El Portrero & El Salto, Mx
That ended our
climbing tour of
the south. We
drove to New
Orleans in a
down pour and
continued onward
towards Mexico.
Upon arriving in
Hidalgo, because
of poor
visibility due
to low hanging
clouds and rain,
the Sierra Madre
mountains and El
Portrero Chico
seemed to me to
appear out of
nowhere. El
Portrero Chico,
in particular,
towered like a
majestic mass of
limestone over
the campsites
and town nearby.
We stayed only 2
days, through
Christmas,
climbing hardly
anything due to
poor weather
conditions at
Portrero before
heading south of
Monterrey to
check out
another climbing
area called El
Salto.
The canyon of El Salto is made up of never ending limestone cliffs, taller and more impressive than Portrero, if only for the expanses that remain undeveloped! Lush greens and white, water smoothed boulders surround your walk in and along the river bed. The river doesn’t flow every year and this year the canyon was dry, which allowed us to rappel down the waterfall into the canyon. This was by no means a time saver to the hike, but rather purely a novelty descent. Throughout my stay, I watched families and quads making their way into and out of the canyon on any given day. Climbers seemed to trickle in and out as well. Most surprising was to meet a French climber, by the name of Laurent, bolting a new line on Las Animas wall. Later we would meet another group of Mexican climbers, one by the name of Diego, who would encourage us to pursue climbing in southern Mexico. Diego was strong and I’d seen him working on a climb that Mike would later send with the help of some of Diego’s beta. The route went at 13c/d. I don’t know if Diego ever sent it because he left the day before we did and I have not been in touch with him since that day in the cave.
While staying at El Salto, another group of climbers we knew who were climbing at Portrero arrived. This was great fun for me! I was the only one climbing on this day from our original group, which allowed me to be a ‘guide’ to the problems for the new arrivals. I showed them the Las Animas wall but did not climb there because we were excited to climb in the cave. We headed up to the cave and warmed up on Felicidad in a low, cool cave before heading up into the main cave to try the Golden Rule, Nosferatus, and Limestoner.
The Golden Rule is one of my favorite climbs in the cave, although, every problem in the cave was a favorite. This climb started in a corner of the cave and then spiraled up and around to end some 40 feet back and up in a cavern. The line is clean, no rope drag, but the moves were excitingly varied. For me, I started by climbing myself into a wedge between to rock faces and butt scummed my way up to a slab where I could further wedge myself. I then had to turn 180 degrees around and cross over a bulge to set myself off of the slab and into the start of the next segment of climbing. Once over the bulge, I had to toehook some tuffa pipes to make a reachy clip along a crimpy rail straight behind me. Once clipped, I reached for the slopey part of the rail to pull my body across and around to a crack ledge on the other side. I couldn’t make this move but if I had, I would have continued to negotiate the crack system left, stuffing my legs in to help move myself along, before lunging for a sloping gaston with a high edge. Once you catch this edge, you heel up with the right foot and mantle and slab climb a few feet up to clip the anchors up and inside a cavern. Super fun!
Noseratus was
completely
differe
nt. It
was ~45 degree
angle with
gigantic tuffa
buldges that you
had to negotiate
your way up and
around. There
were tricky knee
bars, knee scums,
and body presses
that you could
use to help make
your way up, but
I was not
skilled enough
to do the whole
thing. I did
make it to the 5th
bolt and even
though the crux
is at the 8th,
I didn’t have
enough time
there to work on
it further.
Limestoner is more of a typical limestone climb. Some tuffas down low, and some slopey edges (where you were hoping they’d be incut!) at the bolts. A few big moves, but one section of classic tuffa climbing that flowed and varied but where the holds were good and confidence on those moves could be high. A part of me wished for that part of the climb to go on forever!
This was our last night in El Salto so we decided as a group to venture into the little town to find something to eat. To my amusement, everyone kept talking about finding a hamburger place. We are in Mexico! And the last thing I wanted to eat was a hamburger, which fortunately for me, was not what we ended up eating. J Instead of finding the hamburger place, we found another restaurant called Restaurante Fito. It was a family owned place with only a few offerings that late in the evening. Still, for 60 pesos each, we ate like kings! They offered us Carne Asada, Rice, Beens, grilled pork and we asked for it all as a combo. From the tortillas to the salsas, this was the BEST Mexican food I had ever eaten. Not one item on the menu was cooked with onion. Everything had heat but was tasty and tastefully seasoned. This was proof that onions are not the staple for Mexican cuisine and I was happy!
After a leisurely dinner, we walked back towards the river bed but instead of going to bed, we veered off to the left to check out an ongoing fiesta. There was a tent with tables, a band, food, drinks, fireworks and a fire. We were invited to stay but did not linger long. It was enough to have a beer and enjoy the festivities from the sidelines near the fire. That night, I dreamt fondly of my time here.
Leaving El Salto was very hard for me. I felt I only got started climbing there and desperately wanted to stay longer. Diego had invited us further south to Mexico City and by now I was enchanted with the idea. I suddenly wished we had more time to spend in Mexico. Instead, we had to jet back through Portrero for the New Year and up to El Paso to deal with some mechanical needs for the van. Mexico climbing would sadly have to wait for another time.
