Great Success, Gypsies!

Well, I just got back from Mexico and I'm fully psyched.  What an awesome adventure it was, one of the best in recent memory (which if you know me very well you know that doesn't go back very far but that's besides the point...)   I'll save you from the gory boring details while trying to hit the highlights.  

The biggest highlight was simply being in Mexico and being refreshed by a simpler, more tranquil lifestyle.  Despite the menacing news headlines we had absolutely no issues and I wouldn't hesitate to go back based on my experience.  We generally stayed out of the cities and minded our own business and met only kind, helpful people.  That said I wouldn't go and hang out in Juarez or Nuevo Laredo but the problems seem to be heavily localized and so far there's been little violence against foreigners... hopefully that remains the case.  It was so fun to remember and use my Spanish again... it had been so long I wasn't too confident but by the end of the trip I was doing pretty well again. 

So the first two weeks we climbed at El Potrero Chico, which is a huge area with a ton of routes, but since I'd been there before I was eager to check out some of the other areas around Monterrey.  By February we were on our way to El Salto about 2 hours away and to the southwest of Monterrey.  It has relatively few routes but contains massive potential, and the routes that are there are excellent.  We eventually stayed nearly four weeks here and climbed a bunch of established lines, explored nearby canyons for new cliffs and eventually put up a few line of our own on Las Animas wall in the El Salto canyon proper.   

Our original goal for the trip was to try to find and develop our own wall.  This proved to be a bit ambitious and maybe naive considering the talented and motivated climbers who had come before us.  On more than one occasion  we bushwacked to the base of a sweet looking cliff only to find bolts on all the prime lines.  A few good looking cliffs, easily accessible, didn't have bolts at all but it didn't take long to discover why... CHOSS!  On top of these setbacks Devlin's two drills had some serious issues that limited our ability to put up routes anyway, even if we did find something worthy.  After a week or so of emotional highs and lows thinking we'd found the motherlode and subsequently discovering either bolts on "our" cliffs or complete choss we gave up and went climbing instead...  Ha ha not so bad anyways!  

Surprisingly, while climbing some of the established areas we began to notice some overlooked sections of rock.  So we dragged the drills back out and began putting in a couple of anchors to see if there were actually enough features in the rock to climb.  Long story short, we got the drills working a bit better and the lines were good and we eventually bolted and climbed three new lines.  Devlin put up a short stout route called Tufa King Short (13b).  And we put up a two pitch line together called La Maquina en el Jardin (13a) that goes almost to the top of the Las Animas wall.  

While it was less than we'd imagined we were still fully psyched since it was Devlins first time bolting ever and his first FA and it was my first chance to bolt on lead, which offered new exciting challenges on its own. 

However the best part of the trip by far was hanging out and climbing with all the super cool people we met down in El Salto.  Mike and Gilman, Alex and Chris, Leslie and Kyle, Diego, Jonny, Daniel and Ana, Ana and David, Tom, Seth, Christian, Victor, Toni, Liz and all the others.  It was a pleasure to meet you all and it made the trip all the more memorable.

 

Eventually the time came to head home and I wrapped up almost all my projects (Kika Shredder!!!!).  On the trip home, I managed to set a dubious personal record of driving 27 hours straight from Monterrey to Las Vegas without stopping except for gas and coffee!  It's a record I hope to never beat!

Miguel is 86 and has been making bamboo furniture and baskets for 70 years.  His work was the only thing I could find to buy that was truly handcrafted.  

Dona Kika owns a store and rents rooms to climbers in La Cienega, the small town where El Salto sits.  She's basically the patron saint of rock climbers in El Salto.  She let us fill our water jugs, take showers in her house, use her washing machine and would cook dinner for us for about $1.50 apiece!

Jonny from Monterrey getting psyched for the next route!

The Cave at El Salto.  This area had a slew of classic steep lines in the 13a range unfortunately it got miserably hot by about 11am so the climbing days up there were a bit short.

Looking down canyon in El Salto.  We were calling the last wall on the left side the Mega Wall.  It may have some awesome multipitch potential or the rock may be complete junk.  What is clear is that the approach is epic.

Devlin psyched for another day of work putting up La Maquina en el Jardin.  This is our two pitch line we put up on Las Animas.  It ended up taking us forever to drill cause our battery would only drill about 4 holes before dying completely.  What should have taken a day or two ended up taking nearly a week of work!  We ended up with a sweet route though with a 12d 1st pitch and 13a second pitch.

Seth on Ungabunga, one of the definite classics of Las Animas.

Chris from Colorado at the crux of La Guitarra de Lolo, which had some sweet boulder moves separated by good rests.

Our campsite for awhile until someone closed up the gate with a bunch of barbed wire.  We took the hint and moved basecamp back down into the canyon floor.  It was a sweet spot though while it lasted.

More fun with the Macro setting.

Seth from Colorado on a sweet route called Huiratica.

Devlin taking a siesta at the Cave.

Purple flowers at Las Animas wall.

Found this cool windmill while searching for new cliffs.

A beautiful valley next to the El Salto Canyon.

Cool tree splitting a boulder

Some well stacked stones

Concrete Jesus

Dirt canyons near Culo de Gato, a small, but quality, cave just 20 minutes from the Potrero.