Migration South

this time im writing from a little cyber cafe in Taxco, Mexico.  Super cold weather forced us to pack up our things in Potrero a day early and head back towards Mexcio City for warmer climate and a new crag to check out.  We finally arrived in this quaint little town this afternoon after about 22 hours or so of car rides, bus rides, and local transportation. 

the campground we left behind

Our destination tomorrow:  El Chonta!  a cave that boasts up to 7 pitches of extremely overhung stalactite and tufa pulling routes.   Im excited to check out the crag and a bit nervous at what we´ll be able to accomplish.  According to an email contact, the range of routes is somewhere between 5.11 and 5.14 so it looks like we definitely have our work cut out for us.

I also wanted to report that on our last day at Potrero, with Marie´s patient belaying, i sent my mini project Celestial Omnibus on my first try that day.  what a perfect route, and also good training for the climbing that is about to come.  After cleaning the sand out (yeah Todd!), i managed to grunt, shake out and pull my way through about 80ft of terrific handle bar tufas and jugs.  and thats on top of the 100 ft of 11c that we both had to climb just to get to its start! 

The middle grey streak (11c?) gains you access to the Bronco Bowls.  Celestial Omnibus exits the left side  of the bowl. 

Tufa pulling on the start of Celestial Omnibus 12a

-juan 





To go with Juan´s notes on our last day of climbing at Portrero, I wanted to add that I thought it ended really well too - by the last few climbing days, I felt much more confident on lead than in the beginning, even on the crazy runouts we faced on many climbs.   On the way to try Celestial Omnibus the first time, we stopped at the lower part of the Outrage Wall so I could give a route called No Excuses an onsight attempt, and I got it!  This was a major improvement from where I was mentally a couple days prior.

On our second to last day, we swung leads on a 9-pitch route called Black Cat Bone, and it was a blast.  We topped out to an awesome view of the whole valley and town of Hidalgo as well as a delicious chocolate bar some other climbers had left in the summit register box...thanks, whoever that was!  The rappel was a minor epic - there are so many plants and rock flakes you have to pull your rope past that it´s bound to get stuck, and ours did twice.  Luckily, each time it was only a few bolts above where we were anchored, so we took turns re-leading up those pitches to free the rope.

So far we LOVE Taxco.  It is a quaint little town nestled in the mountains, and there are tons of locals out at any given time wandering its narrow, windy cobblestone streets and dodging the cars that come rolling through.  It has a beautiful main square with huge trees and a little marketplace.  We found a nice hotel for tonight, and explored the city, including a centuries-old church called the Santa Prisca Church with all sorts of paintings, figures, and gold-painted decorations inside.  The other great thing?  There are more ice cream and dessert shops than you can shake a stick at!  Too bad we´re only here for one night right now.

inside the decadent Santa Prisca Church

Looking forward to checking out the cave tomorrow!

Marie