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Cinemascope

5.11d, Trad, 550 ft (167 m), 6 pitches, Grade III,  Avg: 4 from 1 vote
FA: Carlos Dominguez, Esteban Arellano & Mauricio Fernandez, May 1994
International > S America > Argentina > Mendoza > Los Arenales > Muralla del Refugio

Description

An ultra classic for the area characterized by varied climbing, lots of crack climbing and great rock.

P1) Climb a low angle slab to a nice, tight finger dihedral. Then jam your way up the side of a boulder and head slightly left to a short hand crack to a 2 bolt belay below a roof. You can extend the belay back down to the ledge if you use the rope (5.10d, 35m).

P2) Crux pitch. Excellent rock throughout and awesome climbing. Technical crux tips crack at the start to a rest. Then enduro crux through the roof and onto sustained fingers and .75 / tight #1 camalot crack up a beautiful, vertical wall to 2 bolt hanging belay that's a bit uncomfortable. A classic pitch by any standards (5.11d, 25m).

P3) Move left off the belay. Clip the bolt, then jam in a slightly crumbly flare and get to the foot out right. Falling there could slam the belayer. Make your way up following blocks through a chimney. I went left at the block roof part of the chimney. Some loose holds through this chimney. Eventually gain a 2 bolt anchor in the chimney below a roof, behind a big chockstone (5.10d, 25m).

P4) A demanding pitch with all sorts of climbing. This is the only pitch where you need the 4s and 5. Start with a #3/#4 camalot roof and establish yourself in the vertical offwidth above. I dropped both #4s and the 5 in here. Get a rest after the OW, clip a bolt and start the traverse (harder than it looks). The traverse is #3s then gets bigger at the end. Save a #2 and a #1 for the finish up steep blocks (5.11c, 30m).

We descended from here so no personal experience on the last two pitches.

P5) Easiest pitch of the route. Climb the dihedral up to the big ledge, passing some bushes to a 2 bolt anchor. Or if you wanted, there is a 6c+ sport pitch straight up the face a little to the right (part of the route Flaca I think) (5.10a, 25m).

P6) Amazing crack pitch up the face to a 2 bolt anchor (5.11a, 35m).

Location

This route is on the central buttress of the Muralla de Refugio formation, in the lower valley before the control checkpoint.

Park on the left side before the ranger station (no passport required). The wall is right in front of you. Look for the tallest section of awesome rock that is capped by the long roof. That's your line.

Rappel the route. From past the traverse pitch, it's probably easier to rap down Flaca, which is more plumb line. Raps are all bolted and have rep tat / leaver rings. You might need to leave something but we didn't.

Protection

Double rack from green alien to #4 Camalot. 1 each micro cams & #5 Camalot. Nuts. Two ropes.

I suppose you could take 3x #4 if you were to place 2 in the OW and want one to make the traverse less scary at the end... but I don't know if it would fit.

Maybe it would be possible to rap the route with a single 70m or 80m but I'm not sure. Probably best to just take two ropes.

Photos [Hide ALL Photos]

First 4 pitches of Cinemascope from the base. The rock might not look amazing from here but it sure is.<br>
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Belays are circles, bolt on route is X.
[Hide Photo] First 4 pitches of Cinemascope from the base. The rock might not look amazing from here but it sure is. Belays are circles, bolt on route is X.