From April 8 to 27, Sergio “Tiny” Almada and I climbed in Candameña Canyon in Parque Nacional Cascada de Basaseachic, likely making the first ascent of a 1,000m wall. The west-southwest-facing wall is situated directly across from the well-known El Gigante and is nearly as tall. The first 300m appear to be covered in plants and loose rock; however, we found a continuous, steep line without much vegetation.

Once in the parkwe hooked up with Valentin, a local man who showed us how to reach a base camp as easily as possible. We were then joined by Isidro, another local who helped us carry some loads, and also by Oscar Cisneros, who would help us with logistics and morale.

We began our approach on the afternoon of April 8 and reached the base of the wall after a six-hour hike and a bivy along the way. On April 9, Tiny and I started up the first pitch while Oscar brought water from the river, located about 80m below the start of our route (some sections of this wall start directly from water level). We fixed the first three pitches (one 5.10 and two of A4) and, having realized the lower section would prove slow and difficult, we decided to take food and water for 15 days. With 84 liters of water, our haulbags now weighed 120kg!

On April 12, Tiny and I took off again. During our first 10 days on the wall we climbed approximately 600m, and at times we were happy to progress 50m a day. The lower section of the face did not have many cracks, and the ones we found were either seams or crumbly. In this initial section of the climb we breached five large roofs, climbed numerous aid pitches up to A4, and did free climbing up to 5.11 with runouts up to 5.10+. Our equipment was very heavy to haul and slowed us down significantly.

After 600m of climbing we reached the first natural ledge and began to see the light at the end of the tunnel: The climbing looked like it would go free, and there were far more cracks to offer protection. From this point we managed to free climb about 100m a day, and this proved to be great fun!

On April 25 we reached a second natural ledge near the top of the wall. Seeing us there, Oscar abseiled down from the top to take some photos, and he slept on the ledge with us that night. From the ledge, we climbed another three pitches and finished the route on April 26 after spending 14 days on the wall. We slept on the summit that night and awoke to the strange sight of El Gigante looking slightly lower than our camp.

We’ve called our 24-pitch route Rastamuri (1,030m, VI 5.11+ A4). We placed 59 bolts, including 40 for belay anchors and the rest only where they’re completely necessary.

Cecilia Buil, Spain