The Parque Nacional Cumbres de Monterrey is a large area of limestone big walls in northeastern Mexico. The park is located in the Sierra Madre Oriental, in the state of Nuevo León, and is accessed from the city of Monterrey. [See AAJ 2002 and AAJ 2003 for further information about logistics, recent developments, and climbing potential in the area, best known to climbers for the Cañon de la Huasteca.]

About a year ago I was lucky enough to obtain a picture of an unclimbed wall in the area (25º36'18.28"N, 100º29'51.29"W), just up the road from the sport climbing area Guitarritas. I quickly started to investigate this overhanging, orange-colored wall and found out the access was easy by car.

On February 18, Joel Guadarrama G., Rodrigo Garza Maldonado, Mariano Torres Robles, and I set out for the wall, making a one-hour approach from the road. We soon found out that it was located on private land known as El Caracol, and it was necessary to ask Victor Mata for permission to camp below the wall.

After carrying loads to the base, we started up the wall in late February, climbing a couple of pitches a day, fixing rope, and bolting ground-up. The terrain started easy and grew harder as we made our way up the wall. After 40 hours of bolting over three weeks and eight days of climbing (utilizing one bivy atop the sixth pitch), we reached the top on March 8 and then rappelled the route.

After some rest days, Mariano and I came back to redpoint the route in approximately 8 hours on March 13. We called the climb Confabulación Cósmica (400m, 13 pitches, IV 5.12a). The climb is sustained in the 5.10-5.11 grades, contains many hanging belays, and is best climbed in a day. Overall a great climb, with excellent virgin limestone—it was an adventure to climb it.

Luis Carlos García Ayala, Mexico