North America, Mexico, Gastric Distress — School House Group

Publication Year: 1971.

Gastric Distress – School House Group. On a reconnaissance trip for Colorado Outward Bound School in November, 1969, Rick Medrick and I located a previously untouched climbing area eight miles southeast of Creel in southwestern Chihuahua state. Returning with a group of college students in January, 1970, Rick, Don and Ineka West, and several of the students climbed pinnacles in a group located near the area Jesuit school. Returning with students from an expedition in the Barranca del Cobre, Anne Ketchin and I joined Rick, Don, and Ineka for the final climb up a fine 200-foot tower which we named Gastric Distress in honor of our bouts with local bacteria. The School House group is a confusion of fantastically shaped towers and pinnacles ranging in height from 50 to 300 feet. The rock is volcanic and offers small but frequent indentations for holds. Good piton cracks are rare and protection is mainly by slings and runners around projections. Gastric Distress was surmounted by a short, difficult face pitch on its south side and a long, deep-in-the-rock chimney to the top. Two bolts were required for the exit. The most challenging pinnacles remain to be climbed. NCCS II, F7

Gary Ziegler