Where to start? A few words about where we are now - we got back safely from Mexico around midnight on Wednesday and scrambled to find a hotel near the airport. We ended up getting a free shuttle to a big, inexpensive room with a continental breakfast, right near the MAX line! So the transition was pretty smooth - the next morning we jumped on the MAX and headed out to Beaverton to pick up Juan's van. The last couple days we've been staying with our friends Todd & Amelia (thanks you guys, you are awesome!), running errands, outfitting the van, visiting with friends, climbing at Stoneworks, and uploading pictures. We've already got a bunch up, check out the flickr page! The van looks great, we've got gear on one side, clothes on the other, and cooking stuff in the back - just about ready to head down to Vegas tomorrow morning.
Now back to fill in the blanks. Juan already told you a little about climbing in the cave at El Chonta, but man, we could talk about this place for days. It was RAD.
We had a brief scare at the bus station in Taxco, when Juan reached for his wallet and it was gone (we thought some little punk might have swiped it, but it turned out he left it at the internet cafe!). Wallet in hand, we took a short bus ride from Taxco to near a town called Corralejo, and happened to bump into a couple fellow climbers on the ride - Mark & Norma - who had actually just flown down from Monterrey! It was nice to have company as we navigated our way up to the cave. We all walked up to the ranch of the locally famous family of Señor Procopio, where we met a handful of Procopio's 25 children and rented some of their burros to carry our gear up to the cave. We also bought a 5-gallon water jug off of them, which would last us most of the week. We had thought we could buy food there, but it turned out there was nada - not even a convenience store - nearby. They said most climbers bring their own food from Taxco, but it wasn't the first time this had happened, and the kids offered to head into town and get us some groceries and bring them up by burro later that day. We wrote up a little list, and they delivered! We gave them a generous tip on top of the cost of the groceries.
Special-ordered groceries!
Once we'd made camp right outside the cave, we got to climbing! The only real place to start was the three 5.11 "warmups" (11a, 11b, & 11c) on the left edge of the cave. This was the moment of truth - if these overhung 5.11s were hard for us (you never know how ratings at one climbing area compare to ratings at another, as they can vary a lot), we were gonna have a HARD time this week! Luckily, they were really fun and manageable for the grade. Though I'd only redpointed a handful of 5.11s prior, I made it my goal to redpoint all three of those before we left, in addition to trying much harder routes on toprope (TR). By our third climbing day, and having done each one once or twice on TR, I'd met that goal! The climbs were so fun - full of stalactites and kneebars and crazy things like that are rare treats for Pacific NW climbers like ourselves.
Me on Seres Inorganicos (5.11a)
There were not really any other 11s, and we still had days left, so a crazy idea popped into my head - I'm gonna project a 5.12! I'd worked a couple on TR. One was the first pitch (5.12a) of one of the cave's most famous climbs, a 7-pitch wonder called La Mala Fama, on which I fell at the crux but finished it. Another was a 12b that I unexpectedly onsighted on TR (thanks to mucha beta from Juan, who'd led it, and some amazing full-on no-hands rests on giant tufas!). I decided to make the first pitch of L.M.F. my goal for my first 5.12 lead. When I got on it on the sharp end on our last day at the cave, I tried a totally different sequence at the crux, and despite a dripping wet key hold, it worked! I was so psyched. You can see a picture of me on it in our last post. That route was also really cool, same style as the others - overhung, but with lots of great stalactites to grab onto and some crucial rests.
While there were other climbers at the cave on the weekends (including our new friends Mark & Norma), the whole intervening week we had it almost to ourselves! During several of the days we climbed with a really cool couple, Juan & Priscilla, but they were camping down by one of the ranches, so at night it was just us...and The Things That Go Bump In The Night. We slept with a couple knives within an arm's reach, not sure if the falling rocks and other sounds were some crazy dude with a machete or a mountain lion poking around. But every morning we woke up just fine, and laughed about how we'd been scared... We really loved sharing dinner around the campfire right outside the cave.
Juan's going to write all about his climbing accomplishments, and our adventures at the river cave, among other things, so check back soon!
Hope you all are doing well!
Marie
So I've been in Hawaii for a week with Alyssa and Steph. We've had great weather and done all sorts of awesome outside stuff including two days of climbing - and I'm still jealous of your trip! Can not wait to see and hear more about it. Have a great time in Red Rocks and wherever else you decide to go. Climb hard and stay safe.
ReplyDeleteThanks Glen!
ReplyDeleteclimbing in Hawaii?? That sounds like heaven!
We climbed at Stoneworks a couple days when we were back, sorry we missed you guys! We left you a little treat that is (hopefully) being guarded by M&M :)
all the best,
M & J