The 18 volt pneumatic hammer action drill grinds to a halt.
The rock is too hard for the power tools on hand. The midday tropical sun mercilessly bakes my body, making putty out of my black rubber soled climbing shoes. I hang, tired and scorched, as if on a vertical granite frying pan. My belay partner below is no more fortunate. Suffering the same sun, he holds me in place, waiting for word of what will come next.
Whether it is the bit, the battery or a problem with the motor itself, the outcome is the same: the drill is silent (just another 10 kilos of metal strapped to my harness) much like the rock face has been for millennia.
We are half way through setting the third bolt of a seven bolt route. The first route ever attempted on this mountain – Cerro Mbatovi. Loosely translated from the indigenous Guarani as ‘Balcony of the Gods’ or ‘Window to Heaven,’ Cerro Mbatovi is a solitary rock massif rising abruptly out of the central Paraguayan plains in the Department of ParaguarÃ. Its rock head caps an apron of subtropical forest. The summit approach requires an arduous bushwhack through jungle underbrush and a hard rock scramble above tree line. Untouched and unclimbed, Cerro Mbatovi offers a rock climber's dream: a wall of first ascents.
Not to be bested, out comes the Petzl Rock Pic and mini sledgehammer. Setting the pic in the half finished hole, the operation is straightforward if brutal: A whack of the hammer followed by a quarter turn of the pic. Hammer drives pic; pic chisels rock. Repeat for forty-five minutes. This bolt will be secured by hand.
Welcome back to rock climbing in Paraguay. A mix of modern technology and old-fashioned rock climbing determination set in the heart of the South American continent.
Two years ago Rock and Ice Magazine (see article http://rockandice.com/news/500-Paraguay-An-Emerging-Scene) relayed the activity of Paraguay’s nascent rock climbing scene to the world. In the interim, climbers Jonathan Bibee and Dale Helm, aided by Mexican climber Victor de Leon and a growing cadre of home-grown talent, have made steady progress.
Successfully bolting two dozen routes in the Cerro Cora climbing area, 60 km to the northwest, in the town of Tobati. The pair has set their sights on Cerro Mbatovi. To say Bibee and Helm have discovered these climbing locales would be unjust. The Paraguayans have known of these rocks for centuries. The two climbers just see them with a new set of eyes: offering the country a new sport and the worldwide climbing community a new climbing destination.
“Ita Jupi”— rock climbing in Guarani— is wide open for exploration, development, conservation, and celebration. Cerro Mbatovi's climbing future remains to be written.
