We bade goodbye to Dowling and turned up canyon. A cattle trail, well-defined in places, follows the south rim of the palm arroyo quite a distance eastward. In a half mile the broad valley terminates and Matomi becomes a narrow mountain gorge. We made camp two miles up canyon, on a sloping bench just above the palm shaded stream. So far we had not caught a glimpse of Pico Matomi. Fortunately, Larry Jones had a bootleg copy of the latest Mexican topo map that shows the location of the peak. With this map, and guessing our location in the canyon, we set off early next morning for Pico Matomi. The walls of Canon Matomi are high and foreboding, but fortunately there are breaks in them. Immediately south of camp, we noticed a steep, rocky side canyon that appeared to lead to the mesa. We scrambled up this narrow gorge, close under vertical ramparts, circumventing dry waterfalls and jumbo boulders. After an hour we entered a surprise mountain basin rimmed on three sides by banded cliffs, somewhat resembling a miniature Grand Canyon. But still we could not see our peak. We crossed the basin and climbed a break in its southwestern wall, then ascended, on snow now, a sloping ridge to the rim of the volcanic tableland known as Matomi Mesa. Bud Bernhard got there first and let out a mighty whoop/ A few minutes later the rest of us reached the rim and saw the reason for Bud's elation. In plain sight for the first time, about three miles south, its cone-shaped mass looming high in the cloudless sky, stood Matomi. Stark, windswept Matomi Mesa is not as flat as it looks from a distance. The tableland is cut by a number of steep gulches, each of which we had to cross to reach our peak. Soft snow and a biting wind added to our chore. The climb of the peak itself proved no problem. We scrambled up class 2 volcanic rock to the north ridge, then southward a hundred yards to the summit. The panoramic view was outstanding, as the peak completely dominates the southern end of the San Pedro Martir. A vast expanse of mesa and canyon country was visible on all sides. Far to the north we could see the rocky horns of El Picacho del Diablo. We caught glimpses of the blue See of Cortez to the east. The Pacific was hidden in fog. Ours was the third known ascent. A Mexican topographic party was here in l957 and their paraphernalia still litters the summit. Louise Werner, Bob Boyd and Bill Holden climbed the peak from the southwest in April, 1970. There were eight in our party, first apparently to climb it from Matomi Canyon. Tom Amneus's altimeter placed the elevation as 5460 feet, almost a thousand feet higher than the 4500 feet shown on the Auto Club map. The frigid wind dissuaded us from tarrying on the summit. We beat a hasty retreat, retracing our steps across snowy Matomi Mesa and down into the deep canyon to camp. Next day we packed back over Gunsight Notch to the cars, satisfied with one of the nicest New Year's vacations in memory. Pico Matomi, by its sheer inaccessibility and dominance of its area, deserves DPS qualifying status. But so do Tres Palomas, Blue Bottle and Cerro Venado Blanco, all voted down by the membership, presumably because they are too far away. I urge more of you Desert Peakers to try these Baja summits; you will not be disappointed. (ED. How about leading a Desert Peaks Exploratory Trip to Pico Matomi next Thanksgiving Holiday, John. There a few of us who are not Baja haters. These peaks are not as far as some of our US list contenders.)

Page Index	Prev	Page 9	Next	Issue Index