Ecuador:Cotopaxi

Since the climbing community is small here, I have realized that everone is eager to show me new climbing spots. Everyone has helping hands for working on new lines or developing new areas. Last sunday 2/24, 10 of us headed 2 hours south to a new, undeveloped area where a friend Gomez had been before. After a short 2 hour drive south, we reached the entrance of Cotopaxi. We checked in with the park service and met other climbers. After another short car ride, we arrived to a turn off where we saddle up the crash pads, stock up our chalk, and start the 30 minute walk across the plains with peaks towering behind us and the beautiful Mt. Cotopaxi (5820m) in front of us! We crossed a small river channel and grew closer to the new area of boulders and caves!! We arrived at boulder #1 and # 2! We were excited to get cleaning and see what they have for us to develop! Some of us started on the front side of the boulder while Gomez and I checked out the back side. It looked super fun to develop starting out with a nice small arett then moving to a nice mantel. Now I've not really worked on setting new outdoor boulder problems but it was super fun. It kinda felt like it was an art. The arett went fast, and just to the left of it we noticed a fun but a little more challenging scoop to work on. With a sit start then moving to a right pinch, you adjust the feet, move to another right pinch just a little highter on the arett, then you adjust the left foot to a good knob and lock off your heal tight where your first righ hand pinch was. Then BAMM a huge right hand move to a sloper. But it's just not that good, you need to keep the heel hook, lock it off, move the left hand up to a crimp and by then your feet cut out. So while hanging on you throw BIG again to a huge knob for your right and then power up to a left handed mantel , definitely have spotters, and with what you have left pull the top and feel the reward as you're facing Mt. Cotopaxi. Its a fun and rewarding V 5/6