At 23 years old Gabriel Moch has reached an impressive level as the second Latin American climber to send The Mandala (V12) at the Buttermilk Boulders, near Bishop California (the first was Eduardo Carlvalho who currently lives in Bishop, CA). 

Moch was born in Guatemala, raised in Brazil and began climbing at the age of ripe age 16. After only two years on the rock he sent Morfina (5.13a) at Cerra do Cipo, in Brazil and helped develop a bouldering area near Sao Paulo called Valinhos with over 300 problems varying from V0-V10 where he made the first ascent of many of them.

In 2007 he traveled to the US for eight months eventually settling in Mexico with his family where he began developing some blocs 30 minutes from his home near Toluca at an area called Salazar. 

“A number of other climbers had visited Salazar before I did but they didn't put much effort into looking around. I dedicated maybe a year into opening about 20 interesting problems worth mentioning. There isn't much rock but what’s there is high quality.” Says Moch of Mexico’s Salazar boulders which lie several hours west of the gigantic Mexico City. 

Moch continuted, “My favorite there is a really big dyno I sent which I think is like 2.10 meters or 6.8 feet (I'm 6 foot 2 inches tall) but we actually believe it’s bigger than that! There have been no repeats yet and I did Fred Nicole’s Wonder Dyno (V10) at Hueco Tanks during my last visit and I didn't find it as long or as hard as the one in Toluca.”