La Mojarra - Cañon del Chicamocha Rock Climbing

Located in the Chicamocha Canyon, one of the largest in the world, with 108 thousand hectares, formed 46 million years ago and covered in ancient times by a lake that allowed the formation of caves and incredible cliffs. La Mojarra climbing park extends for a kilometer and a half in the hearth of the canyon. The orange compact sandstone has more than 200 routes in rating from 5.7 to 5.14 and some projects.

All routes have been protected with high security criteria. In the morning, sunny conditions are hard, but after 12:00 soft conditions with the rock completely in the shadow and the temperature decreasing gives you the chance to enjoy perfect climbing, in beautiful and aerial scenery. The whole canyon continues with an infinite bolting possibility remaining.

The park was discovered 17 years ago by Juan Carlos Poveda, Juan Carlos Santander, Alejandro Navas, and Fabian Carreño, who began with the protection of the routes in 1999. Ricardo Cancelado, Juan Sebastian Ragua, and some other climbers from Bogota keep with the development of the climbing area this last year. The crag is in the hands of the non-profit Fundación Rocas de la Mojarra: https://www.fundacionrocasdelamojarra.org/

The accessibility of the place is very comfortable, is about 40 miles from the city of Bucaramanga at Mesa de Los Santos, department of Santander. Just 50 meters from the entrance to the park is Refugio la Roca (website) a very nice refugio for climbers, located on the top of the cliff. The owners are a Colombia couple, both of them climbers and the ones bolting most of the routes for the last 4 years. They have a very update guidebook, equipment rental, and a store where you can find basic equipment, resoling service and a very peaceful and quiet environment for climbers.

The weather is good all year and varies very little. The forecast on this website is not right.

The area named "La Mojarra Salvaje" is listed here as zones 19, 20, and 21.

For a full set of topos, go to https://www.fundacionrocasdelamojarra.org/blank-1. Keep in mind they are slightly outdated. Zone 8 was added later and everything was renumbered, so the topo numbering is off by one from 8 onward. For the topo of zone 8, see this image.

For the easiest routes at the crag, go to Zone 10 and look for these two routes: Verticualidad and Aracnoides.

In terms of hazards, look out for wasps and bees. People are removing the hives and nests constantly, but be on the lookout. Inspect the routes from the ground and as you climb; the darker more recessed spots can hide wasp nests especially. The bees are not your standard variety: mostly black body and much smaller, so easily confused with flies. They have ball-shaped hives the size of a tennis ball.

From the trail that starts at the Refugio, you can also access two more areas:

La Mojarra - La Reserva

La Mojarra - El Salto

If you want to branch out a bit, check out the neighboring crags in the canyon:

Macaguato - Cañon del Chicamocha - multipitch routes

El Hoyo de las Pavas

La Peña