rain, bouldering, and naked argentinians

It was raining in Buenos Aires today, and rather than hitting a museum or the movies, I decided to go to a bouldering gym.

From the start, the day promised to be interesting. After being directed to a back room where I could hang my bag and change into my climbing shoes, I was joined by two Argentinian guys that proceeded to strip down into their underware and change into climbing clothes, in front of me. Thinking that I had inadvertently stepped into the men's changing area, I modestly averted my eyes (plus, the guys weren't that good looking).

The walls were short but in very different angles, with holds all over the roofs. There were no tapes on the holds, so the idea was to pick your own route or to go with the suggestion of the staff, that would point out holds to you (a good exercise in memory, after pointing the sequence out once it was sort of understood that one was to remember it).

Very quickly, the rain started to pick up and half the room became flooded (as the gym was ground level) which restricted the options to a more vertical wall, with some ceiling holds, and a wall with maybe 20 degree inclination.

I worked in some warm up traverses on the 20 degree wall, and one of the naked Argentinian guys offered me matte - also known as chimarrão (see picture) - which I passed.

One of the guys in staff pointed me a few different routes (I would guess were between V1-V3). I managed to do all, with some work, except for one, which had a long move from sort of laying back sideways pinching a hold to matching on a sloper.

At some point, another Argentinian guy walked in and proceeded to strip down to his underware and change into his climbing pants, this time right in the middle of the gym.

At that point I decided maybe it was time to leave.