Neptuno, Guerrero de Luz. I saw this south-facing wall in 2000, but we couldn’t reach it because we couldn’t get a permit to cross private land. This time, with my friends Artemia and Odin, I drove from our home in Jilotzingo, taking nine hours to reach Santa Catarina, Nuevo León, and another 10 minutes to reach La Huasteca National Park. We drove 25km of dirt road from the entrance to Santa Juliana Canyon to the 550m big wall known to local climbers as Neptuno. At Gerardo we met Omar and Juliana Tellez de Luna, the owners of Ranch Santa Juliana, and explained our objective. They asked us for personal information and IDs, in case something happened when we were climbing, then gave us a permit to cross their land.

We started climbing on December 31, spending the next three days bolting the first four pitches and stashing water, food, and gear on the last pitch. Then we left to recharge the drill batteries, and Artemia left for México City.

Javier Israel Odin Pérez Arias and I returned to the wall, jugging the fixed ropes, climbed another pitch, did more fixing, and rappelled to the our first bivy, atop pitch 4.

On day 2, in windy, sunny weather, we climbed two 50m pitches. On day 3, in continuing cold and wind, we moved the bivy to pitch 7, 350m from the ground. We bolted the first part of pitch 8 and rappelled to the bivy in scary thunderstorms. On day 4 we finished bolting the 8th pitch and the first 30m of the pitch 9. The weather was again windy on day 5, when we finished bolting pitches 9, 10, and 11 and reached the top at 3:30 p.m. I can only explain the view as magnificent: on one side the city of Monterrey, on the other the beautiful La Huasteca Park. We rappelled to pitch 7, where we spent our last night on the wall. On day 6 (January 5, 2007) we stuffed everything in the pig and rappelled to the ground, reaching the base at noon, ready for a celebratory beer.

Our line ascends the middle of the wall on good limestone with big holds, gets progressively harder in 550m of climbing, and was bolted ground-up, with 140 bolts (including bolted belays with rap rings). We called it Guerrero de Luz (V 5.12- A0). This is the first route on the wall. It could be repeated in a day with just helmets, 20 quickdraws, and two 60m ropes. But you must get a permit from the family Tellez de Luna of the Santa Juliana Ranch. Contact them through La Huasteca Park.

Luis Carlos Garcia Ayala, Mexico