Within the limits of the Magdalena Contreras delegation is located the Dinamos National Park: a protected area. Meeting and recreation site, and an excellent framework for rock climbing.
I am grasping only with my fingers, and my feet - placed in two small edges - have begun to slip; my eyes search busily for another point of support to place them. Fear begins to run through my body like a premonition of the inevitable fall. I turn to the side and a little down and I can see my partner, 25 or 30 meters separate me from him. She encourages me to shout: “come on, come on!”, “You are almost there!”, “Trust the rope!”, “Nothing happens!”. But my body no longer responds, it is rigid, stiff and uncontrolled. Slowly ... my fingers slip! and, in a fraction of seconds, I am falling, the wind surrounds me helplessly without being able to stop, I see the ground approach dangerously. Of reprimands, everything is over. I feel a little tug on my waist and I sigh with relief: the rope, as usual, has arrested my fall.
Calmer I can see clearly what happened: I could not support myself and I have descended 4 or 5 meters that, at the time, seemed like a thousand. I swing a bit to relax and look out into the woods several feet below.
Without a doubt, this is an exceptional place to climb, quiet and away from the noise of the city, I think, now that I can do it. But just by turning my head a little, the urban area appears just 4 km away and that reminds me that I am still in it. It is difficult to believe that such a beautiful and spectacular place exists within the great city of Mexico.
-You're good? –My partner yells at me and breaks my thoughts. –Come on continue, the route ends! –Keep telling me. I answer that I am already tired, that my arms can no longer hold me. Inside I feel a lot of anxiety; my fingers sweat a lot, so much so that with each attempt to grab me again, I only manage to leave a dark stain of sweat on the rock. I take some magnesia and dry my hands.
Finally, I make up my mind and continue climbing. Upon reaching the point where I fell, I realize that it is difficult but surmountable, you just have to ascend with more tranquility, greater concentration and confidence in yourself.
My toes, a little more rested, reach a very good hole and I quickly climb my feet. Now I feel safer and continue without hesitation until I finally reach the end of the route.
Fear, anxiety, apprehension, distrust, motivation, calm, concentration, decision, all these feelings in successive order and in concentration; That's how rock climbing is! I think.
Already on the ground, Alan, my partner, tells me that I have done very well, that the route is difficult, and he has seen many collapse before reaching the place where my fall occurred. For my part I think that next time maybe I can climb it without stumbling, in one go. For the moment, all I want is to rest my arms and put what happened out of my mind for a while.
The experience described above I have lived in a magnificent place, in the Parque de los Dinamos: a protected area located in the extreme southwest of the Mexican count, which is part of the Chichinauzin mountain range, and is our favorite place on weekends. We train here almost all year round and only stop during the rainy season.
In this park, there are three areas with totally different basalt rock walls, which allows us to vary the type of climbing, since each one requires a special technique.
This protected area of Mexico City is known as "Dinamos" because in the Porfirian era five electric power generators were built to feed the yarn and textile factories that were in the area.
For our convenience the three zones where we climb are located in the fourth, second and first dynamo respectively. The fourth dynamo is the highest part of the park and you can get there by public transport or by car, following the road that goes from the town of Magdalena Contreras to the mountainous area; then you have to walk to the next walls which can be seen in the distance. However, in the fourth dynamo the cracks in the rock predominate and it is here that most of the climbers execute the basic techniques of climbing.
To climb it is necessary to know where to place your hands and feet and the positions of the body, in a similar way to how you learn to dance. It is necessary to adapt the body to the rock, my instructor said, when I started climbing; but one, as a student, only thinks about how difficult it is to pull on the arms, even more so when the only thing you can fit is your fingers in the cracks and you can't support yourself on anything. To these difficulties are added others, you have to put on the protective equipment, which are devices to get stuck in the rock, in any crevice or cavity, and others are like cubes that only get stuck and you have to place them with great care. But while you put the equipment on, your strength runs out and fear eats away at your soul because you have to be very skilled and fast if you don't want to fall. Mentioning the latter, it is also important to learn to fall, which happens very frequently and there is no basic climbing course without its respective falls session to get used to it. Maybe it sounds a bit risky or dangerous, but in the end it is a lot of fun and adrenaline rush.
At the top of the fourth dynamo there was a shrine to Tlaloc, god of water, today there is a chapel. The place is known as Acoconetla, which means "In the place of the little children." It is assumed that there children were sacrificed to Tlaloc, throwing them over the precipice, to favor the rains. But now we only invoke him to ask him, please, don't let us fall.
The second dynamo is a little closer and the climbing routes where it is climbed are already equipped with permanent protections. Sports climbing is practiced there, which is a little less safe but just as fun. In the walls of the second dynamo there are not as many cracks as in the fourth, so we must learn again to adapt the body to the rock, hold on to small projections and any other hole that we find, and place our feet as high as we can. to take the weight off our hands.
Sometimes rock climbing is very complex and frustrating so you have to train a lot and spend your time. However, when you manage to climb a route or several without falling, the feeling is so pleasant that you want to repeat it over and over again.
Following the course of the Magdalena River, which is flanked by the walls of the dynamos, we find the first of them very close to the town. Climbing here is extremely difficult because the rock has roof formations and the walls lean towards us; This means that gravity does its job much more efficiently and treats us very badly. Sometimes you have to place your feet so high, to help you progress, that you hang on them; your hands tire twice as fast as they do vertically, and when you fall, your arms are so swollen that they look like balloons almost ready to burst. Every time I climb on the first dynamo I have to rest for 2 or 3 days, but it is so exciting that I can't help but want to try again. It's almost like a vice, you want more and more.
Climbing is a noble sport that allows all kinds of people with different physical abilities to practice it. Some classify it as an art, because it implies a perception of life, a lot of dedication to the cultivation of certain skills and feeling a great hobby.
The reward obtained, despite not being a social activity, is so comforting that it produces more pleasure than any other sport. And it is that the climber must be a self-confident and self-sufficient person, in the best sense of the expression; he is the one who defines his goals and sets his objectives, he must fight with his own limitations and with the rock, without ceasing to enjoy the environment.
To practice climbing it is necessary to be in good health; developing strength and gaining technique are accomplished with continuous practice. Later, when making progress in learning body control, it will be necessary to introduce a very specific training method that will allow us to hold our body with a finger or step on small projections the size of a bean or even smaller, among other skills. . But, the most important thing is that this sport continues to be exciting and fun for those who practice it.
As I like every day more, on weekends I get up early, take my rope harness and slippers and together with my friends I go to the Dinamos. There we find fun and adventure without leaving the city. Furthermore, climbing justifies that old aphorism that says: "the best of life is free."
IF YOU GO TO THE PARK OF DINAMOS
It can be easily reached by urban transport. From the Miguel Ángel de Quevedo metro station, take the transport to Magdalena Contreras and then another with the legend Dinamos. He regularly takes a tour of the park.
By car it is even simpler, since you only have to take the peripheral heading south to later take the deviation to the Santa Teresa road until you reach Av. México, which will take us directly to the park.
Perhaps due to this easy access the route is very popular, and the influx of visitors on weekends is numerous.
Too bad they leave their mark every weekend with tons of garbage dumped in the woods and in the river. Many are unaware that this is the last stream of living water in the capital city, which is also for human consumption.
