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Seasonality
Description
Face
Slab
Wet in rain
This is a great place for beginning climbers and those aiming to up their game as well. There are about 20 bolted sport routes with grades from 12-23 and some tough bouldering as well. If you are looking for established 25s or harder, Insita, and Uganda for that matter, is not the place for you unless you'd like to pioneer your own lines. In that case, we need you! The Mountain Club of Uganda organizes monthly trips to Insita and on those days, this crag can be quite full. Most days you'll have this crag all to your self.
©Access issues
Allowed
Free for everyone. Insita Luwazi is on community land. Climbers have always had a warm welcome. We pay 3000 Uganda Shillings to park at a nearby house. There is some occasional conflict in the community about who should get those shillings. Up to now, this has not affected the climbers. Call Ishma at: 0773 128 861 and tell him you are coming or just show up. He will let you park in front of his house and can show you around the crag if needed. Ishma maintains the trail to Insita and can clean/thrash the belay area if needed. You can also buy local food and produce from Ishma if you choose. Climbing at camping at Insita Luwazi is free.
©Approach
Steep hike
10-20 min
Leave Kampala via the Gayaza road. At Kalagi, turn left. Shortly outside of the town, turn left again at the Y intersection. Then, upon reaching the village of Kijjo, turn left again. This road will take you directly to Ishma's house. Find the parking at Ishma's house here: https://goo.gl/maps/MLKz4ry9fMQ2
Note: more than a few people have attempted to use Google Maps to navigate directly to Insita/Luwazi. As they navigate to the dome of rock itself, Google takes them to the wrong road on the wrong side of the rock and they end up either very lost or hiking through awful bush to get to the rock. A better approach is to set your navigation to Ishma's house, turn off the main road exactly at Kalagi, and then follow the directions above.
From the parking area at Ishma's, hike behind his house, through his field and straight for the granite dome. You'll see Elie's Boulder along the way. Hike up and over the dome trending left and you'll see the belays bolted on the far side. The easiest hike down is just left of the bolted routes, but you can get down on the far right as well. Many climbers choose to rap down to the belay area and as the routes are all single pitch and 13m high or less, even a shortish rope is long enough reach the bottom on a short rappel.
©Where to stay
You can camp on top of Insita or camp in Ishma's garden. Kampala is about an hour away, so accommodation in Kampala is most convenient. As Luwazi is small, it is usually just a day trip.
©Ethic
Insita is pretty developed, so there isn't much room to bolt new routes. If you see a line you'd like to add, please check with the Mountain Club of Uganda.
©History
"Discovered" in 1962, this crag gets mentioned at the end of the 1962/63 guidebook. The first routes were presumably set by D Pasteur and H A Osmaston, but the old guidebooks do not attribute FAs to the routes at Insita.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, this crag was expanded by L Raaum and his son R Raaum. Those FAs were included in the 1991 edition and have been updated here.
Insita was rebolted/retrofitted and expanded from 2014-2018 and that work is now 90% finished. A few belays/lower offs need to be added to routes sharing chains. Pierre Gay Perret has completed most of this work.
©Plan your Trip
Some content has been provided under license from: © Matt Battani (Matt Battani)
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Matt Battani at Elie's Boulder - Elie's Boulder Normal Route.jpg
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Wed 24 May
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