“Baño” Magico – Cleaning Up Santiago’s Most Popular Crag
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Three years ago, Chilean climber Lucho Birkner and friends noticed the impact of rock climbing’s exploding popularity at Bosque Magico, one Santiago’s
most popular crags. They put in the dirty work of cleaning up the area, building better trails and installing signs. When the work was done, the crag
lived up to its name, “Magic Forest.”
This year, the crew returned for another round of cleanup and to see how people were reacting to the new signs and management. They were severely disappointed.
“We found it worse than three years ago,” Birkner says. That led to the new project’s name “Baño Magico,” a spinoff of Bosque Magico, meaning “Magic Toilet.”
“So we did another cleaning, we put up more signs and a lot more…” Birkner says. As part of the project, they created a video with Chachas Films in hopes of reaching people all over the world and inviting them to do the same at their local crags, and to “teach people that they need to start
doing good for the environment!!!” Birkner says.
As the climbing community grows, we need to take care of our crags. For more information, read Keep ‘er Wild – Leave No Trace Tips for Rock Climbers.
Video by Chachas films / Lucho Birkner