lucky for us the view outside of the room was better then the inside looked
so much rock, so little time. This was our first trip walking down to town.
The room at the Pagoda was....well....a little bleak.
Heading out for the day, happy to have the sunshine. Love the geek hat.
Hildago was your typical little Mexican industrial town. The Cement plant just closed, so we'll see what happens to the town. The little market had great veggies, and fresh cut meat.
We never saw a bear, but the Rattlesnake on a route called Yankee Clipper scared the heck outa me.
Cheryl at the market
The kitchen of the Pagoda where we stayed. We all loved the Burto and Ernequo mugs.
Cooking up a wicked good batch of eggs, beans and rice. In 11 days, Cheryl and I ate nearly 50 eggs. It might have been a bit to many.
Our new friend Chance posing sucking up some of the power from the leaning transformer that was spreading PCP's or whatever to us all. Every kitchen needs one.
Chance was a lover of the coffee, but sometimes did not have a grinder. A pot and a glass jar worked great to 'grind' the beans.
We became fond of the BIG 850ml beers. Always remember, if you are paying more then 27 pesos for a Caguama (it means big sea turtle in Spanish aka big beer) in a returnable bottle, you are getting ripped off.
I never got tired of this view every time we came outa the room.
Lets get started climbing.
The craging was OK, but the LONG multi pitch routes were the bomb. I think this might be Space Boys, a Potrero Chico Classic.
The little blue Osprey pack put in well over a mile of vertical stone on this trip.
If you goto Potrero, take some comfortable climbing shoes, snacks, and preferably, a seventy meter string.
Cheryl busting out a 5.11 on the Outrage wall.
You are grabbing and pulling...you luv it
These little towers were a a couple hundred feet tall with a cool "needles eye" in the center
Looking down from a pitch on Black Cat Bones
Plenty of loose rock on Black Cat Bones. If you go, its never a good idea to climb below people, but esp. on this route.
So much beautiful rock...lots left to do next time.
Geeks on top of Yankee Clipper i think.
Go ahead, grab a handful of this little guy.
Cheryl and Daryl doing the simo rappel. Its a great way to speed up your decent and not drop rocks on your partner if you always do it right, but you better be on your game, or its a perfect way for you and your partner to have a really bad day! I really recommend learning to rap with your device on and extension and using a prussik as a backup.
Steep rock
we could have had more warm weather, but the clouds were good for keeping us from overheating on the long routes. If you had to carry a bunch of water on a hot day, it would be a bummer.
The eye of the Needles
really glad I did not have to clip any of these old things. Thanks to everyone who who put up the great bolted sport climbs in Potrero.
Climbing up the spires.
Standing on top of the uphill spire with the Outrage wall in the background.
Love the cacti
So many avocados...yummmm
Cheryl threading the needles eye of Potrero chico, in Mexico.
In the way down from Yankee Clipper, the photo does not do the dramatic setting justice. Hundreds of feet of air below Cheryl
Chance cranking.
Cheryl getting after it.
If you look carefully, you will see a Ring Tail Cat in the hole. I enjoyed him a heck of a lot more then the rattle snake a few pitches above.
The desert is a mean place.
Always love the shapes.
Go Cheryl Go...
Liven the dream.
In the summer months, I hear the Potrero fills up with locals who enjoy the swimming pools shown a 1000 foot below Cheryl.
Climb up, Rap Down, eat, sleep, repeat....
Cute Cute Cute
Had to take a rest day and strolled up into the Potrero. It means little corral...so the gate was the big notch, and the fence of limestone makes a big horseshoe around the rest.
The gate of the little corral
the rest of the fence.
The developed climbing is a tiny fraction of the potential that could be there. Those 1000 foot walls are untouched as I understand.
A great way to celebrate turning 40.
Turkey Vultures...I've never seen them soar so high. They land on that little bald knob, but soar out of sight.
The gate of the little corral.
another untouched wall.
Time Warp Zero - Sport climbing with an alpine flair. We started at 7:30 and were on the top by around 2. Linked lots of pitches and simo climbed anything that was easy 5.10 and under. What a great day.
I thought this was the start of Time Warp Zero, but its really the end of the day after Space Boys and Auga de Coca....the only route that we needed more then one rope to rappel.
Mid way up Time Warm.
The views just got better and better
Simo climbing with Cheryl....Love the palm trees.
TWZ was our last harra...so we ended up taking hard boiled eggs with us.....had to eat down the food cache. You burn a lot of calories climbing over 2000 vertical in a few hours.
I lucked out and seemed to always get the sweet belays.
Cheryl loving the little pink flowers.
The top of the route was a ridge traverse. That last 30 meters was by far the best part.
Had to layer up. It was just never quite warm enough.
The sprawl of Hildago Mexico. We were high enough that it felt like we were in a little airplane. To say the view was great would be an understatement.
love the eggs. They sell them by the kilo.
Salute
Can't say enough great things about my Red Chili Shoes. They are stiff, and big enough to be in all day, and even wear socks, but got me up 5.11 just fine.
This photo of the ridge traverse does not do it justice. The wind was not to bad, but there is easily a 1000 foot drop on both sides. To cool for photos.
Have you hugged your palm tree today???
See that "little" rock sticking up...thats the needles shown earlier.
Hawk on the rocks...we found some Vulture carnage on the way up. I don't know what kind of bird they are, but they are hard core and quite beautiful.
