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.

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!

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.

Two Weeks Outside of Potrero

So, as you may have guessed from the title of this post, I spent nearly two weeks in Los Estados Unidos from Dec. 15th until Dec. 28th, which was excellent.

First, I drove from Mexico to Austin on Wednesday, December 15th, and got to go out to eat with my friends Justin and Caroline, who recently got back from a 3-week trip to Tanzania. So we traded stories about our respective foreign countries while eating delicious Brick Oven pizza.

The next day, I flew from Austin to Seattle where mi novia picked me up and took me out for sushi! I was very excited to see her =)

The next day we made breakfast, and went climbing, and got ready for her birthday / holiday party, which was a blast. We had apple vodka + sparkling cider, sangria, guacamole, chicken roll, ugly sweaters, and mistletoe. And we even made a late-night hotdog run, much to my amazement.

Thanks to Brad for lending me an ugly sweater =)

Love this photo =))

Saturday, well, initially Nicole was going to work but we slept in too late and that ended up not happening, which was fine with me.

We left in the evening for Vancouver, super psyched to go hang out in Canadia. Unfortunately, someone stupid (ahem, me) left their passport in Texas because he somehow didn't think about the fact that Vancouver is in a foreign country. So... on the spur of the moment, we decided to change direction completely and book a hotel in Portland (where passports aren't required), and spend the weekend there instead.

It ended up being pretty awesome actually. We were able to recoup half the cost of the Vancouver hotel (for the second night), and got a pretty posh room in downtown PDX as our home base. The room was really nice, the bed was super comfy, there was free WiFi, and even a jacuzzi in the bathroom. So over the weekend, we went out on both Saturday and Sunday nights, we had brunch at Mother's Bistro on Sunday morning (with delicious french press coffee), we had doughnuts at Voodoo Doughnuts, and coffee at Stumptown. And we saw Black Swan, and had some delicious pasta. All in all, it was great.

Nicole had to work on Monday and Tuesday, so those two days weren't as exciting, but we did get her car fixed on Monday night and went climbing on Tuesday night at Stone Gardens. It's good to do some bouldering for a change after so much sport climbing.

Wednesday night we stayed up late with some friends since Nicole didn't have to work on Thursday, so we got to sleep in before my flight on Thursday evening. It was really kinda sad when she dropped me off at the airport, I realized how much I was going to miss her again /-:

I flew to Denver that night, where my brother picked me up at the airport quite late. It was well after midnight when we got home.

I spent a few days in Fort Collins with my family, celebrating Christmas and whatnot, and it was great, except for the part where I had a 7:20am flight on the 26th, and had to be awake at 3:30am for the airport shuttle to pick me up. I didn't trust myself to sleep and get up, so I just stayed up all night and slept on the shuttle / flights. But I was a zombie for the rest of the day in Austin, and got almost nothing done except for an oil change which took TWO HOURS. They were super busy but still, ack.

Anyway, my plan was to drive back into Mexico yesterday, but my buddy Justin was flying back into town in the morning and I thought, oh hey, wouldn't it be cool if I stayed an extra day and we did a code jam together before I leave Austin? So that's what we did.

So I drove back to Mexico today instead. It was completely uneventful of course, even though I crossed directly into Nuevo Laredo this time. The nice thing about taking so many road trips is that it gives me time to listen to all of my audio podcasts. Anyway, now I am here! And it's super crowded! It's hard to get anything done in the kitchen during dinnertime. But at least it's warm and sunny here, and I have a tent to sleep in, and I can climb!

Cast of Characters

I think today, instead of posting yet another multipitch report, I'll just talk about some of the very interesting people I've met here at El Potrero Chico at camp.

Sean and Kris - Some of the first people I met here at EPC. They both drove down from Boulder, and they're pretty good climbers and cool people. Sean is bald and bearded, and Kris looks a little bit like Jesus. They did a lot of multipitches together here, but I never climbed with them. They left a couple of weeks ago.

Sean rockin it.

Shanna and Lesley - I also met these two pretty early on. They're actually from Seattle, and flew into Monterrey, and have been here a bit longer than I have. They left last week or so for Oaxaca, to take spanish classes at the Instituto Cultural de Oaxaca for a couple of weeks. They did their first multipitch climbs here, and like Sean and Kris, I have never climbed with them. Not sure if they are coming back here or not, but they are cool. I kept running into them around town and offering them rides, since they don't have a car. For a while they were renting a house nearby to La Posada and they had a few dinner / drinking parties at their place.

Bjorn - He's Swedish, he wears glasses, and he's really funny. His girlfriend is studying medicine in Monterrey. I've gone cragging with him at least once with him and his Swedish friend Simon who was in town for a bit. He's been here about two months I think, and is leaving around Dec. 15th. He's always up late on his computer, and always makes hot tea before he goes to bed. Good guy.

Bjorn - photo stolen from facebook

Chris - Met this guy a few days after I got here. He drove here on his motorcycle from Kansas City, and he's a young photographer, and he does a lot of weddings. He took some interesting long exposure photos of me at camp where he lit me up with a headlamp. I forget the name of the technique, but it came out looking pretty sweet. We cragged a few times before he left, as he was only here a week.

Chris, Beth, and Dave at Wonderwall

Max - Max has been here since Halloween. He's pretty young, very chill, and climbs hard. I haven't actually had much time to talk with him yet, and initially I thought he was with Sean and Kris, but they left and he didn't. He's still here for the foreseeable future, another longtermer like me.

Dave - This guy has been here over two months, and I knew a little bit about him before we met because he has a blog about EPC. He's a pretty funny guy; he has a huge tarp over his tent, and he adopted a dog named Candela. I haven't climbed with him, or even heard of him climbing since I've been here. Lately I guess he is focusing more on work and learning spanish, and his Mexican girlfriend...

The Quebecoi - Melanie, Veronique, and Oliver are from Quebec, and they primarily speak French, though their English is really good. I haven't really climbed with them, though I have climbed next to them a few times. They are really fun. They drove here from Quebec and arrived around the same time Ames was here, for Thanksgiving weekend. They are leaving around Dec. 15 as well.

Gringo Disco - Max, Oliver, Melanie, Me, Erik, Dave

Siggy - Siggy is from Iceland, and he's a commercial airline pilot. He even has the aviators to prove it. He's pretty new to climbing, so his friend Katelynn has been "showing him the ropes". He's done a lot of ice climbing but almost no rock climbing, so he's learning. He's been here since Thanksgiving or earlier.

Katelynn - She's from Canadia, and arrived about a week ago. She's apparently a full-time climber, and I think she's planning to go to south america for more climbing after this? I'm a little fuzzy on the details. Friends with Siggy, and strangely enough knows a lot of the same people as Erik does.

Way to belay.

Erik - Erik is a blond surfer / climber kid from California. Actually he climbs a lot more than he surfs, but whatever. He spends the summers at Yosemite, working 3 days a week and climbing the other four. During the rest of the year, he likes to travel to EPC, Indian Creek, and other various rock climbing destinations. He's been my primary climbing partner for the last week and a half or more - we've done Space Boys, Snott Girlz, Black Cat Bone, and Satori together. Really solid, and great sense of humor. He's a bit stronger than me, so he's been a good mentor of sorts. He arrived a couple of weeks ago, and will be here for a few months at least.

Erik's best crazy face

Team Yukon - Niall and Emcee are from the Yukon, and their Canadian accents are hilarious. But they are also really cool and laid back and such. They often spend their evenings in the kitchen drinking and playing cribbage. Emcee apparently races dogs in the winter? Not sure when they are leaving - but I think maybe in January.

I think that's about all for now. There are many other people I've met here as well, but these are the people that stick out in my mind the most.

How to drive from Seattle to Mexico

First, sell, give, or throw away most of your possesions, so that you can pack everything you own into a 5x8' U-Haul trailer (thanks to tons of help from friends).

Second, drive to Twin Falls, Idaho. If you find that you suddently have an exhaust leak after crossing into Oregon, causing loss of power and a really bad engine noise, you might need to find a mechanic in Pendleton who can recommend a good muffler shop in town. If you're lucky, they will charge you only $100 to fix your flex pipe and it will only take about an hour. You might arrive at your hotel significantly after midnight because you spent so much time in Pendleton, but it will be worth it (despite the back pain).

A good place to have an exhaust leak.

Third, drive to Fort Collins, Colorado to visit friends and family. Spend about a week there, making sure you get a chance to catch up with old friends you literally haven't seen in years. Don't forget to take your brother out for a fun pre-birthday night of drinking. Also, unload that U-Haul and sort out which things you're bringing in your car and which things you're leaving in Colorado.

Fourth, drive to Amarillo, Texas. Watch the sunset while passing an impressive array of wind turbines just before leaving Colorado. Drive through the largely unimpressive panhandle of Oklahoma, and check-in to your hotel.

Sunset over southern Colorado.

Fifth, drive to Austin. Spend about a week there, hanging out with Austin friends, buying necessary items at REI (such as a tent, hah!), and making sure everything is in order. Go to a rave, do a code jam with a friend, get a Mexican auto permit, go out with friends, and play a decent amount of Starcraft 2 and Mass Effect. After all, you're not bringing your Xbox to Mexico are you?

Reimer's Ranch isn't Mexico, but it's not bad.

Sixth, get up early and drive to Hidalgo, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. You'll want to cross the border long before sundown, both for safety and also so that it's easier to set up your ginormous tent. Don't forget to get your tourist via (turista) at the border, and to turn off "Avoid toll roads" on your GPS, because the only sane way to travel there is via toll roads. The tolls will cost $20 total, but you don't mind, because it's safer and you don't get harassed. Don't forget to bring pesos though, because they don't take USD, and you might find yourself rummaging through your boxes looking for pesos from past trips, which is a pain.

Anyway, once you've arrived in Hidalgo, if you don't have pesos yet you should definitely stop at the ATM to get some. It helps if you actually know your PIN number for the atm card you've been planning to use. Otherwise, use Bank of America and eat the stupid fees. Head down el camino al Potrero Chico, and turn in to La Posada. Set up your tent before it gets dark, inflate your air mattress, lay out your sleeping bag and blanket, and organize your stuff. Then, walk 50 feet down the street to the nearest Deposito, where you can buy a liter of beer on the cheap. Drink it, relax, meet some people at camp, and go to bed =) It's cold at night, but you're prepared =D

The best landmark in Hidalgo.