New El Diente climb at Monterrey in Mexico

EL SON DEL VIENTO by Gareth Leah

The idea of the wall first came to me in April of 2014 while visiting Monterrey, Mexico to learn more about the at-risk youth program of Escalando Fronteras. While in Monterrey, local climber Joel Bert Guadarrama invited me to an area he was developing alongside American Mark Grundon named "El Diente" after the giant tooth shaped peak that stood above the tufa-filled walls he was bolting below. Though the single pitch sport climbing was truly world class, my attention was drawn more to the giant wall at the back with its distinct shape, semi-remote location and lack of routes on its striking north face. I knew immediately that I wanted to make a route here but at the time I was tied up the process of establishing another big wall route, The Life You Can Save 5.12+, 350m on the north face of Pico Independencia.

With this, El Diente was put on the back burner until the following winter when I planned to return to Mexico with more time to dedicate to the wall and to form a team for the route. I returned to the US and to the 7am - 8pm grind of an arborist job where I spent my evenings discussing dream routes with potential partners. One of these guys was my good friend and big wall climber from Chihuahua, Sergio "Tiny" Almada. Tiny had established big wall first ascents on El Gigante (Tehue) and Piedra Bolada (Rastamuri) in Basaseachi, Chihuahua, Mexico and on the wall of Peña Aman route 'Los Delincuentes' in Huesca, Spain.. Tiny also brought with him a friend from Juarez, Octavio "Ocho" Aragon. Though less experienced than myself and Tiny, he was a quick learner and a big wall machine, especially when it came to getting it done.

Fast forward to November 2015 which marked my return to Mexico and our plans were set. In the months prior to attempting the wall, I had taken some short trips back to Monterrey from the US, each time making an attempt to reach the base of the wall which had seemed unreachable to me no matter which way I went. I eventually was able to reach the base on my final trip with help from local climbers Carlos Flores and Diego Guittierez who bushwhacked with me for hours through the thick Mexican jungle.

The climb itself takes a more or less direct line from the base to the summit, tackling many of the distinct features the wall offers including a number of steep roofs and tufa sections. The route is a pure sport line that requires little more than a rope, some quickdraws and some multi pitch experience. It is equipped from top to bottom with rappel stations and many of the crux sections are possible to french free through. The route required a normal amount of cleaning to remove plants, loose blocks and fragile holds that we encountered along the way. The wall is tall, but not so wide and much of available rock is not climbable due to the surface being heavily calcified with a perfectly blank and smooth layer.

A huge thank you to everyone that helped make this dream a reality including Joe Bert Guadarrama, Carlos Flores, Diego Gutierrez , Riki Lopez, Adrian Ayala Orejoa and of course my fearless team mates Tiny Almada and Ocho Aragon. None of this would have been possible without them. We truly became a team on the wall, thinking for each other became second nature and we had an awesome time doing something we all love. Thanks also to the original wall team that will undoubtedly inspire generations more with their visionary route.

LOCAL CLIMBING HISTORY
as told by Adolfo "El Filo" Flores and translated by Tiny Almada

El Diente is an impressive rock formation, that captivates attention. Due to that, we weren’t the first ones to have in mind to go and climb it from the most iconic side: the north face.

In 1962 the Sierra Nevada Club of Monterey conquered the summit climbing via West Face through rough class III & IV terrain, and later some years they decided to open a climb going up in the north face. This took a lot of effort since the style of the time was were doing it ground up, and with old school techniques and movements that they learned by themselves and even testing some new ways to go up that they invented. Totally visionaries in the Mexican Climbing history, complete given to the passion of climbing and the development of it. They changed their jobs, families and responsibilities to go and conquer a summit or climb up a new wall. They tried so hard on El Diente (north face) even to the point that it took a pair lives: one from a climber that got stung by bees and fell to his death, and other that had leukemia and couldn’t fight it anymore (In commemoration of his death they placed a cross at the half of the wall 200m high up). At the end, they were stopped by a set of roofs that couldn’t be climbed in aid with their techniques. They tried everything, going into a traverse and getting up on the old line, then rappel to take a look and see which kind of protection they would need. This clearly opened more their eyes and saw that in fact it was a difficult task to get over it. Finally their enormous efforts reached to an end, due to the difficulties in the wall and the different paths that took the mountaineering clubs from Monterrey, they abandoned that route, only with hopes that someone in the future might want to repeat their mission. Remembering this historic climbers: Miguel Angel Villareal Garcia, Dionicio Rodriguez Durón, Rogelio Trevińo Manriquez, Adolfo Flores "El Filo" and Humbero Pérez And giving thanks for their heritage.