San Vicente de Abejorral
Climbing, Mountaineering & Caving 20200120
Erin and I took the weekend to visit San Vicente de Abejorral , Antioquia, Colombia.
We original came to do some rock climbing, but instead were captured its beauty which we followed to the summit. Here is our journey.
La Pena
We stay at La Pena, a beautiful hostel located at the foot of the mountains trails. The owners of the hostel have put a lot of work into the mountain, setting up over 80 climbing routes, and really make a great place to stay as a climber. The staff and owners were very helpful, and friendly.
They have produced some fantastic beta, and guides for climbing the mountain, which can be found here. Also this is a great article on climbing San Vicente if you're interested.
The Approach
The trail from the hotel means business, and is instantly a steep incline that only get steeper.
Its a steep climb to carry all our climbing gear, and a great warm up to the day. It took us roughly 30min to reach the first rock wall climbing, at a good pace.
Vertical Rock Climbing
Once we had reached the end of the approach, we are met with may vertical walls to climb. We were recommended El Bosque to warm up. I lead an easier new climb that was recommended for the warm up, right next to a crack in the rock.
Exploring a crack
After our first climb, we decided to explore the crack before setting up the next climb. Which lead to a beautiful vista.
Aiming for the summit for lunch
Before we knew it we were ready for lunch, but we were told by another climber we had to track up further for the view. So we did! We wanted to visit the mutlipitch climb to check it out anyway.
However, the views we found on they way were stunning and we quickly ditched our plan to visit the multi-pitch climb in quest of more vista's!
A 360 photo from our climb
The birds we found
The trail took us right up close to some large birds of prey.
Approaching The Summit
The further we climb, the steeper it becomes. Following the trail the mutli-pitch climbers would use to descend.
Lunch!
We found a beautiful spot to stop and make lunch. Erin stayed here to meditate while I made the final ascent.
The Final Ascent
Now above the birds of prey, I continued to climb up watching them circle below me. Although incredibly steep, the final ascent was not as difficult as the previous trail.
The Summit
The summit was the grassiest I have ever seen, and beautiful.
It took us about 2 hours to reach the summit from the climbing walls, including lunch break.
The Descent
The descent probably resulted in some of the most beautiful pictures as the sun set in front of us.
The Sunset
One More Day
This climb convinced us to extend our trip by another half day, to further explore the caves and trails up the mountain. We used this half day to hike back up halfway and explore some caves and other climbing walls.