safety devices, are not used, only climbing shoes and a bag with magnesium (dust that provides better grip for the climbers). On boulder
climbing, the physical component is very demanding, and if it has certain elevation, the mental component comes to play an important role.
HISTORY OF CLIMBING IN COSTA RICA
It began between 1950 and 1955, with a group of adventurers called
Mountaineers Club of Costa Rica, formed by Yeudi Monestel and
Rafael Vargas. Their first experience of rock climbing started in an
area called Pico Blanco de Escazu, which nowadays includes 45
equipped routes under the direction of David Ulloa and the support of
Eskalar Gym.
The first ascent was made with static nylon cords and two pieces of
wood, circa 1951. They called this route Schauffelber Bastion. The
following year in 1952, Félix Méndez Torres, a Spanish climber, former
president of the Spanish Federation of Mountaineering, arrived to
Costa Rica to offer rock climbing courses to members of the club.
Felix took the group to its famous campus or school at Cerro de la
Muerte (School Camp Félix Méndez).
Throughout the 80s climbing was considered as a sport and therefore
associations and groups of more experienced climbers emerged. That
was how in March 1991, the first rock climbing competition was held
in Costa Rica, which took place in one of the first sport climbing areas
in the country: Aserri's Stone.
CLIMBING ///
In 1993 the first indoor climbing competition was organized, taking
into consideration the standards and rules that had to be fulfilled in
order to be officially endorsed as a climbing competition. It was then in 1997 when the first climbing gym opened; it remained active for 3
years. This gym was the first to introduce climbing as a sport; it had
walls of 10 mts. high, with basic tools to teach the subject and its technique in the safest way possible at the time.
Since 2001 climbers emerged in the San Jose area with much more
ambitious goals, wanting to participate not only in national championships, their gaze was also placed on achieving international competitive challenges, initially in the Central American region but its longing also focused on Central American competitions, and even Pan
American World Climbing Championships.
To date, Costa Rica has had over 15 official participations among bouldering, sport climbing and speed in World Championships. In 2005 the
Costa Rican Federation of Mountain Sports (FECODEM) emerged.
This institution is responsible for overseeing the organization of events
and initiatives related to the field of climbing, trail running, mountaineering and caving in the country.
In more recent data (2012), the first climbing gym opens in Costa Rica,
Eskalar located in San José (Pavas), which meet ́