Cycling Alaska to Argentina: Colombia’s “Trampoline of Death”

From high atop the Colombian Altiplano at +13,500ft (4,100m) I raced south through Bogotá, Huila, Cauca and Putumayo. At some point I needed to cross over from the Tatacoa Desert corridor into an adjacent valley towards Ecuador. There were only three ways across the mountains, each a +10,000ft gravel climb with its own set of bad reviews.

I sought advice for days, showing maps to locals in small towns and asking which route they thought might be safest. They’d run a finger along specific stretches of wilderness and warn flatly: “Guerrillas.”

Conflicting information came from all sides. A Colombian bikepacker from Medellín advised “NO” [in all caps] between Popayán and Pasto. As to why, he only responded: “Narcos.” News reports corroborated his cautionary tone though, with erratic violence escalating into a FARC militia car bombing this very summer.

Avoiding this area meant that my only option was a small dirt road that Colombians lovingly refer to as the “Trampoline of Death.” I had to laugh at the idea that such a place could be the safest choice. Its map looked more like a seismograph, with jagged spurs and blind switchbacks exploding in all directions.

Those who knew of “El Trampolín” would whistle and recoil, rubbing their hands together as if struck by sudden chills. Landslides, mud tracks and river crossings often closed the pass off entirely. Missing guardrails were haphazardly replaced by loose branches tied together with yellow caution tape.

I climbed without letup until sundown, asking two women with a roadside restaurant if they knew of any safe places to camp. They walked me to a vacant schoolhouse nearby, and in the morning invited me inside for restorative cups of tinto with arepas and hot soup. La abuelita was the most talkative. She wore fluffy pajamas day and night, peeling plantains and shooing chickens away from the kitchen. They wouldn’t let me pay for their hospitality, instead making the sign of the cross and wishing me safe passage ahead.