78
Overview
P.M.
(Only East Wall)
4
What to Expect
Introducition To Forum
Climbing at Forum is a true Costa Rican adventure: Pura Vida! When climbing here don’t expect anything short of thrashing through the jungle, belaying in ferns and vines, and climbing tree roots out of necessity. Sadly Forum can be a little dirty, in almost ever sense of the word, but don’t let that stop you from coming out. Here you are sure to find awesome technical routes worth their sleepless nights.
The wall
There are multiple walls at Forem indicated both by their alphabetical names given on RockClimbing.com and by their nautical manifestations.
FORUM
Section B (The East Wall) is a large flat wall with great exposure but often is extremely dirty after the rainy season. If traffic is low and it is still early in the dry season, you may want to bring some brushes and plan some time to clean some of the holds. With little tree cover, and facing westerly, the East wall also receives the most sun. Climbing midday may be out of the question as the sun makes doing almost anything on the east side of the river extremely sweaty. Section A (The West Wall) is much more featured and therefore does not become as dirty during the rains. Still, a good scrubbing may be needed if you are one of the first on the route after the rainy season. Also the west side of the ravine has much more tree cover and therefore is basically completely shaded by about 11AM onward.
The Rock
The rock at Forum is ignimbrite. Expect pockets, tall vertical cracks and block formations. Forum can be a little sketchy. The heavy rains of the wet season erode the walls and over time large sections of wall have fallen to the ravine floor. It can be an intimidating fact that most of what you are stepping on had to come from where you are climbing at one point in time. Thankfully, to date, no routes have been affected by rock fall and no climbers have been injured. This being said it is important to remember that no matter where you climb, no rock is 100% solid, and all rock