Retracing Kevin Worrall's "Cataviña, La Misteriosa" in Baja California, Mexico

I managed to find a copy of the August/September 1995 issue of Climbing magazine and Kevin Worrall's Cataviña, La Misteriosa article earlier this year and on a return trip from surfing Scorpion Bay, I spent 3 days retracing and mapping every climb mentioned in the article.  I'm happy to report that I found every single climb and area in the article save for two: Crystal Mountain Arete (5.12a) and La Estrella del Sur (5.13a).  This amounts to over 20 routes--boulders, sport, top rope, trad--developed over the last 50 years, by such climbers as Charles Cole (late founder of Five Ten), Paul Piana (first ascentionist of the Salathé Wall).  Many of them have been lying dormant, untouched, for years- perhaps decades.  I've added them all in their entirety to MP here.  If you are a Baja enthusiast, check them out!  There are some serious classics in there.

It was quite fun using Kevin's hand-drawn map to scramble over miles and miles of desert scrub.  I was aided by my Tacoma, a pair of binoculars, and a DJI drone that allowed me to find the top anchors of many boulders I may not have been able to find otherwise.  Unfortunately, I could not find the most striking climb in the article, Crystal Mountain Arete, as its location had no beta.  I attempted to use geographic clues from the images to find it but ran out of time.  I hope to find it the next time I go down.  Given that Kevin was/is a surfer like myself, I have a sense that he left this climb without approach beta intentionally, like surfers tend to do with their "secret spots".  This is a sacred thing for surfers, especially in Baja, so it is amusing to see that impetus bleed into climbing in this case.

Kevin seems to have left Mountain Project and I could not find any presence of his on the internet.  Crazy to realize that the person that wrote the article in just 1995 is probably over 70 years old now, and perhaps his days of exploring Baja are behind him.  Some other climbers featured in the article are Sean Myles, Darcy McDonald, Mark Chapman, Sean Shannon, George Hoover, and Johnny Forte.  If anyone keeps in contact with these folks, perhaps they would we willing to share the beans on the location of the lost Crystal Mountain Arete.  If anyone wants to search for it with me, let me know, I'm down.

https://www.mountainproject.com/forum/topic/127379525/rip-mark-chapman

Sorry to hear about Mark Chapman's passing.  My condolences.

Good job! I tried to climb in Cataviña two years ago and got hopelessly lost trying to find anything. Lots of impressive formations but little that seemed climbable. And then it started raining.

Damn that's so cool that you've pieced all that together!

Last winter the GF and I did a rampage at cataviña, but no crash pad so we just ran around like kids climbing unknown stuff, hopped on a few bigger rocks with the ropes. I saved some of the GPS location and really want to come back with proper equipment next time!

Cataviña is a magic zone. It's like 15 JT wonderlands in one 30 square mile radius. Took a long trip there for fa bouldering and found plenty of stuff. Many previously done boulders in the areas around Kevin's map. Many obvious lines had chalk, Tijuana climbers come down here a lot in the winter. Some were marked with a nail polish symbol. If your stopping through, bring a pad. the the areas Kevin talks about are right off the road. Sandy 4x4 recommended but not necessary unless there has been heavy rains since i last went. 

 This area has Unimaginable potential. The large rock pile 15 miles south of town is the best zone I think. Camping there.  on the back side approached from the north. Google maps helps for this forgotten zone. 

If you come here make sure your camp is not visible from the highway, fires not recommended. Not a particularly dangerous spot, but a road cyclist was robbed on the highway once. Better to be cautious and follow my typical Baja rules of not Camping in a place visible from the highway. San Quentin and north is 1000x more dangerous on the west highway. Always pay to sleep in a compound/campground north of San Quentin. 

Happy sploring!