Inauguration Day in Mexico proved to be a wonderful day of climbing. I left the house at 7:30, took a taxi to the south part of town and sat on the sidewalk eating a tamale while I waited for my buddy Nacho to show up. He arrived in his silver VW Pointer and we drove up to the National Park, Los Dinamos. Los Dinamos consists of four picnic areas, each one higher than the last. The fourth Dinamo has a trail that leads to a very tall rock wall, called La Coconetla. The quesadilla stands were still closed at the parking area, and we didn't pay the 15 pesos to park. We started hiking by 9 and hiked for about 20 minutes to the base of the rocks, geared up and were climbing by about 9:45. We thought we might climb up about two pitches or three and then rappel to the ground, but both of us had in the back of our minds to go from bottom to top.
Los Dinamos is a basalt wall that must be about a thousand feet high, couple that with the fact that you've driven a half hour straight up out of town and hiked for another half hour, and you are way above the ground. Altitude is a factor - the summit is over 9000' and the base is somewhere around 8000'. I kept wondering if I was really out of shape, or just the air was thin. I think it was a little of both.
Summit altitude – 3091 meters above sea levelSo anyways, I convinced my buddy Nacho to let me lead the first pitch. It was 35meters of 5.10A trad, and I grunted and huffed my way to the top. I belayed Nacho up and he wondered why I didn’t put in more protection. I told him I was too scared to stop and fiddle around with gear. He took the second pitch, another 5.10A chimney pitch, which I thought was harder than mine. The views were becoming pretty memorable, and I had left my camera on the ground. Far below, a red VW Pointer was slowly dying in the river Magadelena, adding a little iron to Mexico City's drinking water.
Pitch three was bolted. Nacho and I had both tried to lead it before, and both of us had failed. It has a very committing move to the second bolt, where the holds are not great and if you fall, you hit the deck. I gave it three or four tries, each time falling before the all important commitment point. Finally, I nailed it and continued up. The exit got super steep, with awkward crimpers and tiny foot holds on more than vertical ground. Again, I fell three times before finally putting the combination together and getting over the edge. Nacho decided that it was 5.10C
From that point, three hours into our day, we had to walk. We were halfway up the mountain, and cactus, desert plants, lizards and the far too frequent loose rock called this area home. Carefully, we scrambled through, knowing that if we fell here, it was lights out. The distances were too far to belay effectively and so we just kept our eyes on where we were stepping and stayed away from the edge.
Looking up into the Bosque del Agua, Mexico City’s main aquiferWe found the next pitch, a wobbly bolted pitch that wouldn't be more than 5.9 except for the fact that every rock sounded hollow as you hit it. Nacho led it up and I seconded with the certainty that someday soon, someone would trundle a rock over the edge when they stepped on it, and the route would become just a little less safe.
Nacho and his really big rackIt's hard to explain the sensation when you are a thousand feet off the ground. Everything is so small, the cactus trees, the people whistling at us from the Quesadilla stand, Mexico City off in the distance. Being super thirsty from not bringing water along, kind of sketched from the knowledge that one screw up will take you a long ways down. Those are some of the things that were going through my head. And the next pitch was super dirty and super hard. This high up seems like it gets climbers about once a year, so there was moss everywhere. The rock was split by a vertical, almost overhanging, crack straight ahead. I told Nacho to lead it, and he did. He fell once, and used his gear as aid and finally finished the 15 meter route, almost an hour after beginning it.
I didn't think I could pull it off, as I'm not a big fan of cracks, but I surprised myself and climbed the crack free until the very end, where I fell a few times before getting up it. Nacho and I decided it was 5.10B and would be a great crack if the moss was cleaned off.
We then traversed for awhile and set up a final belay. The summit was in sight, and this pitch was mine. I could see two bolts on smooth rock and then nothing. I began to climb and quickly realized that either this pitch was for a really good climber or it was merely a way to get to the top. I pulled on trees, stuck my hands in holes that I hoped were not inhabited by animals, and groveled up a dirt gulley while reaching out to clip the two bolts to my left. The bolts were spaced so far that a fall would have been bad news. Finally, I got to the top of the bolts and saw an awkward chimney and a face climb reminiscent of the top of Castle Rock, near Leavenworth, WA.
I was exhausted by this point, breathing very hard, and ready to get to the top. I had to place a number of
pieces more, traversed out of the chimney and onto the face. I placed two micro cams as I inched my way up to the very top, my rear end hanging out over an enormous amount of air. As I reached over the summit, a rock broke off in my hand, but I switched my weight quickly so I wouldn't fall, and I tagged the summit. I belayed Nacho up and we looked over the city, the forest, and the quickly lowering sun. We decided that last pitch was another 5.10B.We weren't done. Our exit was to rappel the whole route. Down, down, down. Six rappels and some hairy traverses later, we arrived at our backpacks and water. Nacho and I congratulated ourselves on a job well done, packed up and headed to the car. We arrived at the auto at 6PM, almost nine hours after we had left it. On the way back to the city, we stopped in a village and ate ribs, frijole soup and I drank an ice cold Coca Cola, something I had been craving for hours.
We were covered with dirt, tired, my chest muscles were cramping up, but we were very happy.
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