Some will recall that I wanted to vote this peak off our list. One never really regrets a trip which has included beauty and solitude, but I still don't think Navajo should be on the list. The summit was disheartening, and the drive is long and expensive any way you do it. The Navajo country is great, but a traveller's time might better be spent seeing the sites of early settlement, or perhaps we could find a mountain there without a 4x4 road to the top.
Our private trip to Pico Risco and Cerro Fantalones started out as planned. My daughter Julie and girl friend Diana Davis and I left Norwalk about 6:30 am on the Friday after Thanksgiving.
Later we had coffee with; Patty Kline, Bob Harunian, Julie Rush, Bobby DuBeau and Alan Hill at the Burger King in San Ysidro.
We drove across the Internacional Border and then along the Pacific Ocean to Ensenada. We had a tour of and lunch at this beautiful seaport town in Baja California, Mexico, on Friday noon. We stopped at Ojos Negros for Ice Cream on the way into (the now dry) Laguna Hansen in the "Parque Nacional Constitucion de 1857". Just to the east of the lake we camped behind "Victor's Rancho". who is a friend of Alan Hill, a newcomer who was climbing with us. The drive and climb Saturday morning to Pico Risco went find thanks to Bobby DuBeau's navigation.
But when we got to the top of the Peak what did we find? A register placed by the "Groupo de Alpines de Tijuana" and it said we were on a different peak, a peak called 'CERRO RASCO'! But since two of us had been here before we I knew we were on Pico Risco. One peak, two names! May I suggest as we are guest in Mexico that we use the name the Mexicans use, CERRO RASCO!!!!!
We got up early Sunday morning for the mystery climb of unknown "Cerro Pantalones"; why was it named for a pair of Pants? was it a class 3, 4, or 5 peak? After starting my car I discoverd a problem. Bob Hartunian found after three hours of work replacing a fan belt that my water pump was broken. Pulling out the tow straps we decided to pull my car back to Ojos Negros for repair. We broke both Bobby DuBeau's and my tow nylons several times each on the way back into town. Mine I belive was rated at 6000 pounds test. WHEN BUYING A TOW LINE GET 10,000 POUND TEST OR MORE!
We had a nice trip and a fun week-end but we missed Cerro Pantalones. WE SHALL RETURN! Whom out there knows about this peak and/or would like to join us next time? Randy Bernard
 |
I read with pleasure the poem that Jay Holshuh transcribed from a metal plaque on the summit rock of Picacho del Diablo. I also was moved by this poem when I first ('79-'80) read it at the Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City; it was engraved on a marble tablet facing the inner courtyard (I'm enclosing a photo, I hope the legend is legible). Jay's Spanish version is longer than the Mexico City text; I can't improve on Jay's translation. |
