Climbing in Mexico: Worth the Risk?

In general I find that people are incredibly terrible at assessing risk. For example, parents are more afraid of letting their kids play at a friend's house whose parents own a gun than at a house with a swimming pool, but guess which one is 100 times more likely to result in accidental death?

As a species, we are far more afraid of activities associated with sensational news than really makes sense, from a statistical point of view. I don't want to discount the recent incident in Hidalgo, but I sincerely believe it was a one-time freak occurrence. Meanwhile every day in American cities, people are murdered, robbed, and assaulted and nobody even notices or cares.

I spent four months here last year, and literally NOTHING bad ever happened to me, nor did I ever feel unsafe in Hidalgo or EPC. You might be looking for trouble if you walk around the bad parts of Monterrey at night, but you never have to go into Monterrey while visiting here - the road from the airport stays north of the city. You also don't drive through the city if coming from Texas.

Look, climbing is a dangerous sport. It amazes me that the same people who are so bold on the rock are afraid of coming to Mexico, yet I can pretty much guarantee that you are 100x more likely to get hurt climbing than you are to experience any negative consequences from being here. And just like climbing, there are things you can do to mitigate your risk. For example:

• If driving, cross the border during the daytime, and don't stay in Nuevo Laredo longer than it takes to get your visa and car permit.
  
• Drive on the toll roads. They are smoother, faster, easier, and safer.
  
• Avoid Monterrey if possible, especially at night - like any large city, there's bound to be some violence in the bad parts of town.
  

El Potrero Chico is an amazing, beautiful place, with towering limestone crags jutting out of the ground at an impossibly steep and awe-inspiring angle. Don't let your fear of the unknown prevent you from experiencing all that it has to offer.

Climber Injured on Mota Wall

So a few days ago, on Monday night, I was eating some dinner that some friends and I had cooked in the La Posada kitchen. We hadn't been eating long when Magic Ed came into the kitchen and said to us, "Hey guys, I hate to interrupt your dinner, but we've got an injured climber and we need all the help we can get."

We immediately got up from the table and started gathering our gear. Ed said we should bring ropes, harnesses, slings, etc., but he was a little vague on the exact details of what happened or where. There weren't very many of us at camp so he rounded up a few more people in the other camps and we headed down to the Mota Wall in the van.

When we got out, we could already hear moaning coming from pretty high up on the Mota Wall trail. Apparently what had happened was this: Ed and Frank had been descending from a route after spending some time bolting it, and they had two different ropes set up for the rap down. In order to make it down, both Ed and Frank needed to switch ropes at the last anchor in order to rap all the way down to the ground. Ed had rapped first, but I guess Frank forgot to switch ropes at the anchor and kept going... and rapped all the way off the end of the rope, and fell about 20 feet to the ground. Apparently there was no knot at the end of the rope /-:

Despite wearing a helmet, Frank hit his head pretty hard, and seemed to have fallen on his right shoulder / arm pretty hard as well, and tumbled a bit down the trail before stopping. When we got up to him he had blood all over his face and some on his arm and shirt and he was moaning loudly from the pain.

The Brazilian guy (whose name I unfortunately don't know) got to him first, and apparently he used to be a firefighter in Brazil, so he took control of the situation and started asking Frank the typical questions, like what's your name, do you know what time it is, do you know where you are, etc., trying to determine how conscious he was. And of course, what had happened and where he hurt. He helped get him into a more comfortable position and kept talking to him.

It was pretty clear that Frank was in shock - he was in severe pain, he was cold, he was panicked, and most of all he was scared. He kept saying he needed to get the hell out of here, off the damn mountain. It's been quite a while since I've seen someone in that kind of state, panicked and bloody, and it made me tear up a little, thinking about just how fragile life can be sometimes, how one mistake can change everything.

We did a few things, like give Frank some water, and tried to stabilize his right leg (which seemed to be in pain?) and his right arm / wrist, which seemed to be broken. But really there was little we could do until the ambulance arrived. When the police came I hiked down because I wasn't sure if anyone was telling them what was going on, so I thought I'd try to advise them of the situation. I told them that Frank was high up on the hike, near where the lights where, and that we needed a stretcher. But the ambulance wasn't there yet.

After what seemed like an eternity, the ambulance finally arrived with a team of 5-6 medics. Thank God. They set up their gear, and followed us up the hike until we finally reached Frank. It was relatively high up there, maybe 200 feet above the road, and a pretty steep hike. Once there, they started outfitting him with better equipment to stabilize his head/neck, his arm, and his leg.

Frank was in a lot of pain, and they didn't give him any painkillers, other than the Ibuprofen that Ed had given him earlier. It was very difficult and painful to get him onto the backboard, and then they had to attach the backboard to the sled so that he could be carried down.

Us climbers had set up 3-4 climbing ropes attached to trees so that we could attach the rope to the top of the sled and help "belay" him down the very steep hike while the medics and climbers helped support the middle and bottom of the sled. Fortunately, once he was in the sled it didn't take us much more than 10-15 minutes to get him down since everyone was helping.

Soon after, they loaded him into the ambulance, and figured out which hospital to take him to, and took off. The rest of us climbers watched the ambulance drive off in silence, contemplating the seriousness of the situation. It seemed to us at the time that Frank's injuries were not so severe that he would die, but... you never know. He's also an older guy, at least in his sixties, so we were all pretty concerned about what would happen next.

As of this writing, I believe that Frank is still alive and in the hospital, and I think he's getting better, which I am very grateful for. I didn't know Frank particularly well, but I did climb a couple of routes with him last week and I also recognized him from last year. He's really a nice guy, and I really hope he pulls through.

I have to admit that I personally didn't do anything particularly heroic, except perhaps dropping everything to go help out a fellow climber. Anyone in my situation would have done the exact same thing. But it was really heartwarming to see so the EPC climbing community rally together to help someone who'd been injured. Together we were able to get him off the mountain, and it was great to see so much teamwork, solidarity, and unity among us.

I also want to give special thanks to the Brazilian guy, who took control of taking care of Frank, and Edgardo, who was instrumental in translating between Frank (who only speaks English) and the medics who only speak Spanish. Plus, Edgardo went to the hospital with him and spent all night there.

Please, please, tie knots in the end of your ropes when you're rapping off of a multipitch, wear a helmet, and double-check everything. Climbing is dangerous, but most accidents are preventable. Stay safe out there.

Firespire

[This post is backdated and from memory. Apologies.]

So my buddy Quest is really big into fire poi / fire dancing. If you haven't heard of it, basically you light things on fire and swing them around doing tricks while dancing. He's actually pretty damn good at it, and he taught me a couple of new tricks.

Anyway Quest found out that there was some kind of online contest where they wanted photos of "Extreme Poi", doing poi in crazy awesome places. So he decided that the ULTIMATE place to do some poi would be on top of one of the spires at El Potrero Chico.

Imagine doing fire poi on top of this guy.

So, we made a plan. We decided to wait until the full moon, climb the downhill spire slightly before dark, and have another team of climbers climb the other spire and take photos of Quest on the top, doing fire poi. Unfortunately, we started climbing a little bit late, so it was getting kinda dark when Quest led the first 5.7 pitch of Crack Test Dummies, and by the time I started the 5.9+ pitch it was seriously dark. Fortunately, I had a headlamp, but I couldn't figure out how to attach it to my headlamp, so I wore it around my neck, used it to check for bolts, and mostly climbed in the dark. I could barely see the holds in front of me. Plus the climb is super scary and a bit run-out so I was pretty freaked out. But I made it, and Quest followed. I think Quest was even more scared than I was, haha.

Anyway, soon after we got up there, the moon came out, and I belayed Quest as he climbed the last 10 feet from the second anchor to the very tip top of the spire. It's kinda small and sketchy up there, so Quest was pretty scared, but he hugged the spire and did some fire poi while sitting down. Here are some photos:

Quest had to clip these sketchy pitons on the way up.

Quest getting set up under the full moon.

Sick!

This one's my favorite.

Slacklining the Spires!

[This post is backdated and from memory. Apologies.]

So this guy named Richie, from Canada, and some other guys decided that they wanted to set up a slackline between the spires at Potrero. I'm not exactly sure how they did it, but I suspect that they climbed up to the saddle between the spires and then had two teams of climbers climb the two spires at the same time with some slackline webbing attached to them. This is what it looked like from the road:

I don't know who that is, but they walked all the way across!

Quest and I climbed Crack Test Dummies (5.7 / 5.9+) to get up there, to see if we had the balls to try to slackline across the spires. Here's us up there:

Good times!

As it turned out, Quest was terrified of the idea of slacklining, and decided to do a Tyrolean traverse instead. He was still scared, but he did it.

Quest finally relaxes and starts having fun.

I also decided to do the Tyrolean first before thinking about trying to walk the line.

Incredible feeling of exposure!

I put my foot on the line to see how it felt, but it looked like I'd have to walk out kinda far to not fall on the rocks under the start of the line. Also my slackline skills were not exactly up to par, so I wussed out.

Pretending I'm about to do it.

Quest also thought about it, but decided not to.

Nice pose!

So yeah, the Tyrolean was really fun, but next time I want to make sure I have enough practice / confidence slacklining to feel like I could try it without falling right away :D.

Nicole Visits Mexico!

Very soon after my last post, my girlfriend Nicole flew into Austin on Jan. 21st to come visit me for a week, much to my delight. We spent most of the day Friday touring Austin a bit, and went out with friends to 6th street that night, and drove to Mexico on Saturday. We meant to leave Austin pretty early on Saturday but my car was having some issues with the exhaust train (like always) that had to be fixed first.

Getting into Mexico was interesting, to say the least. When we reached the border around sunset, we went into the Banjercito to try and get Nicole a tourist visa. But Nicole didn't have a passport, just an Enhanced Driver's License, which works perfectly for driving in and out of Canada, and in theory should work just as well for driving in and out of Mexico, but despite us arguing with the guys at the Banjercito for quite a while, they wouldn't issue her a tourist visa.

So... we could have decided to turn around and go back to Austin, but we didn't, hoping we could make it to Hidalgo without her visa. Unfortunately, we definitely had our visas checked at a checkpoint on the highway, and, well, they weren't too happy about her not having one. We eventually reached an agreement that we could go if we paid the cost of her visa... so we did.

Anyway, we reached La Posada pretty late and got our room keys and went to bed. We decided to do Satori the next day, which is a nice easy 7-pitch climb, but in hindsight, it was a terrible idea, because the hike is long and heinous and full of loose rock and even requires some rock scrambling. Plus, there were three people on it already. Regardless, we got up there and did the first two pitches, by which time the party above us was rappelling down, and asked us to wait at the ledge on the second pitch so they could rap past us. So we did, but with three people it took a while. We did one-and-a-half more pitches before we decided it was too cold and that we should descend (I led the 4th and rapped down).

Nicole and I hanging out on the 2nd pitch of Satori

Unfortunately, by the time we rapped down, the sun had set, and it became clear we'd be hiking back in the dark. I had a headlamp, but Nicole didn't, so we ended up doing a heinous hike on loose rock IN THE DARK. It was even more heinous than usual, and there were more than a couple of (minor) injuries sustained. I think we made it back to camp around 8:30pm, got some dinner, and went to bed.

On Monday, we decided to take it a bit easier, and went to the Mota Wall for some single-pitch cragging. We did three routes on the wall; a 5.8, 5.9, and 5.10, and Nicole led all of them like a champ. It was an excellent (and much more relaxed) day of climbing.

Nicole coming down from sending This Dog's Life (5.10a)

On Tuesday, we drove back to Austin, had dinner with some of my friends, and hung out a bit before going to bed. On Wednesday we slept in and then visited Mount Bonnell for a bit before driving Nicole back to the airport. I was very sad that she had to fly back to Seattle, but she's coming back to Mexico in February again soon =)

Mount Bonnell!

South Dakota and Estrellita

So, not long after my last post, I flew to South Dakota for my grandfather's funeral. He died on Jan. 6th, and his funeral was set for the next Wednesday, so I flew from Monterrey to Sioux Falls on Monday, where my parents picked me up at the airport. I spent three nights in South Dakota, with an open casket viewing on Tuesday at the funeral home and the funeral on Wednesday at Nathaniel Lutheran Church. It was a bittersweet couple of days; it was great to see my family and extended family, but of course it was sad to mourn my grandfather.

My grandpa was a great man, and I loved both him and my grandfather dearly. I used to love going up to their house with my family for Christmas. He seemed to be always in a good mood, apt to chuckle, and never cross or angry. Everyone in Alcester had nothing but good things to say about him. It was great to hear how well people thought of him - someday I hope to be a kind, loving, giving grandfather just like him.

Anyway, when I got back into El Potrero, it was interesting, because the weather had been kinda cold and wet while I was gone. Which makes sense since it coincided with the first snowpocalypse this winter. But before long it got nice again and I went out cragging with Quest, Marco, and Dave on the Central Scrutinizer wall and Mini Super. We only did three routes that day, but whatever, it was fun.

The boys on Mini Super

Two days later, Andrea and I decided we were gonna climb Estrellita, which is a 12-pitch romp up a traversing gully in the Estrellitas Canyon. I think we got to the wall around 11:30am, and got our gear on to climb.

Just in case you're not sure where the route is

I led the first two pitches, which I think were both 5.9, and I linked them without a problem. By the time I finished them however, the sun came out and it was SUPER hot so of course I had to take off my shirt and drink some water =)

Then I belayed Andrea up, and it was her turn to lead. You can climb the next two pitches as 5.9 and 5.8, OR you can choose the harder route and do a 5.11b variation and a 5.11a variation. She opted to lead the 5.11b, which was a relatively thin face with a small finger crack, and it was harder than it looked. In fact, for some reason, perhaps the overwhelming heat in the sun, or because I was out of shape, I felt kinda sick climbing it, even on toprope. Somehow I managed to fight my way up with only one take, but I seriously thought for a moment that I might vomit.

It's harder than it looks

I didn't, and Andrea led the next pitch, and she took the 5.11a variation. This route, as opposed to the previous, was definitely shorter and easier and I actually felt like I was climbing it alright, with some form of dihedral stemming technique. However, I still felt kinda sick. Weird.

Fun stemmy dihedral

Next was a 3rd-class gully, with a fixed line you can clip into for protection, which we walked up. At this point the party behind us caught up to us, and we were pretty hot, so we decided to stay in the shade on the 3rd class and let them pass us.

Chillaxin on the 3rd class

The next two pitches were rated 5.7, but really, they were more like 5.5 or 5.6, so we simul-climbed them with maybe 10-15 meters of rope between us. Simul-climbing means that both climbers climb at the same time, and they are counterbalanced by quickdraws between them, so that if either climber falls, the quickdraws will hold both climbers to the wall. We didn't fall.

Next, it was my turn to lead, so I did. Supposedly, the next two pitches were 5.10b and 5.9, but they were both pretty easy, and I linked them. The only real problem is that there's a funky traverse between the first and second pitch here, so the drag on the rope by the time I finished was a real... drag.

Andrea led the next two pitches, which I guess are 5.10b. They didn't feel too hard, but I did have to do a lot of arm bars and foot jams in the crack on the way up.

What's a pirate's favorite crack technique? Arrrrm bars.

Lastly, I led the last pitch, an easy 5.8. Predictably, it was easy. I belayed Andrea up and we scrambled over to the palm tree to chillax and sign the logbook.

The palm tree marks the spot

This view is for idiots!

I think perhaps the strangest part of this climb is the rap. There's a fixed line leading down from the summit down to the backside of the "fin" behind Estrellita, into the Los Lobos Canyon. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of it, but it's pretty straightforward jugging down the fixed line to the rap anchors. From there you can rappel down in only four pitches near the 4-pitch multi "Will the Wolf Survive". We simul-rapped down with no hitches, except when Andrea accidentally dropped her sunglasses. Amusingly, we found them right at the base of the rap.

Broken, of course

NYE and Don Quixote

So, as you may have already read, I got back into Mexico on Dec. 28th, just in time for a couple days of climbing and for New Year's Eve. I didn't have an established climbing partner for the 29th, so I just got on my climbing gear and wandered into the canyon, hoping to find a climbing party to crash.

Since it was so hot, I went into the Virgin Canyon, which is shaded all day. Sure enough, I found a group of 3 that let me climb with them, namely Amy, Daniel, and um, someone else. Okay fine, I forgot who the third was. Anyway, I ended up climbing several 5.10s, and also found myself on toprope on a 5.11b and a 5.11d called Don Quixote. DQ is a dihedral climb with an arete on the left side and a blank face on the right, which is incredibly pumpy, with a long awkward stemmy crux where your feet could slip at any moment. I fell twice, but I was amazed that I even made it up the route at all, considering how hard it was. A good friend of mine here in Mexico has advised me that a potential project is a good one if you can just barely make it up, falls and all, on your first try. So... considering I climbed it (poorly), and since I thought the route was super fun, I decided to consider it for a project. I mean, why not?

I took a rest day on the 30th, doing lord knows what. Same thing I always do, likely, which is get on my computer, answering iSyncr WiFi emails, etc. But on the 31st I went back out there with Daniel and Amy to go play on the Wonder Wall. We were gonna take a nice easy day, but I hurt myself on the very first climb. I was leading a 5.9 I've done a bunch of times, and was moving my left foot up, and wasn't watching where my left knee was going and I slammed it right into the wall, HARD. After cursing loudly, I finished the route, but on the ground my knee started swelling and I realized I couldn't climb anymore for the day. In fact, when I got back to camp, I had to ice my knee as I couldn't even walk on it.

Fortunately, by the time the new year's eve festivities started, my knee had loosened up a little, thanks to some ice, rest, and advil. So after dinner I started drinking at La Posada, starting with a Pancho Villa and a caguama of Sol. It was super ridiculously crowded in the kitchen, but it was fun sitting around and talking.

After a bit I realized there was karaoke in the restaurant, so I walked over there and took a look at the song listings. I've been kinda hoping to sing a karaoke song by Juanes for a long time now, and finally, here in Mexico of course, they had not just one but TWO songs by Juanes, so I signed up right away to sing A Dios le Pido. There was no line... so I went straight to singing it.

I think the crowd was pleasantly surprised that here was this gringo singing, and not only that, but I knew the tune and the words. I then found out I was only the second person to sing so far, but after that it seemed like people really got into it. Several other people sang, including Chris and Erik, and Luis and Debra sang Summer Nights together, and then Erik and Jess sang Yesterday by the Beatles together.

Chris and Erik singing...something?

Anyway, I sang the other Juanes song a few minutes later (Es por ti), and then headed over to Pandora for the BIG new year's eve party, put on by Edgardo. There was a big bonfire, and electronica, and tons of people. I think some people estimated around 120 people at the party? And I believe it. It was pretty crazy, and crazy fun, but by 2am or so I stumbled, I mean walked, back to my tent =)

Bonfire, anyone?

The next day, I grabbed some pozole at Los Delfines, as apparently that's a new year's custom in Mexico. I must say it was delicious. I had a chance to speak some spanish there, as well as at El Buho, where I ran into this guy I had met at the market about a year and a half ago, Milton.

Delicious pozole

I spent the next three days doing little other than answering emails and speaking spanish, since my knee hurt really badly, especially going up and down stairs. It's actually really hard not to climb here, because people are always asking you if you went climbing that day, and give you a hard time if you haven't, kinda.

So anyway, on Jan. 5th, I decided to get back out there, and just to toprope everything, and be mindful of my knee. So I climbed six routes in the Virgin Canyon with some people. Lo and behold, some people had Don Quixote up on toprope, so I begged them to let me go for a lap on TR. My intent was to practice it again, trying to learn the moves. It almost seemed harder this time, but again I made it up with two falls. It was a great day considering I was just getting back into it.

Two days later I got back to the Virgin Canyon with Ryan, who had agreed to help me project Don Quixote. He led it, and I did a lap on TR, with another couple of falls. We let some friends climb it (after all, this was a hard project and really our only agenda for the day), giving ourselves time to rest after the first pump. Then Ryan climbed it without falling like a champ.

I got back on after trying to psyche up. I am very proud to say that I managed to climb it this time on tiara without a single fall. It was quite a thrill, and I definitely came close to falling, and I was ridiculously tired and out of breath by the time I pulled the roof, but I was super PSYCHED to get my first clean 5.11d, on toprope or otherwise.

Omg, I sent the crux and pulled the roof

Anyway, now that I've climbed the route on toprope, the only thing that remains is to lead it without falls. This won't be easy; it will be a little bit tougher having to clip draws on the way up, and it will require a lot more confidence. I tend to get scared leading hard routes where I might fall, but I need to psyche up and get my lead head in the game, and I should be good to go. Honestly I don't think the clipping will be too difficult, so confidence is the name of this game. Hopefully, I'll nail it soon.