Suesca, Colombia

I'm heading to Suesca and wondering if anyone has recommendations on what gear to bring.  I've read singles .3-2 and a set of nuts; does that sound right?  Any tips on rope length or # of draws?  Thanks!

Suesca is awesome! I brought a 70 but I don't think it was necessary. We had 20 draws and it was more than enough for everything we encountered. Didn't do much trad, but a single rack should suffice for most of the single pitch lines out there. The little climbing hostel is great too. Be prepared to deal with bugs. Have fun!

did lots of trad climbing there. i was happy to have my standard rack.

Awesome!  Thanks for the tips.  Is there enough sport to keep me busy for 4 days (up to 5.11)?  I'm happy to bring a trad rack but if there is enough sport I'd be psyched to minimize the weight and the replacement cost on the off chance a bag gets stolen.

Plenty of sport and plenty of trad. Even with the guidebook from the hostel, I found route-finding very difficult with all the vegetation. Consider hiring a guide for a day just to show you around (I think I paid like $60 or $70 for the guide for the day and he was cool with me leading on his gear). He was the first ascentionist for a lot of the routes, so I was happy to be helping out somebody who maintains the fixed gear.

I would suggest bringing lots of chalk too. It is hard to find and can be expensive in Columbia. Also a good trade for beta/food/etc. So much sport climbing in Suesca, I would bring a really minimal rack, a few mixed routes there are super good. The bolt placements were a little more spartan, especially when good gear was available. Lots to climb in the 5.10-5.12 grades. All of it was really fun. Mas Piedra Y Mas Cielo was classic, I think we just ran this one out and didn't place any trad gear. Ninfomaniaca was awesome too. We ticked about 15 lines while we were there, just by climbing features that looked awesome, and we were not disappointed. When the wind stops the bugs raged and we were eaten alive while belaying, so be prepared. 

DustinM wrote: Awesome!  Thanks for the tips.  Is there enough sport to keep me busy for 4 days (up to 5.11)?  I'm happy to bring a trad rack but if there is enough sport I'd be psyched to minimize the weight and the replacement cost on the off chance a bag gets stolen.

Hey Dustin,
I am headed to Bogota on February 6th. If you are in the area, I would be happy to bring my rack if you want to climb together. That way you can cut down on weight and don’t have to risk your rack. 

I'm in Bogota now, planning to climb in Suesca tomorrow. I can lead sport climbs up to 5.6, maybe 5.7, can follow up to 5.10. Cannot lead on trad, but I can follow and belay. Let me know if you'd like to head out to Suesca and climb.

Hey Drew and Mike - I just got back from Colombia on Friday.  Suesca's great!  Let me know if y'all have any questions about the climbing. 

I ended up hiring a guide yesterday. We climbed a nice 4 pitch multi-pitch route (forgot the name of the route), then hiked down.

I'm off to Medellin tomorrow, let me know if you'd like to climb in the area

HI Mike!
I will be in Bogota on Thursday. How long are you in Colombia?
How was your guide? Would you recommend them?

Hi Dustin,
I have a couple question I am hoping you can help me with.
Did you have any luck finding partners in Suesca? Or did you hire a guide? Where did you get your beta (guide book, internet, locals)? Did you commute from Bogota or stay in Suesca?

Thank you!

In Columbia I just assume they use cocaine as chalk. 

Drew,

It's quite easy to find partners in Suesca during the week and the weekends get quite busy.  Your first stop should be Mono Dedo (gear shop, open Fri-Sun) where you can get oriented with beta and all that.  The guidebook isn't great but a useful starting place.  The locals are very friendly and open with beta as well.

There are dozens of quality guides in Suesca.  If you want a great English-speaking guide I would recommend Sabes Aijem - Guide Facebook Page

Definitely stay in Suesca, there are several hostels, my favorite is El Nomada.

Drew - I def recommend staying in Suesca.  I stayed at Hostal Caminos de Suesca; it was cheap and relatively clean, plus the location was great.  I climbed with my girlfriend while I was there - on the weekend we ended up climbing with other Colombian climbers but during the week it was really dead (no one at Campo Base and the only other people out were a handful of guides).  For route information, I bought the guidebook ($6 usd) and while it was helpful once in a while, it was more of a souvenir.  I used some of the info from MP (Thanks Josh and GunksWest!!!!) but mostly I asked locals; they know YDS and can tell you what the grades are and which are good climbs.  My gf got sick one day so I asked around for guides and the cheapest I found was from the shop next door to Punto Verde (directly across the path from Mondo Dedo) but she felt well enough to belay me the next day so I didn't end up using one.  

Thanks again to Josh Kornish and Gunkswest for answering questions for me before i left!  I'd be happy to help out others, just send me a message.

Hey Drew,
Just saw your reply. I hired a guide through El Nomada hostel.
I'll be in Colombia for quite a while. I'm actually heading to Suesca tomorrow and Sunday. I'll head to Monodeda and look for partners as Josh recommended. If anybody wants to partner up let me know (private messages don't seem to work here, so please reply on this thread). I can lead up to 5.7 on sport climbs, can follow 5.9 and perhaps some 5.10. Not able to lead on trad routes yet.