If you are a nature lover, you cannot miss the trails that will allow you to discover the granite massif known as the "Cerro Blanco" and the Peñón de Covadonga.
An incredible series of coincidences led to the rediscovery of the granite massif known as “Cerro Blanco”.
Approximately two and a half hours from Torreón, heading to the city of Durango and near the town of Peñón Blanco, there is a granite massif that the locals call “Cerro Blanco”. El Peñón, as my colleagues and I have called it since our interest in it was born, was rediscovered thanks to an incredible series of coincidences. However, we were almost discouraged by two unsuccessful attempts to approach the slopes of the hill, as the dense thorny vegetation made the path impossible.
Someone recommended Octavio Puentes, a native of Nuevo Covadonga, a town near the mountain, who knows the place in a surprising way. Only under his guidance could we find the path that after an hour would take us without problems to the base camp located in Piedra Partida.
The path that Octavio showed us crosses a stream several times and then climbs until it reaches the hill that divides the Rock and a wall that, due to its 50 meters high, we baptize as “the welcome wall”.
From this plateau, called El Banco, the landscape changes even more, since stones of different sizes can be seen, rounded and shaped over time, by the action of water and air. These rocks were once in the upper part of the hill, and something changed that made them detach and roll until they were in that place. The most chilling thing about this is that the change, although slow, has not ended, and we would not want to be the ones who dislodged a single rock.
We continue advancing along the plateau until we reach Piedra Partida, the path is almost flat and with a path that is sometimes hidden in the grass. Piedra Partida offers the best place to camp on the hill, since thanks to its orientation it has a permanent shade that makes it an excellent refuge against the incessant rays of the sun and high temperatures, which in summer exceed 40 degrees Celsius. The site also has a privileged panoramic view that allows you to choose the route to follow or, where appropriate, to observe the progress of the climbers who climb one of the rock walls. Another peculiarity is that at that point there are petroglyphs, which due to the inaccessibility of the site are still preserved in impeccable condition.
Two previous expeditions of the cemac group and the Polytechnic, and references on an Internet page, showed us the established routes; However, we decided to make a new route through a ramp that, after ten lengths of rope, reaches one of the summits of Cerro Blanco. A length of rope is equal to 50 meters, but on this route, due to the shape of the stone and the path we follow, they varied from 30 to 50 meters.
The first three lengths of string were quite easy, roughly 5.6-5.8 (really easy), with the exception of a 5.10a move (between intermediate and difficult) at the beginning of the second length. This gave us the confidence to think that the entire route was going to be easy and fast: easy, because we believed that the entire route would present a degree similar to what we had already passed; and fast, because to install the protections it was not going to be necessary complicated technical sites that take a long time to install. To install the protections more quickly, we had a battery drill with which we could make approximately thirty holes with each of the two batteries that we had.
We had a good scare in the long room; in a 5.10b movement I slipped and fell six meters, until the last protection I had stopped me. Laps 5 and 6 were completely easy and spectacular, with formations that invite you to continue climbing more and more; However, the surprises did not end: when we started pitch 7 we realized that although the drill still had a battery to make many holes, protections were scarce. Due to the ease of the terrain we made the decision to continue putting the screws that would hold us very far away, and in a stubborn attempt to arrive at two full lengths, they were made without more screws than those that are put at the beginning and end of each length. We only had 25 meters to go, but we could no longer continue due to lack of screws, which were essential in that last section, since the rock is totally vertical.
We quickly organize another excursion to finish it. The summit reached turned out to be a false summit; however, the scenery that the place offers from that point is incredible.
We can conclude that the route turned out to be of the expected difficulty, but it took us longer than estimated to do it, with a total of 23 days and 15 people spread over nine excursions. The final grade was as follows: ten lengths 5.10b, the last being of difficulty 5.8a (this graduation refers to the fact that we had to hang on the protections that we installed in order to advance).
The Cerro Blanco, despite our efforts to make it known, remains an unexplored place that presents many possibilities for climbing and hiking. In other words, Cerro Blanco continues to be a granite surprise of more than 500 meters high in the middle of the desert, connected only by a hidden path, awaiting stubborn climbers, willing to develop it and take advantage of the routes that a place so it can and deserves to have.
