence of the rock and the uniqueness of the climbing, another 6c+/7a.

Arenales is beyond doubt an area worth the visit. There is always an adventure to be found, an amigo to sip mate with, and condors flying.