Miguel “Mike” Noriega, of Hermosillo, Sonora, and I had not previously met in person when I picked him up in Tucson. With only a few messages online, we hatched a plan to head into the mountains of northeastern Sonora and hopefully establish a new route in a canyon known as La Cruz del Diablo, near the town of Huásabas. This canyon has many large cliffs composed of what I believe is rhyolite. To our knowledge, climbers had not touched La Cruz, although the canyon had seen a few technical descents.

Upon arrival on December 19, we scanned the different areas and chose a line on what is likely the tallest cliff, a 200m south-facing wall on the north side of the head of La Cruz. We started from the ground up, placing gear and bolting from free stances for the first two pitches. After this, concerned about loose rock, we hiked to the top of the cliff and rappelled in, bolting the upper three pitches on rappel while cleaning the whole route and adding a few bolts to the first two pitches. Each night, after climbing, we would drive into the nearby twin pueblos of Huásabas and Granados to gorge ourselves on momias (hot dogs wrapped in tortillas wrapped in bacon) and charge the drill battery.

On our third day of climbing, December 22, we started from the ground and freed all five pitches. The route is visible from the viewpoint next to the road, and we were intermittently cheered on by locals who had stopped to watch. We call our route Puta de la Sierra (600’, 5.11), after a humorous, doctored road sign we found along the nearby highway.

While parts of the climb could be protected with traditional gear, the majority could not, so we made the decision to bolt the entire route. We wanted to make a route that local Sonoran climbers would want to and be able to climb. Unfortunately, we only had 50 bolts (all stainless) so there are some runouts on the easier (5.9 and below) sections. Those solid at the 5.11 grade should feel comfortable without any gear, but less experienced climbers may want a single rack of cams from 0.5 to 5 inches to supplement the bolts.

La Cruz del Diablo has a massive amount of rock, with much more potential for new routes. There definitely are large, chossy sections, but also many areas of immaculate steep rock. Driving across Sonora, we were impressed by the vast potential for future climbing; currently, the only other development has taken place at a few nice sport crags close to the capital, Hermosillo.

­Kevin Kent, USA