A Climber We Lost: Álvaro Peiró
You can read the full tribute to Climbers We Lost in 2024 here.
Álvaro Peiró, 32, April 2
Álvaro “Pop” Peiró died on April 2. He was 32 years old. Peiró, originally from Madrid, Spain, had been living in Mexico since 2020 and spent the last few years as a full-time climbing guide in El Potrero Chico.
Guadalajara-based climber Edgar Carrillo, who met Peiró when he first came to Mexico, said his late friend impressed him immediately. “He was fast, he was strong on the wall,” said Carrillo. Peiró was a versatile, multi-disciplined climber. When he first arrived in Mexico, he traveled around, but when he landed in Potrero, he was hooked. “Once he saw the potential there, he didn’t want to leave,” said Carrillo.
Carrillo said his friend wasn’t just “a seriously strong climber,” someone who could dust hard 5.12 and 5.13 in few attempts; he was also equally stoked for the grueling, sluggish aspects of climbing. “Some people are good climbers, but they’re lazy, they don’t want to do a long approach, carry big packs, put in the work to develop routes,” said Carrillo. “Not him, man. Álvaro was the opposite. He was disciplined, fearless, waking up early every day, always ready to go.”
Peiró had a large cadre of climbing friends and companions, but even when his partners ran out of fuel or psych, he kept going on his own. “He was always out there alone, bolting, climbing, pushing it,” said Carrillo.
Multiple friends remarked that Peiró balanced a high level of stoke with maturity, wisdom, and foresight. “Álvaro was 18 years younger than me, but the difference in age was never apparent,” said another longtime climbing partner and close friend, Alex Patiño. “He was a person I could trust with anything, whose advice I really valued.”
“From the first day I met him, I was impressed with how happy, open, and positive he was,” Patiño recalled. “Álvaro always had a huge smile on his face, and he was always trying to make people feel comfortable, to meet them on their terms.”
Patiño added that Peiró was a large part of the reason he was inspired to get back into the sport: “I climbed when I was younger, and I had stopped climbing, but Álvaro was always encouraging me to climb more. I found the passion again through him.”
Peiró was a constant figure in Portero, particularly as a guide, but Carrillo said he’d lately been excited about the potential elsewhere, particularly in Monterrey’s La Huasteca Canyon. Patiño added that, although Peiró enjoyed trying hard, he also really enjoyed guiding clients on moderates, like 12-pitch EPC ultraclassic Estrellita (5.10b). “He probably did that one hundreds of times,” said Patiño. “He never got bored of it, and he loved sharing it with his clients.”
Patiño also relayed a fond memory from friends Uri Anglada and Marcelo González, who established a new eight-pitch 5.12d with Peiró in La Huasteca. Peiró and Anglada, also from Spain, had downloaded the dating app Tinder as soon as they arrived in Mexico, and all three men were trying to see how many matches they could score. “When one of them was bolting, the other one belaying, the third one was working his way on the app,” Patiño said. “By the end of the second day, Uri and Marcelo had two matches, and Álvaro had about 25…”
Peiró invited some of the girls he’d met on Tinder to visit their crew at their campsite, before he and his companions made their free push on the route. “It was quite far, and not easy at all to get there, on this bad dirt road,” said Patiño. “Nobody thought they would come, but then when they were on the fourth pitch, they saw a car coming…” Peiró’s charm had worked, three girls from the city—having each matched with Peiró—had decided to come out for an adventure. The guys all rappelled down and greeted them, and prepared a nice bonfire and dinner. The experience gave the route its eventual name, Tinder Push.
Another friend, Gabriel Castillo Ruelas, fondly recalled the time he, Peiró, and Carrillo worked together to establish a six-pitch 5.11d, Noches de Psilocibina, in Jalisco’s San Cristóbal de la Barranca. “Edgar, Álvaro, and I ended up lying down to sleep at only 4:00 p.m. on crashpads next to where we camped, just totally tired, but so happy to finish,” he said.
“The most recent time we were together was in Potrero. We had a party from 11:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m the next day. The two of us organized the party, and we danced all night. At the time I didn’t know it, but it was a farewell party. We didn’t know what was coming.”
Peiró was murdered during a violent robbery in downtown Bogotá, while on a climbing trip to Colombia, only days before he’d planned to meet up with Patiño and other friends. He leaves behind a wide circle of friends, both in the climbing world and beyond, as well as his mother, father, brother, and sister.
You can read the full tribute to Climbers We Lost in 2024 here.
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