I opted to lead the first pitch, a 5.10d that roughly follows a crack line, but about 4 bolts up I got spooked. I'm not sure if it was because it was the first climb of the day and I wasn't warmed up, or the crack intimidated me, or what, but I decided I really didn't want to keep leading the pitch. I just wasn't feeling it - my "head space" wasn't right, so I asked Erik if he'd mind switching leads. He was totally cool with it though, so he stormed up the pitch and I hopped on toprope. I actually found that, even on toprope, I had to work really hard to get up the pitch and I was pretty thankful I didn't have to lead it. But somehow I made it up without falling.
First pitch of Snott Girlz
I was pretty hot and exhausted after the first pitch, so I deferred the next lead to Erik as well, another 5.10d. He linked this one and the next one, a 5.10a, without a problem of course. The second pitch also follows the crack line, and was a little bit easier despite having the same rating, and the 5.10a face climb was really not bad at all.
The fourth pitch was a 5.9 straight up the face, so I opted to lead it. I was considering linking it with the next pitch, except that after the belay ledge you have to do traverse directly right about ten feet, and I was worried about rope drag, so I brought Erik up instead.
The only pitch I led yesterday
Since I already had him on belay when he got there, he kept climbing and led the next 3 pitches, all 5.9. The first of these (#5) was really quite fun and interesting, with lots of cool jugs up a blocky section, and #6 was pretty similar and fun as well. I heard this really strange noise when climbing the sixth pitch though, which turned out to be a palm tree at the top of the climb whose leaves were rustling in the breeze.
Check out this crazy traverse.
The last pitch, if you can even call it a pitch, was pretty short, and summits the gendarme. You kinda climb right around the arete, and into somewhat of a dihedral, and the last 12-15 feet is a right-hand crack that you pretty much have to use to get up to the top. Being a terrible crack climber, I wasn't too excited about it, but I made it up anyway =)
The summit was pretty cool, but also very similar to the summit of Pancho Villa. Which makes sense since it's on the same wall.
Erik's exhausted from too much leading.
When we simul-rapped down to the ground, there were tons of climbers cragging the Mota Wall next to us, so we had to be extra careful not to pull any rocks down onto them. It was pretty funny though, at one point there were four climbers on the wall at the same time on routes right next to each other, at different heights. If my camera hadn't run out of battery, it would have made for a hilarious photo.
Anyway, we cragged another 5.10d, then went back to camp for beer and dinner (in that order).
We caught word of some kind of festival in Hidalgo, so we rounded up some people and drove into town for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. It was really pretty cool - there were tons of people at the church near the main plaza, and inside the church they were doing some kind of Catholic ceremony. Outside the church, they had a bunch of food vendors selling food that could be purchased with tickets, as a fundraiser for the church. There were hamburguesas, tacos de trompo, tamales, enchiladas, and hot dogs. While I was eating my 10-peso hot dog, a bunch of kids came out in Mexican Indian garb and performed a dance for everyone. I'm not sure what the dance was called but one kid was playing the devil, and the idea was that the other dancers were containing the devil to make sure he can't touch the people. It was really cool.
Then we gringos bought some ice cream and went home =)
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