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Africa Wall Rock Climbing

Climbing Area Map This is our best guess at this area's location.
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Routes in Africa Wall

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Africa T 5.10+ 6b+ 21 VII+ 20 E3 5b

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GPS:	36.9085, -4.7603 Google Map · Climbing Area Map
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Shared By:	Ryan Williams on Feb 29, 2012 · Updates
Admins:	Jason Halladay, David Riley Page Updates (admin only)

Description

This is one of the most committing and intimidating places in El Chorro. The routes here rarely see ascents - not because of the difficulty, but because of the position. To access any of the routes, you must rappel out of the tunnel in the middle of the wall and head 60 meters below to the river. Once you've rapped in, you either have to climb out or jump into the river.

The routes here tend to ascend long crack systems and take traditional gear. Africa in particular is known to be a bit of a sandbag. There is an escape ledge that will get you back to the tunnel if you choose not to top out, but you still have to climb 60 meters from the river to get there.

Getting There

Access via the Camino del Ray. Once on the walkway, cross the large pipe bridge at the mouth of the gorge and look for a small tunnel on the left. Crawl into the tunnel and snake around to the left. Once at the end, you'll rap over 50 meters to a small ledge just above the river. The routes all start here.

The old access tunnel has been cemented shut, and makes approach via the camino impossible. The approach is now even more intimidating, albeit with the bonus that it can be reversed - avoiding the swim back to town if you need to bail.

Approach via the train tracks as for the rest of the gorge, leaving them at the green bridge where the end of the camino comes into view. Descend the scree slope to the water's edge .The first part of the approach is via-ferrata style on rusty and torn 6mm cables until you reach the tyrolean (bring a pulley).

The next section is on fixed ropes. (There was talking of replacing them late Jan 2020 - check at the finca to see if they were)
Traverse & campus the ropes to the base of the vertical line, and rope up if you haven't already. Draw lots for who has to jug the dirty rope, before campusing the steep section of (hopefully) no longer core shot rope. The routes can all be approached easily from here.

If the ropes haven't been replaced, it would be possible to approach via the top, and ab the whole route rigging stations as you go to be retrieved as you climb. However it would be tough to find

Descent

To get down, traverse to the climber's right toward one of the abseil points and rap back to the tunnel. There is also an escape ledge about half way up the wall that will get you to the tunnel via easy 5th. If you don't make it back up to the tunnel, then rap down to the ledge, jump into the river and swim home.

Conditions and Protection

Africa Wall will get a lot of wind and afternoon shade. It can be 20 degrees cooler in the gorge than at sunny crags, and that is not counting wind chill. Take this into consideration.

Finally, the bolts and fixed gear on the wall have been there for a long while. Use caution and don't hesitate to back up anything that looks like it needs backing up.