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.

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.