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CLIMBING IN PARADISE|
THE D.R. DOESN’T DISAPPOINT
BY NICK BIRDSEYE
I was hanging out in a hostel in the Austrian alps when my good friend Lauren hit me up.
It was a message out of the blue asking if I wanted to move to the Dominican Republic
to work at a hostel for a few months. I didn’t really have anything planned, so I agreed im-
mediately. Neither of us did any research on the kind of climbing that was over there.
We arrived for the two months that we would be spending there a the end of April. We
worked at the hostel for a few weeks, before we realized that our time would be bet-
ter spent travelling the country and seeing what kind of adventures we could get up to.
We had by then heard of good climbing on the north end of the island, on the Samana
Peninsula, so we headed there for a few weeks. Through instagram, we were connected
to one of the locals, Giordano De Peña Crespo, who is one of the main developers of the
climbing scene in the country. We would be joining him at Playa Fronton, a crag which is
accessed by a thirty minute jet boat ride to one of the prettiest beaches on the planet.
The crag is a three-minute hike up from the beach, a massive chunk of beautiful black
marble that has the potential for dozens of upper level climbs. The issue is that the cliff
is so close to the ocean, that unless the bolts are titanium glue-ins, normal bolts will rust
through very quickly. So only a few routes were safe to climb. After climbing all the routes
(with copious climbing of coconut trees to drink the freshest and healthiest recovery
drink between climbs) we had to head back to civilization.
We spent a few weeks surfing on the North Coast spending time at Playa Encuentro and
at Las Terrenas. It was then time to explore the climbing on the south side of the island.
We were able to find some partners through our friend Julia who we met on the south
side and checked out the crag known as Con De Mana. It is in a beautiful limestone
gorge about an hour west of the capitol city, Santo Domingo. Although only a handful of
routes are currently set up at the crag (all of which are 4-star classics) this place has the
potential for hundreds. The issue with Co De Mana though is the bees. You cannot take a
step anywhere without almost stepping on a dozen or so.
The climbing community that we met there were so excited to share their crags and
share as well with us the amazing hospitality that the country offers. The route develop-
ment side of things is something that the Dominican is in dire need of. If anyone wants to
know more details about climbing, or wants contact info for the community down there,
feel free to reach out to me on Instagram @nickbirdseye
NOV/DEC 2018
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