CERRO PESCADORES, PICO RISCO	Private trip	February 6-7, 1982
Eight Desert Peakers met at Heber Sand Dunes County Park at. 6:30 am Saturday. This park, about 5 miles east of Highway 111 and 3.5 miles north of Calexico, is a handy meeting place for trips to Pescadores. It has tamarisk trees and lots of level, sandy camping spots but the campground was littered with empty cans and bottles. We followed Bill Russell's write-up in Sage #141 and our three cars had no difficulty in arriving at the roadhead. We started the climb at 8:25 am. Since all were experienced climbers it was not necessary to take a careful bearing on the peak when we turned from the wash southwest towards the peak. After a couple of hours we were aware that we were in then wrong canyon; as a result we added at least 300 meters of gain to the climb. Shortly afterward, one of the climbers injured his foot and had to return to the cars. We reached the summit at 1:45 pm. After a 40 minute rest we started down the ridge, generally heading for the pass between the two hills on the far side of the wash. The ridge went well but it was 6:20 pm and after dark when we reached the cars. After a five course dinner and replenishment of body liquids, only Cuno was in a mood to travel to the next roadhead so we stayed at the cars for the night. We rose at 4:00 am Sunday and traveled back to Mexican Highway 5 and north to Mex 2 where we said goodbye to Jim Murphy and Mary Sue Miller who returned via Calexico. The other cars went 22.2 miles west on Mex 2 and then turned south on the dirt road (there is a sign reading "Canyon Guadalupe"). This is now a good graded road but with a heavy washboard pattern. At about 6 miles the road forks (take the major road which goes southwest). At 26.6 miles from Mex 2, where there is another "Canyon Guadalupe" sign, we turned west on the private road leading to Canyon Guadalupe. The first stretch of this road is much improved over the sandy strip that formerly led to Canyon Guadalupe but the last stretch is as rocky as ever. The climbing group was reduced to four: Cuno, Norm Rohn, George Smith, and Maris Valkass. They started for Risco at 7:30 am, generally following the route described by Bill Russell and reached the peak at noon. A rope was carried for the step-across but was not needed. All were down by 4:30 pm. We had good climbing weather: good visibility and enough cloud cover to keep us relatively cool. The expected storm broke after we returned to Mex 2 and were safely out of the mountains. The Mexicans we met were friendly. We were also greeted with the usual run of anti-American signs: "Yankees Go Home" and "Gringos Out of El Salvador," but they were in Spanish and must have been for local consumption only.
	Joe McCosker

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