As promised I will update with some interesting goings on in my quest to find new routes and unclimbed rock in Bolivia.... suffice to say it is going well! I am having an extremely busy Aug/Sept time but still managing to get out a couple of time a week at least. Around Sucre I have located some more boulders and a couple of micro crags that have a few projects on (I'll hopefully get ticking on those soon) and i have visited the Sica Sica boulder a few times and put up a couple of (i think unclimbed) links to existing problems. These boulders, being only about 10mins from my house are pretty much my training ground. I have a short video of a few problems and some of the climbing around here that I will try and upload buy I am sorry to say that with the shabby connection they excuse for internet here it will take some time.

Here are a couple of photos of Steve, a local climber expat learning to trad lead on the Sica Sica crag

Now onto the main cause for excitement to all you adventurous type climbers out there.... a truly awesome discovery.

I had heard rumours and seen on a previous trip a fin of rock that I thought would be worth an explore, so early on a monday morning a bleary eyed group of us jumped on a bus and headed a couple of hours down the road keeping our eyes out for any decent rock. Oh how we were rewarded!

The "fin" of rock we found was just the tip of the iceberg, but as you can see from the pictures it is no tiddler, this is some big fish, i estimate its about 6 pitches to the top from the lowest base with several pinnacles and summits, at an estimate, this feature alone is 500m in length.

The fin has several faces, many many slabs (some very vegetated cracks) and is like all of the rock in this new area, a mostly hard sandstone. Probably due to the orientation one side has significantly more greenery than the other and also has snappier/ flakier rock but there are a plethora of mult-ipitch routes that will go, including dihedrals and hand-cracks all finishing in a pretty cool location on the summits of the fin.

One half of the fin from the  "greener side" with its slabs and cracks. for perspective it is about 4/5/6 pitches to the top from this aspect

The Fin extends for quite a distance and has several distinct summits and peaks

Climbing on the other (mountain) side of the fin there are many sections of overhanging rock, much of which will need to be bolted as it is pretty compact sandstone in places with not many cracks. This should yield some amazing sport routes

We put up a f6a and an f7a that need to be bolted and I did a trad route of 5.6r/ VS 4b on the other slabby aspect. Will be going back to pick off the plum lines soon but there is a lifetimes worth to go at.

The "fin" with one of the rock covered mountain valleys behind, this is one of 2/3 valleys that seem to extend for a few miles and as far as I could see are littered with various buttress' and crags as well as boulders in the valley floor

That is just the start, the surrounding valleys have an incredible amount of rock and for future investigation the mountains around the rim of the valley look to contain alpine style rock, big cliffs, slabs and crags and some awesome looking ridges. The best part is as far as I can gather all the cliffs and crags are waiting for first ascents from trad, sport (need bolts and a drill) and bouldering of all grades!!

fyi this "boulder is about 25ft high and its one of about 20 in one of about 10 spots is spied on our quick walk through.

If you want to get out here and join what i hope will be a 1st ascent rampage then shoot me a message at

                                 verticaljourneys@hotmail.co.uk

As ever I am battling with the Bolivian Internet connection but I will try to update this blog when every we explore more places and put up some new routes... until then... get cranking...