Rio Camaronal
verified
Ungraded
High flood risk
Bijagual, Puntarenas
Three kilometres of shale narrows on the Pacific slope, ten rappels with none over 30 m, called one of the essential descents of the Bijagual area.
This is the length play rather than the vertical play: low flow and short drops keep the grade down while 3 km of interleaved narrows carry the interest. The published season field reads Dec to Nov, which is a wraparound rather than a typo and amounts to no closed window. First descent 19 April 2018 by Daniele Rocchi, Edu Gomez and Javito Rodriguez.
Logistics
| Manager | Private land |
|---|---|
| Permit | No government permit. The return crosses private land and an entry payment is handed to the guard at the return parking lot. Landowner toll collected on site, not a government or park fee; the amount is not published. |
| Distance | ~1.9 canyon (3 km); 10 km shuttle required |
| Elevation | ~1210 ft of descent |
| Time | ~5.7 hr (40 min approach, 4 hr descent, 1 hr exit) |
| Technical | Shale narrows, catalogued as Estrechos del Rio Camaronal. 10 rappels, none over 30 m, and no ACA grade published. The flow is not high and the technical level is correspondingly modest. The character is several narrow sections interleaved with walking stretches under heavy vegetation; the first rappel drops straight into the first narrows and the alternation of drops and enclosed corners continues until the creek turns into the Rio Tarcolitos, which ends the descent. A 10 km shuttle is required. |
| Season | Dec-Nov as published, which wraps around to effectively year round |
| Flood risk | Not published by the source, which describes the flow as not high. It is still 3 km of narrows with walking sections between them, and narrows are exactly where a rise in flow stops being cosmetic. |
| Coordinates | 9.71949, -84.58845 |