"It's Hatunafun!"

You’ll have to excuse the corny name, it was just too difficult to resist. So, near Huaraz (well, anything near Huaraz for the most part is 1-2hrs away as it turns out) is an amazing place for climbing. Well, amazing if you’re a tourist, and not a local Peruvian come to find out. Hrmmmm. Let me start with the pros of this place, which are many, and then end with what I think might be going on there based on what I’ve heard from a few unreferencable sources.
Ok. So Hatun Machay is a rock garden climbers paradise at 14k ft, with mystically placed rock spires ranging in sizes from 1ft blobs to 100ft+ giants. Pretty neat if you ask me.

Just look at this place. I would exploit Peruians for this too....and don't you dare say you would't do the same

The rock is relatively solid, with a multitude of different hold types, some of which are filled with dirt, undoubtedly from years of chemical and physical weathering. The rock is a combination of gritty sandstone and granite. I am not going to fully reveal my limited understanding of geology by going further into the type of rock this place boasts, but will suffice to say that the rock has great friction, is super gritty, and so sharp that linking together two days of climbing is a goliath task for anyone with normal non-kevlar encased fingertips. This place tears your fingers a new one.

Many of the climbs there are harder than 5.9, with the majority being within the range of 5.10b-5.11d. So many of these climbs are in the 3 stars (out of 3…yeah huge variation) range, its not even funny. Many of the climbs stand out in my mind, but of these climbs one in particular shines brighter than the rest. There was this one classic 5.10d that had the whole spectrum of holds from little crimps to freaking tufas. Konge. The end of the climb goes from huecos to weird tufa chimney, to inconspicuous finger deep pockets. Fanfreakingtastic. The distance between the last bolt and the anchors in this last difficult section was huge…they bolted this climb very excitingly. At first I got to this last bolt, and yelled “take!” to Randy, who could hear me huffing and puffing in the thin subalpine air. “I just can’t find out where this thing goes”. Truly a deceptive chimney-like dual tufa sidepull arrangement made it hard to find the concieled, chalk free pockets to the right of the climb, on seemingly featureless face. But after I found the pockets I was up and climbing the last section, with a few girly screams. I have attached a picture of the climb that Randal took with his super robot camera.

LOVE IT

Yeah. Great place. The place where we stayed was gravy too, a “refuge” with a cook who made some pretty kickass chicken tacos….well, kickass until I figured out the chicken was half cooked. “Waop, waop”. That’s the sound of a trumpet, the sound a cartoon character gets right after he holds up a grossly undersized umbrella under a large boulder sized shadow. “Waop, waop, uncooked chicken….. “ He he.
Not much else to say about the place other than the people there are great, generally tourists…ah no I have more to say here. The reason they are tourists only is because the person who bought the land for the climbing, apparently “discourages” (to whatever degree), the presence of Peruvian locals, hence the reason I never saw a single person de Peru. This is interesting. Why would someone do that? $$$$$$$$$$$$$ sorry the key got stuck, but you get the point.
Anyway, $$$$ runs everything here in Huaraz. And yet there are so many poor people around. Well, at least Huaraz keeps to the theme of the majority of South America: Lots of rich, lots of poor….lots of corruption.

Reason # 10000 why I love French Canadians: They are nice. And Randy, you're not so bad yourself...:)

ATTN: We need more people to take the politicians bowling, get them drunk, drop a few fizzy roofies in their drinks, hang them from their testicles and tell them to stop being jerks. Start thinking about your country. Start thinking about the reason why politicians are supposed to exist. At what point in time did politics become drunken mansion parties with women brought in through sex slavery. Come on people.

Ok I suppose this is the end of this entry. Whoo hoo, Hatun Machay….Another amazing demonstration of money being used in a way that does not benefit the masses. But hell, I had a great time…..wish I could just let that be enough….