North America, Mexico, Chihuahua, Basaseachic Waterfall National Park, The Cascade Wall, Subiendo el Arcoiris

Publication Year: 2001.

The Cascade Wall, Subiendo el Arcoiris. Though about the size and depth of Yosemite, the immense and expansive area of Basaseachic Waterfall National Park hosts almost no routes. El Gigante, the major wall of the area, is up to 1000 meters high and has seen only two ascents, both by Cecilia Buil and Carlos Garcia. Apart from these expeditions in the Candamenia Canyon, there are only a few other routes.

The Cascade Wall, home to Cascada de Basaseachic (Basaseachic Falls), has three routes now. In the 1990s, either a Yugoslavian or a Mexican team is thought to have climbed a large corner system that is about 350 meters long. A blank-looking wall in between the corner and the main arête has bolts linking some thin seams; this appears to be either an aid line or a rappel route.

In winter, 2001, Germans Dierk Sittner and Pete Daumeister and I climbed a 300-meter, ten-pitch sport route on a prominent steep buttress to the right of the other lines. Though we did not free the route, we estimate it will go free at 5.13. Subiendo el Arcoiris (IV 5.12c A0 or 5.13b?) ascends a prow left of a huge waterfall for 900 feet. Our route is farther right than other routes on the wall, and climbs through sequences of andesite and rhyolite. The climbing in this remarkable canyon is excellent and steep. A sport crag with about 50 routes exists just outside the park at Rancho San Lorenzo.

Lucas Laeser