Exploring Chilean Rock Climbing
Story by Greg Millican for the 2025 Gazette
Spanning 7,000 kilometres along the west coast of South America, the Andes is a huge and breathtaking mountain range with many climbing opportunities that allow Canadians to escape our northern winter. We knew that there were beautiful views, brilliant climbing, excellent food, and near limitless opportunities for exploration. But in one of the world’s longest mountain ranges, where do you start?
When conceiving the Toronto Section’s inaugural South America climbing trip amongst some gym partners, we decided to look for something near Santiago, the capital and largest city of Chile, and we chose Cajón del Maipo (roughly “the little drawer”), a canyon tucked away some 50 km to the southeast.
The climbing turned out to be fabulous, but the beta was initially obscure.
We sought out information through Wikiexplora, an online Spanish-language route and crag guide, and settled on the Torrecillas area for the vast amount of multi-pitch sport climbs, and El Alfalfal for the many trad climbs. We rented an Airbnb in the area that conveniently backed onto the local mountain and connected us to various crags with a bit of walking or a short drive.
At El Alfalfal, the kilometres of immaculate granite cracks and trad routes were first class – trad routes that you can simply drive up to and climb. More notable was the even bigger and undeveloped potential of the crags.
There was much to learn about the local climbing. The trick to navigating off-width cracks at El Alfalfal seemed to be shimmying up by figuring out which body part could best replicate the cam size that the crack would take.
Another day, while climbing Los Columbianos, a 10-pitch 400m trad route in the San Gabriel Mountains, we discovered that the thorn bushes and wandering crack systems of the area sometimes made it equally difficult to navigate the approaches and descents. Neither of our teams topped out that epic day, but our experience was exceptional, and the unfinished business gives us another reason to return.
On a touring day, while adventuring further into Cajón del Maipo, we discovered remote areas with more rock than we could ever climb. Rob Wood on our team sourced a sufficient variety of empanadas from local vendors to fuel our day and we eventually found ourselves at Baños Morales, a natural hot spring a short distance from Volcán San José (5,856m), one of the big classic volcanoes of the area.
While this first iteration was a smaller trip with the objective of exploring, we are hoping to expand the size and scope of next year’s trip and invite members from all ACC sections to join us. The trip was very affordable at a cost of about $2,100 for nine days including flights. With much better beta, our trip next year will involve more climbing, more long multi-pitch routes, and possibly some glacier travel on a trek to the top of Volcán San José. Keep an eye on the Toronto Section event calendar if you’re keen to join us!
Regional ACC Sections are the Alpine Club of Canada’s strength. Membership in an ACC Section enables members to participate in numerous summer and winter mountaineering, rock climbing, and skiing activities, coordinated by experienced amateur leaders in their local area. The majority of activities offered by sections are either free or are offered on a break-even basis to their members. Through ACC Section trips you’ll learn all the basics you need to travel safely in the mountains, while meeting new friends to enjoy your experiences with.
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