My first international "expedition". One of the things I realized is that we make trips happen by proposing crazy ideas and then continually talk about them until we are too stoked not to go. That is exactly what happened here.
Maybe it doesn't sound out of the ordinary to most climbers to take a week and travel to Mexico to climb in one of the coolest sport climbing destinations on the planet. What makes it crazy is that, being low on funds, we drove from Blacksburg, Virginia to Laredo, Texas and then took a bus and a taxi to get to El Potrero Chico in approximately 30 hours.
Having spent the fall semester becoming a more competent climber, I was pretty stoked to go extreme sport climbing in Mexico as a way to test multi-pitch expertise and endurance for other larger objectives. Since the summer, I had also met these two other dudes - Colin and Philip (far left and far right respectively) - who were strong, stoked and available for a trip over spring break. I already knew Gavin would be stoked having recently come off of a rad trip in Yosemite with him so the crew was set.
After our 30 hour epic to actually get to the climbing, we were more than ready to crush. Upon arriving we decided to warm up on a set of adjacent spires. On the right is a photo Colin took of Gavin and I standing on top of the western spire via Aguja Celo Rey.
We camped at La Posada, which has reasonably priced camping and food at what I think is a great location and very nice campground (shoot me a message if you are more interested in travel beta).
Day 2 saw us tackling the local classic Yankee Clipper and getting a bit of a late start. Philip and Gavin beat Colin and I to the top by a lot and we crossed paths in the 3rd class section about two thirds of the way up. Colin and I retreated shortly after meeting up with them and Colin got the below picture of me with some big exposure on rappel.
The day after Yankee Clipper and much tequila, Philip and I battled up Pancho Villa Rides Again. Which is a burly and in your face six pitch climb. There aren't any pictures of the event because we quickly ran out of water on an atrociously hot March day We suffered our way to the top at which point we were so stoked and exhausted we began singing, namely "Casey Jones" by the Grateful Dead.
After that ordeal, we took some time off, slacklining and getting some great food at the weekly Tuesday market in Hidalgo.
At which time we came to the make or break moment of our trip.
The weather had taken a turn for the worse Tuesday night into Wednesday. Having traveled to Mexico to climb, we were not too excited about spending the remaining three days of our trip holed up in camp.
One of the things I realized is that we make trips happen by proposing crazy ideas and then continually talk about them until we are too stoked not to go.
Rather than wait around for the rain we decided that it was the right time to take action and get the heck out of there in search of greener pastures. Given our methods of transportation to get to El Potrero Chico, it took about an hour of logistics and then we were off en route to Slade, Kentucky - home of the Red River Gorge.
To keep this from going too long, let's just say that March in Kentucky is not March in Mexico. We froze our butts off, Gavin sent Ro Shampo, we ate an epic amount of pizza, and we surprised some more of our friends who were spending some spring break time at the Red.
Comments