Cuba Climbing Articles

ARTICLES ABOUT CLIMBING IN CUBA

Rock & Ice Article The Rock
Cuba may have the best island cragging this side of Thailand, but for the climbers living behind communism's iron curtain, climbing is much more than a pastime. It's freedom.

Men's Journal Article: Cuba's Rocky Start
Outside of Havana, a revolution is taking hold, one route at a time

At dawn in Viñales, the children started singing. It was the Día de los Pioneros, when Cuba honors the nation's children -- the next pioneers of the revolution. An hour later and a mile outside of town, a different sort of pioneering was getting under way. A dozen American climbers, together with 20 Cubans, were trailblazing routes on the thousand-foot limestone knolls, called mogotes, scaling pitch after pitch of virgin rock as the singing drifted up from the valley below.
(Mens Journal, November 2001.

Climber
"Glorious, idyllic Cuba: unimaginable sun-swept beaches, tufa-ridden rock, crazy passionate natives, the softest touch of truest heaven." This is a major update of Cuba¹s new hard routes and the six Brits who put them up.

Granma International (Official newspaper of the Cuban Government Communist Party of Cuba) August, 2002
"Every year, thousands of climbers from various countries travel to different locations on the planet, intent of facing challenges and opening up new routes. Very few people are aware that the island has great potential for the sport of rock climbing."</p>

Ingles/English
Aleman/German
Portugues/Portugese
Frances/French

Planetmountain
"Cuba’s Valle de Viñales has that combination of high quality rock, accessibility, and ambience that has quickly put it on the climbers’ circuit of the world’s “must see” climbing venues."

Climber Online
"Climber Online is pleased to give the Site of the Week award to www.CubaClimbing.com. You'll need to visit this site to get a real handle on the climbing in Cuba. There is a ton of good and detailed information for anyone who is considering travel to Cuba for climbing or for just about any other reason. Anyway, learn some Spanish, bring a surfboard, bring your climbing gear and plan on having an exciting adventure."

Camp4
Its lightning fast development and intense popularity for a core of American and Cuban first-ascentionists suggest that Cuba could become one of the finest climbing areas of the world.

Marmot Website - Cuba Climbing - The Best?

Rock and Ice, No. 114: Viñales, Cuba, by Craig Luebben, March, 2002, page 67:
"A mist lingered over the lush, green tobacco field as a man and his ox worked the red soil. Huge limestone mogotes, enormous mounds of sculpted limestone, stood like chess pieces above the flat fields. We waited among the Cuban for public transportation--any vehicle that dares to stop. After a few minutes, we piled into a rickety, wood-plank trailer towed by a red tractor with a white star. Off to the crags!"

Rock and Ice, 95: Cuba Libre: Climbing on the Island of the Revolution, Story and Photos by Craig Luebben, Oct., 1999, page 60:
"Cubans anxiously and nervously await the change that is sure to occur at the end of 73-year-old Fidel Castro's reign. The question on everyone's mind is what's to come--democracy or dictatorship? One thing is certain, however: With some of the best limestone in the America's and a population of warm, inviting citizens, Cuba is set to become a favorite destination for climbers."

ARTICLES ABOUT SEA KAYAKING IN CUBA

Outside 8/00
Cuba: A Dry Run: Peter Heller description of his unsuccessful attempt to be the first to kayak Cuba¹s Archipiélago de Sabana:
"The Cubans gave us one day. A whole day to explore a section of coast I¹d been eyeing for a couple of years: a hundred-mile stretch from the 400 year-old sugar port of Caibarién to the beach resort of Varadero. A few miles offshore for almost that entire length is the Archipiélago de Sabana, a chain of wild mangrove islands. The water between the coasts and the archipelago are shallow, protected from wind and waves. Beyond the keys, the water deepens, bell clear, and lobsters school so densely a freediver can easily pick up dinner. There are sand beaches cut from the thickets, and on some of the islands clusters of tall cedar trees flag freshwater springs. The north coast is a kayaker¹s dream, yet no one has ever paddled it for any distance."

Outside 7/01
Smuggling himself on to a Hemmingway-inspired junket to hunt birds and fine cigars, Peter Heller investigates Cuba¹s imminent emergence -- and limitless potential -- as the world¹s next adventure headquarters.

ARTICLES ABOUT TRAIL RUNNING IN CUBA

TrailRunner 1/02
A runner discovers freedom on the trails of the forbidden island.

ARTICLES ABOUT SURFER/DIVING IN CUBA

Surfer 6/99
"The story of a 13-man surf excursion to Cuba. They discovered that they weren¹t the only ones riding the waves: ³When the Cuban kid paddled up, I did a double take. . . . on closer inspection [his board] became a hideous, pasty-white sponge with hand-drawn logos. The poor board looked like it belonged in a leper colony. Seeing this kid paddle up on a his decaying Frigidaire, grinning from ear to ear, the mere 90 miles between here and Florida seemed as far as the moon."

National Geographic Article: Cuba Reefs
Gardens of sponges and exotic fish bloom in the pristine cays of Cuba, the Caribbean's largest submerged island shelf.
By Peter Benchley. Photographs by David Doubilet.