I
had the opportunity to climb on two trips this fall with John Smallwood who
has hosted occasional trips to the Canyon Tajo (CT) area in Mexico. This area,
which has combined features of Joshua Tree and Yosemite, has some of the best
climbing and highest quality rock south of the Sierra Nevada. One thing it does
not feature is the crowds. Because of its remoteness, lack of a guidebook, and
off-road approach, it remains an extremely difficult place to find. That is
of course, unless you are following John's highly modified, oversize tire, winch
equipped, four-wheel drive Jeep. Built to order for this adventure, this vehicle
can breeze the miles of rutted jeep roads and deep sand washes of the Baja backcountry,
only stopping for the obligatory pee break and to pull out stuck cars.
The rock is granitic, with a grain
similar to Joshua Tree's quartz monzonite (but without the coarse sand paper
texture that always bloodies my hands after only 3 climbs), making for excellent
grip on hard friction routes. I am told it is much like Yosemite's Tuolumne
Meadows area. The main difference from these other places is the sense of utter
isolation you get here. No rangers, no hikers, and hardly another climber. This
also means no YOSAR, helicopters, or mountain rescue.
You don't often see other people
there. There are only a handful of American climbers that even know how to get
there. One of the few "regulars" is Alejandro Gastelum (known as Alex to his
friends). He drives down from Tijuana, usually dragging one of his buddies from
Rosarito or Mexicali. I usually spot them putting up new routes on one of the
domes or resting at basecamp after a 2-day route on the wall. Most of them are
very good climbers (10a and up). I once saw Alex carrying their portaledge to
the base of the wall. It was the wildest thing I have ever seen. They took one
of those folding lawn chairs you see around pools, welded it into the reclined
position (like a hammock or a cot), and attached webbing to secure it to an
anchor point. Yankee ingenuity (minus the Yankee), at it's best.
There are basically two places to
climb at CT, the many smaller domes on the plateau and the big wall, which drops
down the eastern escarpment of the Sierra de Juarez range.
The big wall is called "El Gran
Trono Blanco" (the great white throne) and reminds me of Yosemite's big
walls, but with a nasty approach. Last year John finished a five-year project
to put up the first route in a decade, "The Millennium", ("El Milenio" in Spanish).
This route of equal parts friction and crack climbing is 2000 feet and fifteen
pitches long. It goes free at 5.11b (or 5.10c if you aid past two hard spots).
As with all of Canyon Tajo's climbs, it was bolted on lead (from the ground
up). Using a modified Bosch rotary hammer-drill and lots of sweat from John
and his friends, they created a safe route. You can read a complete route description
of this route on pages 245-246 of the 2000 edition of the American
Alpine Journal.
The domes at CT are reminiscent of
the huge boulder formations at Joshua Tree. The approaches involve a little
boulder scrambling, the rock is friendlier, and there are dozens of two and
two and a half pitch routes. Most of the routes involve delicate friction footwork,
many of them on crystalline dikes. Bolts are "trad" spaced to add to the excitement.
Apart from a dozen or so gringos, and even fewer Mexican climbers, these routes
are seldom visited.
With names like Domo Blanco, North
Dome, and Bell Dome these formations feature awesome routes. From a relaxed
5.3 crack climb, to teeth chattering 5.11 friction routes, the climbing is superb.
Rumor has it that there are well over 300 routes scattered among these crags.
The area also features great hiking and boulder scrambling, where one might
have a chance encounter with range cattle or bighorn sheep. With such excellent
opportunities for fifth class climbing, I've never been able to pull away long
enough to explore these other activities. The large base camp area has primitive
car camping at an elevation of 5000' with pine trees, campfire rings, and some
beautiful pee spots.
My favorite aspect of this area is
the safety afforded by the high quality bolts that John has used to protect
these routes. He uses customized 3/8 inch stainless steel bolts, that penetrate
4 inches into the rock, and are sealed with silicone to prevent rusting. Each
of these will hold several tons and should last until the next century. Since
1974 John has put up over 150 routes, not only a large financial investment
in stainless steel, but a sizable outlay of sweat as well.
The routes he set before 1988 were
all laboriously drilled by hand. Now, John is replacing many of those old, thinner
bolts with the new 3/8 inch using his modified Botch rotohammer. In addition,
there are dozens of secure stainless steel belay anchors with permanent rappel
rings, making the routes feel safe and facilitating easy descents and top-rope
capability. While it may seem like overkill, it sure feels good when your brain
is sketched-out, your feet are peeling off a 3mm micro edge, and you are contemplating
the twenty-foot fall that will entertain you until the last bolt you clipped
catches you.
After
climbing some of the harder routes, the thing that astounds me the most is that
all these routes were bolted from the ground up! That's the ethic there, and
it must have made for some numb feet and gut- wrenching fall potential. It takes
4 to 5 minutes to drill the hole, hammer the bolt in, and tighten it with a
wrench. That can be both scary and painful on an already harrowing lead. On
top of all that, imagine the burden of climbing delicate routes with the added
weight of an electric rotohammer, piton hammer, and assorted steel bolts and
hardware. This kind of first ascent work, as I found out firsthand, takes huevos
the size of some of these boulders.
I
had the opportunity to climb on two trips this fall with John Smallwood who
has hosted occasional trips to the Canyon Tajo (CT) area in Mexico. This area,
which has combined features of Joshua Tree and Yosemite, has some of the best
climbing and highest quality rock south of the Sierra Nevada. One thing it does
not feature is the crowds. Because of its remoteness, lack of a guidebook, and
off-road approach, it remains an extremely difficult place to find. That is
of course, unless you are following John's highly modified, oversize tire, winch
equipped, four-wheel drive Jeep. Built to order for this adventure, this vehicle
can breeze the miles of rutted jeep roads and deep sand washes of the Baja backcountry,
only stopping for the obligatory pee break and to pull out stuck cars.
After
climbing some of the harder routes, the thing that astounds me the most is that
all these routes were bolted from the ground up! That's the ethic there, and
it must have made for some numb feet and gut- wrenching fall potential. It takes
4 to 5 minutes to drill the hole, hammer the bolt in, and tighten it with a
wrench. That can be both scary and painful on an already harrowing lead. On
top of all that, imagine the burden of climbing delicate routes with the added
weight of an electric rotohammer, piton hammer, and assorted steel bolts and
hardware. This kind of first ascent work, as I found out firsthand, takes huevos
the size of some of these boulders.