5.12's in Copacabana

On the climbing gym, I've been taking classes with this guy, Fabio. The gym is very small (especially compared to the ultra mega US gyms...) but the classes are super interesting, he focuses a lot on body positioning, and I think its helping me improve on vertical climbs (we are starting on overhanging techniques now).

We've never climbed together outside before, but yesterday he called me up and asked if I wanted to go to this crag called Falesia São João, in Copacabana. I have never even heard of this place before, and didn't even know there was a climbable face in Copacabana, but I really wanted to see him climb (he's about 40 now, but is a super insane climber... at one point he was Brazil's best sport climber, had sponsorships,traveled for competitions, the whole deal. He even got to climb with Lynn Hill!)

To get to this place you go through a park, up a 20 minute hike (which is kind of confusing to navigate, not a very marked route) until you hit a slab face. From there, its two pitches of an easy 5.5, 5.6 climb to the base of the rock wall.

Falesia in portuguese (at least in Brazil) means short, usually on pitch sport routes (I guess kind of what we did in Red Rocks).

The rock face was slightly overhanging, super abrasive, sharp rock, with holds that are crimps and pinches and a few lay backs. The face is vertical and in places slightly overhanging, and was really, really hard. We got on an 8a (5.12a) called Nebulosa and a 8c (5.12c) called Andromeda (the routes are named after constellations in that face.)

Fabio lead up both as it was nothing to him, totally graceful moves all the way up. I (obviously) hung a lot on the rope, chapped the skin off my fingertips but managed to finish the first, clean and rapp off (scary single bolt rapps) and get halfway up the second before calling it a day.

After that we ate peanuts in a small cave in the rock face, overlooking Copacabana neighborhood, and made our way back.