Luke Mehall, Writer

I know the sound of death from a falling rock, and it sounds like nothing. Well, at least this one did.

The rock came from above, and as it so often does in Potrero Chico, it presumably came from the climbing party above us.

In this era of my climbing life, I made a habit to not climb below another group, especially in Potrero Chico, with its abundance of loose rocks and flakes. But this was a situation of circumstance.

We were on Sendero Luminoso, the famous 5.12 test piece, made even more famous when Alex Honnold free soloed it, a decade before, on what we all know now was training for his ultimate free solo: Freerider on El Capitan.

When we started up, it appeared that we were the first party on the route, and there was a party on a newish route to the right called Sombre de Muerte (The Shadow of Death). The climbers were so far off to the right I assumed that we would not be in harm’s way if they dislodged any rocks. But little did we know that Sombre de Muerte eventually converges with Sendero Luminoso and climbs right above it—which left us, unknowingly, in the shadow of death indeed.

In a way, Sendero Luminoso could be considered the Freerider of Potrero Chico; I’m constantly amazed and impressed by how many climbers are successful on this route; during the busy season, it seems like there’s always at least one party on it. Sometimes at night while I’m having dinner at my favorite restaurant, Checo’s, I’ll step outside and see headlamps high up on the wall, and I’m content to be in the horizontal, with my amigos and chips, rice, beans, chicken, and guacamole for dinner.

Getting high on tall walls consumed my life for so long that it’s been interesting to ponder what to do next with my athletic and aesthetic aspirations. I could feel the urge to be hanging from my harness a thousand feet off the deck waning.

Sendero Luminoso would be the last one.…..
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Words by yours truly

From: The Dirtbags Aren’t Dead, They’re Just In Mexico, Part 2

Published in Volume 26

Copies start shipping this week.

Release party at Thursday, April 2nd, after party at

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Four months of being away from my PO BOX and these Polaroids were the best thing in there.

❤️

Mad props to Sam and Lani for their massive effort on rebolting Time Wave Zero this week. What an undertaking that so many climbers will benefit from.

A pleasure to finally meet Sam today, and to get to know Lani a little better. We talked about doing a in the future all about bolt replacement and new routing in EPC.