IN MEXICO TO OPEN THE EL CACOMIXTLE DE LA NOCHE ROUTE.
Simone Pedeferri, along with three other Ragni friends, embarks on an expedition to Central America to explore wild rock faces discovered online. Once there, among their many discoveries, they discover a raccoon that steals food at night, which inspired the name of the street.
What you are about to read is the story of the third trip to Mexico by Simone Pedeferri, a strong and versatile climber from the Ragni di Lecco mountaineering group. He never expected to return to the warm Central American country, but, as often happens in all of our lives, nothing is perfectly predictable.
It seems it all started when, on a boring day, Simone decided to surf the internet for photos of walls that might inspire him for a possible adventure trip. And it was during his initial searches that he accidentally stumbled upon an extraordinary image: a wall resembling the bow of a ship, a vessel in the middle of a desert!
From there, the search began to understand where the strange wall was located. Mexico, Nueva Leona, more precisely Monterrey. Places Simone has already seen and knows very well. "How did I only just discover it..." he must have thought. Each wall in the Nueva Leona area has unique characteristics, but they all share a common denominator: pure adventure.
A couple of phone calls and the backpack is ready.
Shortly thereafter, Simone proposed the wall to the Ragni, where, without much effort, he quickly found three highly motivated partners: Paolo Marazzi, Max Piazza, and Gio Ongaro. The team was ready to set off for the umpteenth time toward the "new continent": destination Mexico. It was decided that the expedition would last 25 days, with the goal of establishing a new route on Poppa and, in the remaining time, repeating some other beautiful routes in the area.
Before setting off, the four Spiders contacted Jacob Cook, climber and photographer of the photo that sparked the idea. He kindly provided crucial information and announced that he and a partner would be there to open a new route. Perfect, nothing better than climbing together!
Upon arriving in Monterrey, we set off immediately, and a few kilometers outside the city, the four climbers are already on a dirt road in the middle of the desert. They travel for 30 kilometers, until they reach a small village of no more than ten inhabitants: San Jose de la Pop. Here, time seems to have stood still two centuries ago. And it is from this small village that the route to Poppa begins.
The surprises never seem to end.
What strikes Simone most about Poppa is the logistics of the approach: you see it from afar, you scrutinize it from every angle, and then it disappears. In all his years of climbing around the world, Simone Pedeferri has rarely faced a face with the same characteristics as the Verdon Gorge, a face with impossible access from below due to miles of pathless desert. The only solution is to reach the face from the opposite side, then reach the top of the face via a path that leads to the summit plateau and from there abseil down to the base of the wall among cacti and all kinds of prickly, scratchy plants, typical of the popular imagination of Mexico.
Abseiling down a rock face without having climbed it first gives Simone an unnatural feeling. "A few minutes suspended above 300 meters of overhang is enough to balance body and mind and relax into the vertical world," he thinks on the wall.
Once the logistics and transport of materials to the upper camp with the ever-present donkeys were sorted out—equipment, food, but above all, water, more precious than gold in a desert—the Ragni group spent about ten days on this peak. The days passed between attempts, bolting, free climbing, and spending time with their new Canadian and English friends. They were well-equipped with a tent, while the Ragni, like the Russians, were simply equipped with a mat and sleeping bag, optimistically anticipating hot, muggy nights in the desert. This belief was quickly disproved by the early evenings, characterized by extreme winds with gusts that reminded the four members of the expedition of Patagonian air currents. The end result was an extraordinary adventure on the fifth route of the 2-kilometer-long, 300-meter-high face.
And then comes the night friend.
Despite the Ragni's ground-up attempt, which stalled on loose, smooth rock, all routes have so far been opened from above. Logistics and the rock face don't allow for any other approach. However, this factor has in no way diminished what Simone and his companions were seeking: discovery, adventure, the unknown. A new chapter in the book of a climber's life, written by many hands with friends old and new.
Even the name of the route has its own story. After a turbulent, windy night, the group finds scattered food and can't figure out who or what created the mess. Jacob tells them about the legend of spirits called Naguales who live atop Poppa, and is surprised by the Italian group's incredulity. However, after a few days, in the dead of night, they discover that the Naguales rummaging through the food isn't a spirit, but rather an animal from the raccoon family, vaguely similar to a lemur, called a cacomixtle, from which the new route will also be named: El Cacomixtle de la noche.
