Never Eat Soggy Wheat (Chex)

North, east, south, & west.  We are all over the place...

I just spent a wonderful week in Costa Rica with my dad, brother Joe, sisters Kate & Elly, and niece Adira.  We did all the must-do's:  zip-lining through the rain forest, surfing, hiking, lying on the beach, a crocodile/bird-watching tour, and a bit of snorkeling.  Adira loved rolling around in the sand and playing in the water, and was all smiles the whole time.  Joe treated us to a night of his delicious custom homemade pizzas.  We celebrated my dad's birthday in Manuel Antonio National Park, and tested out all the Kosher ice cream shops we could find with Kate.  And Elly & I spent a little too much time in the sun for our poor Irish skin...  We also decided we need to get our dog Gabe a pet sloth.  Zero maintenance - they sleep all the time, poop once a week, and are extremely cute.  I think they'd be a great pair.

The fam on our crocodile tour.  We touched a croc's back as our guide fed him raw chicken!

Dad'l zipping through the trees

In the meantime, Juan was climbing in Red Rocks then visited Portland for several days, which he'll tell you about below.  When we met up at the Las Vegas airport this past Monday night, we decided to drive down to Tucson, Arizona that same night!  We packed up, said our goodbyes, and began the 8-hour drive, immediately almost running out of gas in NW Arizona.  But we made it, and met up with Juan's good friend Adam in Tucson.  Since then the three of us have been climbing the stunning but fingertip-bruising gneiss on Mt. Lemmon overlooking Tucson.  We're camping up there too.  Ha, if you're reading this, your hobo-pie maker made us some exquisite tuna melts around the fire last night :)

That's all for now,

Marie

PS Soggy Wheat Chex are the best




What a way to end a heck of a week!  So much stuff crammed into 7 days I can hardly believe it.  Let's see, last week I was able to climb one last day with my friends Isaac (who crushed the face off some routes at Sunny and Steep!), Dave, and David before they headed back to Portland.  I also had the chance to meet a wonderful couple from Tahoe, Colleen and her husband (so sorry I've forgotten his name!) who were on vacation enjoying the warm weather.  By this time Marie had already left for Costa Rica to be with her family.  I had one last day to climb at Red Rocks before my short trip to Portland, so I set off for the Gallery to score a partner and hopefully get in a nice half day of climbing.  I met up with some really nice climbers on spring break, Lars from Norway, his girlfriend Janice from California, and their friend Sarah from New York.  We had a blast climbing at the Gallery and Black Corridor and afterwards they invited me out the campground for beers and food.

Dave, Isaac, Marie, David, and myself in front of a cut-off Stalin statue at the Mandalay Bay's Red Square.  (A tourist took our photo)

Afterwards, I drove clear across town to visit my friend Mike and his wife Stef for dinner and left their house around 12:30 am back home to pack and make my 6 am flight to Portland. 

The reason for my short visit was because I was attending and filming my friend Scott Tse's wedding, and since I was in town for a day before and a day after, I got to stay with and spend a little time with my friends Todd and Amelia.  It was great to stop in at Stoneworks and see some of our good friends, like Matt, Michelle, Josh, Ike, Jaime, Skyler, and John.  I got my butt handed to me on some great boulder problems and before I knew it, I was on a plane back to Las Vegas to meet up with Marie and began our drive to Mt. Lemmon outside of Tucson, AZ.  

Since then, we have been shredding our little digits to pieces on some sharp but super sticky edges and crystals.  This time we are joining my friends and photographer extraordinaires Adam Bove and Ali Vagnini whom I met a couple years ago in Mexico, and later again Portland, and later still in their home town of Denver, Co.  The weather is somewhat hot in the direct sunlight, but perfect in the shade which made it possible for Marie to nearly redpoint a beautiful line called Holy Moly 11d/12a on the New Wave Wall.  A slightly overhanging brownish wall with great big splotches of lime green lichen, and long whitish veins.  At this same wall, I was able to scream and fight my way up a very demanding 12b/c called Tsunami, which seemed nearly impossible on the onsight attempt, with its dynamic reaches, finger locks, and micro crimps.  But, I was able to redpoint on my second go with nothing but fumes in the tank, even after botching the start a little and nearly fully out of energy after the crux.

Adam warming up on Steve's Arrete (5.11-) on the Hunchback

Juan kicking ass on Tsunami (5.12b/c) on New Wave Wall

We've also had the opportunity to break in brand new pairs of climbing shoes from our friends at ClimbX.  Most recently, I've been crushing routes in the upper 12 range in the Rock Star Lace-up and Marie is enjoying the sharp new edges on her second pair of Redpoint NLVs.  Yesterday we also decided to give our trusty green rope, the Petzl Nomad 9.8, a break after a month of heavy use in Red Rocks, and break out a new one, the Sterling Evolution Velocity 9.8 which Marie bought last summer while working over at US Outdoor Store in downtown Portland.

It's been really exciting to climb on new rock and to be in new surroundings after nearly a month in Red Rocks.  We've really welcomed the new challenges presented to us by unfamiliar rock and I for one am happy to see Marie's progress and willingness to fire away at harder projects, and equally happy to see that we have both developed a no-retreat-no-surrender approach to our climbing that has vastly improved our mental game even under stressful situations.  "Listen to what you know, instead of what you fear", that's what was written and placed inside my fortune cookie, and when I read it, I felt like it put words to the mental skills I had been trying to hone on this trip.  To me, it means what I had been taught almost a decade ago by Molly, and by watching confident climbers like Matt Spohn, Brian Smith, and Mark Cartier to name a few, "learn to separate the elements that you can control during your climb, and once you leave the ground do your best to discard those elements that you can't".  I know that I can choose who I climb with, and I know to be honest with myself about what I can and can't do according to the skills and experience I've acquired, and the risk that I'm willing to take.  Upon leaving the ground I know that I can't control the size of the holds, the angle of the wall, or the space between the bolts, and since I've made the commitment to leave the ground, I've no need to worry about them.  I believe practicing this sort of attitude in conjunction with the things Marie and I learn from each other's climbing, is what's been raising our personal bests and lets us focus on the satisfaction that we take away from difficult climbs, rather than the fear one is more commonly left with after a struggle on the wall.
-Juan

Climbing, and Gambling, and Lions, Oh My!

Time for the weekly update!

It was another fun week here in Vegas.  Last Tuesday Juan & I took his friend ArieAnne, her boyfriend Armando, and her friend Kate out climbing.  They were really good sports, considering it was their first time climbing outside.  We went to the Panty Wall and set up some topropes, which all of them tried their hand at.  ArieAnne emerged with a real battle wound, a 4” rope burn on her arm – some souvenir!  At the end of the day Juan & I got on a couple harder routes on that wall, Totally Clips (5.11a) and Viagra Falls (5.11d), the latter of which was my hardest onsight yet!  Thanks for coming out guys, it was fun to have you!

The gang's all here:  ArieAnne, Armando, me, Kate, & Juan

Wednesday & Thursday we rested, and spent more time than usual on the strip.  Doing what, you might ask?  Well, through internet searches for free things to do in Vegas, we heard about what’s called the TV Research Center at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino.  This place sits you down to watch brand new or existing TV shows, then asks you your opinion about them and gives you coupons for free food and such afterwards!  We were expecting to see some new pilot show, but when we sat down we found ourselves watching The Price is Right!  I always watch that with my grandma, and Juan’s a fan, so it was fun.  To make things better, they invited me back for a women-only focus group about that episode the next day, which paid $50 cash!  You bet I did it.  While we were at the MGM Grand, we spent a while checking out their cool lion habitat, where lions frolicked above our heads and played ball with their trainers.

Ahhhh!!!

 I took a ride on the Las Vegas Monorail (pretty cool, but expensive at $5/ride, and they could learn a few things from Portland's MAX) and met up with Juan who was playing some $1 blackjack at the Sahara.  It was St. Patty's day, and we hoped my luck of the Irish might turn $30 into $300 to pay some of our $1400 car repair bill, but let's just say that didn't exactly happen.  At all.  But it was fun and we enjoyed free White Russians, Piña Colada, Guiness, and Bailey's hot chocolates while he played.  To round out the evening we had some drinks at the M, courtesy of Juan's bro Noe.

The next morning, either due to the previous night's indulgences or the sudden appearance of a lot of pollen, I was feeling quite under the weather.  The mild cold I'd had since visiting St. Louis a few weeks ago seemed to have gotten worse.  But that wasn't gonna stop us from climbing.  Our friends Dave, David, and Isaac had flown in from Portland the night before to climb, so we joined forces and headed out to the Black Corridor and Sweet Pain Wall.  The Black Corridor had some really fun warmups, but quickly got crowded, so we hiked up and over to Sweet Pain.  We did a lot of fun 11's there, such as Glitter Gulch, Slave to the Grind, Sister of Pain, and of course, Sweet Pain, a classic that Juan highly recommended and which I managed to redpoint on my second go!  That night, Juan's mom took us and his sister Michelle out to Souper Salad for dinner, home of some of the best salad and soft serve ever...mmm...

David warming up on Burros Don't Gamble (10c) in the Black Corridor

Me on Sweet Pain (11d)

Saturday, the guys picked us up and we set out to climb at the Gallery and the Wall of Confusion.  I think they brought some of Portland's weather with them, because it was cold and windy and even sprinkled at the end of the day.  I didn't have a super strong day, though I got up the pumpy Yaak Crack (11c) with only one whip, greatly improved from the last time I tried it last October.  Isaac really impressed by onsighting both Yaak Crack and A Day in the Life (also 11c), and David and Dave hardly seemed tired from the previous day's 8-9 pitches, going up a similar number of climbs between the two walls.  Juan tried his hand at the Sissy Traverse (5.13a) for the first time, an intense route that cuts diagonally across the right-hand wall at the Gallery, and even after that and putting up Fear & Loathing (12a) for the rest of us, went up a 12b called Promises in the Dark.

Juan huddled in the rope tarp for warmth

 That pretty much brings you up to speed!  This week, I'm taking off to Costa Rica with my dad, sisters, brother, and niece, and Juan's heading up to Portland in a few days for Scott & Holly's wedding (I'm sure he'll see a lot of you!  And congrats to the happy couple!!!), and we are both super excited.  I hope you all are doing great and for those of you on spring break, have a ton of fun!

Hasta la pasta,
Marie

Friends From All Places

Set 'em up for the Dead End Kids! 

I don't know what that means but it's a line from the movie The 25th Hour and I've had it in my head all day so that's what I'm starting my post with.

Today marks the end of our 3rd week here in Vegas and the good times just keep on rollin'.  This week we finished some great projects, made lots of new friends, visited local friends, and had friends from out of town drop in and visit us. 

On Tuesday we finally broke out the crash pads and took them for a test run in the Kraft boulders and along the way met a cool dude named Ben who was new to the climbing scene.  He works for the Nevada Conservation Corps and was introduced to climbing by some of the workers in his crew.  He traded in his sleeping bag for a pair of shoes and chalk bag soon after.  He joined us for an afternoon of fun and mellow bouldering and hooked us up with a few micro brews after the session.  Thanks Ben!

Ben on the Warm-Up Main Boulder

Juan on the classic Odyssey (V3)

After our bouldering session we ran home to change clothes, scooped up my brother, and headed out to my favorite pizza joint to have dinner with my old high school friend Arieanne and her boyfriend Armando.  After a lot of food and a long time catching up, we talked them into joining us for a climbing session in the coming week.  They have never climbed outdoors before and we're excited to show them around the park come next Tuesday. 

MMMMM...Armando, Arieanne, Noe, Marie, & I chow down

Wednesday and Thursday were rest days.  We hung out at the house resting achy muscles and tendons for the day when we head back to the Cannibal Crag to finish up our toughest projects on this trip so far.  On one of our rest days, my sister came over, we watched the unfolding tragedy that is Charlie Sheen on TV and then went out for a nice afternoon walk to my sister's old elementary school.  We played around on the jungle gym while Marie showed off some gymnastic skills on the bars.  As we were heading back to the house I spotted the ice cream man and chased him down for two blocks so we could have some tasty treats for the walk back home. 

Friday was game day for us and now that we were well rested we were ready to bring home the gold.  We showed up to a semi crowded Cannibal Crag where we met some really cool climbers from Utah and some other climbers that were on a road trip all the way from South Dakota.  After our usual warm ups, I was first up and after a disappointing 1st and 2nd try, I finally sent my first 12d on the 3rd go.  Then it was Marie's turn to bat and she knocked her 11c out of the park 1st try, incredible!  As if that wasn't enough, Marie went on to grab the onsight of Elbows of Mac and Ronnie 11a, and I grabbed the onsight of Man Eater 12a.  To wrap up an incredible day of climbing, we went over to my buddy Mike's house, whom I've known since the 6th grade, and chowed down on burgers, hot dogs, 10% alcohol beer, and big slices of Oreo Cream Pie. 

At that point our weekend was just beginning, but I'll let Marie catch you guys up on that.
-Juan




I was just thinking that our blog's name has not really been too accurate so far - I mean, for now, we're staying with Juan's mom, and we don't even have a van, it's in the shop!  Tomorrow we're supposed to get it back from the mechanic, after a week and a half of borrowing Juan's family's car and bumming rides from friends and family (thanks to everyone!).  We thought we were bringing it in for a simple tune-up, but that turned into a ~$1000 fiasco when the mechanic found oil in the antifreeze - a blown head gasket.  So we're tightening the belt where we can to cover the unexpected costs.  Soon enough, these van-less climbers will be crammedinavan again...

So Saturday morning our friend Ha, visiting from LA, and his friend Mike, who flew in from Chicago, picked up these two dirtbags and we headed out to climb!  I was asked to plan an itinerary, and I think my plan scored about a 70% - the warmup spot was mediocre at best, but the day's main crag (the Holiday Wall) was a blast.  Since the Holiday Wall was all 11's and 12's, I thought we could warm up on some 10's nearby at the Hidden Corridor.  Unfortunately, Mike & I found ourselves on a sandy, somewhat sketchy 10b, and Juan & Ha on an unknown ~11 that was not much of a warm-up at all (though it was quite fun)!  The only other routes there were in a section of the corridor so narrow and leaning that a small fall could send you into the wall behind you, so we all ran up and cleaned those two routes and continued on.

Ha tackles the unknown

The Holiday Wall, about a 25 minute hike from the third pullout, was super fun and we all got on an assortment of 11's and spent the rest of the time joking around about Mexican Judo and other nonsense.  My favorite route was one called When the Cat's Away, where you start by climbing into a kind of notch, then turn around, and climb back out!  That night, we headed back to Ha's dad's house to cook dinner, only to find that his dad had left us a delicious traditional Vietnamese dinner of fried fish with garlic sauce, eggs, and rice, which we enjoyed with some salad and wine.  We watched some crazy bastards like Alex Honnold and Dean Potter free-soloing in the movie First Ascent, then called it a night.

Peekin' out of the notch on When the Cat's Away (11b)

This morning Ha & Mike picked us up again and we headed out to Cannibal Crag.  My old friend Josiah from high school days had just arrived for a few days from southern California, and he met up with us there too.  We had a great day climbing every which side of the crag.

Josiah cooling down on A Man in Every Pot at the Cannibal Crag

Dancin' up the rock

Ha & Mike had to head back to LA in the afternoon, but Juan, Josiah, & I grabbed some hot 'za at Metro Pizza before heading home.  After three days on, Juan & I are looking forward to resting tomorrow and maybe taking in a matinee of Battle Los Angeles, which Juan can't stop talking about ;)

Peace,
Marie

The Ties that Bind

Holy crap, I can't believe two weeks have already gone by!

The last time Marie posted an update, we were fresh in town still trying to get into a rhythm of things and trying to decide on new areas to climb at as well as visit areas where I had some unfinished business.  Well, now at the end of our second week, I feel like we definitely have a schedule that we've settled into that allows us to get in a lot of climbing time and a lot of family time as well.

It's been really great to be spending some real quality time here with my family.  It's never been a secret that I couldn't wait to move away from this city and in the last eleven years that I've been living in Portland, I only come home for a few days about once a year and the time I've spent at home always feels a little rushed when it comes to my family.  My sister lives here still but now she has her own apartment so I don't get to see her as often as when she lived at home, my brother works and usually comes home by the time I've already left to go climbing, and my mom works the night shift so sometimes I would only get to see her for a few hours in the morning before I left to go climbing and before I knew it, my 5 days were up and it was back to Portland.

This time around because we are here for 4 weeks it's been easier to find time to spend with my family.  I see my brother when we get home and we shoot the shit in front of the TV for a little while most nights about whatever.  He took Marie and me out for dinner and drinks one night at the M Resort where he works as a bartender and the following morning he and his friends took Marie out for red velvet pancakes while I took care of some errands at the house.  It's been great spending all this time with him since we spent a lot of years apart when he was living in New York and L.A., and me visiting about once a year didn't seem to ever coincide with the times he was home to visit.

Because my mom works 7 days a week it's hard to get a full day with her even when I'm not climbing, but the mornings or afternoons that we spend together are always really fun.  Often times she comes home with my sister and we all sit down to dinner or just hang out and talk about all the things that have been going on in our lives, and when both my siblings get in the same room there's always tons of laughter because someone's always wisecracking, calling someone out on something funny that they did.  Sometimes my mom and I go out for breakfast but I at least always get to see her in the mornings before we leave to go climbing, and after a couple of weeks all those little bits of time here and there feel like they've been adding up, and I think it really brightens her day to have us all home again.

Dinner with my sister Michelle and my mom Maricela

Maricela cooking up a storm in the kitchen

The weather has been incredibly fantastic here this second week as well.  There's even been a day or two where we thought it might actually be a little too warm to climb in the sun.  The domino effect that we seemed to have started back in Mexico shows no signs of slowing down and every place we visit we're always excited to get on new routes and obsess over new projects.  Most recently we've been climbing at a place called the Cannibal Crag outside the main loop in the Red Springs area near Kraft mountain.  We really like the 5 minute approach to the giant boulder and the amount of fun routes to do there has kept us wanting to come back again and again.  Marie is making incredible progress in her climbing and has added to her accomplishments by onsighting an 11a and an 11b there, and is currently working on redpointing a tech-y 11c with a pretty dynamic crux.  As for myself, I ticked a nicely sustained 12c and am currently pretty close to sending my first 12d as well.

New Wave Hookers 5.12c

Marie dynoing the crux of Pickled (5.11c), a work in progress.

 Some rest day activities included a visit to the Ethel M Chocolate factory as well as trip to Henderson to see the ClimbX warehouse and get the lowdown on all the new product lineup for the year.  If you are in the area and want to check out the shoes or other products for yourself, you can contact Ken Moore at the warehouse directly by phone (702) 347-7733 or email at climbx@centurylink.net.  They are also working on possibly opening the warehouse to the public one day a week for special deals.  We also hung out with my friend Carlene who I used to work with in Portland but who has since relocated to the Vegas area to work and finish school.  I'm also waiting to hang out with my grade school buddy Mike who is currently holed up sick at home as well as my high-school friend Arieanne who is also sick with the flu (bunch of sickos I tell ya!).

Lineup of shoes at the ClimbX warehouse.

We also got a surprise visit from a group of our Portland friends.  11 guys, including people we've never met as well as mutual friends, kidnapped my friend Scott Tse and surprised him with a trip to Vegas for his bachelor party.  On their second day, they managed to get their hungover asses out of bed and out to Red Rocks to join us for an afternoon of cruiser climbing at The Panty Wall.  Most of the crew flew out early in the morning on the 3rd day but our friend Bob didn't have to fly out until 8 that evening, so he joined us for a return visit to Sunny and Steep.

Bob leading Working for Peanuts at Sunny & Steep

I really look forward to posting about the coming weeks because we will be getting to climb with lots of friends.  More crew from Portland will be showing up around the 11th, as well as my old friend Ha and some of his friends.  There's also my first trip to Joshua Tree where I'll be meeting up with Matt and Michelle from Stoneworks.  And after that we'll be just about ready to plan the next leg of the trip!

Also, we've finally gotten all caught up with our select pictures on flickr.  You can see both the older sets here and the newest set here.  Thanks everyone, till next time!
-Juan

Viva...Red Rocks

Hi everyone!  Thought I'd write a little update about what's been going on since we got here to Vegas.

We've gotten a lot of great climbing in so far, even though we've only actually climbed a few half-days.  On our first climbing day, we climbed at a wall called Sunny & Steep, where Juan sent a 5.12b called Tour de Pump he'd been wanting to get since trying it with his friend Cathy last year.  On a whim I decided to try a route called Turtle Wax (11b) on lead and got it on my second go.  This strong first day put us in a really good mood regarding the Red Rocks segment of the trip.

 

Juan on Tour de Pump

The next climbing day we hit up the Running Man and Stratocaster walls, where by some crazy coincidence a couple we'd seen in El Chonta a few weeks earlier was climbing as well!  Small world.  Some more successes there - Juan sent Choad Warrior (12a), a fun route that switches from big throws between jugs on an overhung start to balance-y, crimpy moves up top.  Also, I sent a fun route with a dumb name (or maybe I just don't know the story behind it), Marshall Amp (11b), that started with a jump to a hueco and a heel-hook/hand match.  After some more hard bouldery moves and a low crux, it ran it out (only 7 bolts in 130 feet!) over easy jugs and huecos to the finish.

 Me on Marshall Amp

Then yesterday we froze our fingers off "warming up" at a permanently shady wall called the Wake-Up Wall, then thawed out with some 11's on the nearby Broast & Toast and Numbers walls:

 Me TR'ing a route called Desert Sportsman

Juan leading a route called Number 3

Besides climbing, we've gotten a lot of quality family time in - with Juan's family here in Vegas, and I got to join my family for my niece Adira's 1st birthday last weekend in St. Louis!  "Diri" has grown so much since I saw her at Thanksgiving.  She's adorable and quite a climber, too!  She loves to scramble up full staircases, then slide back down on her belly, over and over.

 Diri enjoying her first-ever taste of chocolate!  Happy Birthday!!!

I hope you all are doing well!  Feel free to update us on your lives in the comments below or at our email,

Marie

Reflecting

Public bathrooms with toilette paper you don't have to pay for, free water at restaurants, public trash cans and recycling, ahhh it's great to be home!

I love Mexico, there are so so many things about that city that make so much sense but just as many that make me really appreciate the opportunity to grow up and live in the United States. 

It's been nearly a week since we've been back and when I think back about our the last four weeks, it already seems like a rapidly fading dream.  Luckily there are plenty of pictures and videos to keep the memory sharp, and when I go through the 1,100 pictures with Marie trying to decide what to upload and write about, we relive the adventures every time. 

It was pretty hard to frequently update the posts during the climbing weeks in Mexico because it's pretty tedious to write long posts on my iPod and we were too impatient to spend long periods of time in Internet cafes when they were available.  But now that we're back in the US it will be much easier to keep our blog updated.  So, with that said, let me take you back to Mexico in this post one more time before heading on to more current events shall we?

We last left everyone with a little teaser about El Chonta, the legendary cave located near Taxco, MX so why don't we pick up there in more detail?  In Marie's last post she filled you in on all the friends that we made there and the quality of life we had adapted to during our stay.  I'd like to add that I was in complete awe at all the nature around us and adapted very nicely to all the freedom at our disposal.  Highlights for me at the cave, like in Potrero, were never waking up to an alarm clock, not knowing or caring what time of day it was but rather measuring the length of day by the time between meals, making a fire every night, getting frequent visits by Señor Procopio's children, and of course, climbing our butts off from sunup to sundown. 

As far as the nature around us, the property surrounding the cave were full of woods in which nothing grew straight.  Everything was a twisting, tangling, braided, but organized mess of trees, vines, cactus, rock, and shrubs.  The sky was always filled with distinct calls and answers from different birds (including ones we swore were pterodactyls), and you could always spot a lizard or two sunbathing on the nearby rocks.  On one of our rest days Marie surprised a large iguana sunbathing near a fence.  And then there were all the other animals we were happy to not have stumbled upon, such as rattlesnakes, tarantulas, and mountain lions. 

Twisting trees & vines outside the cave

At first we thought this iguana was a Gila Monster!

You may ask, what more is needed to complete this nature paradise?  Well, we haven't yet told you about what we did for showers, since it wasn't difficult to work up a sweat after ticking all our projects.  On one of our rest days we got very clear directions from some climbers up for the weekend, on how to get to a nearby cave with an underground river that flowed from the nearby city of Toluca all the way to the underground caves of Cacahuamilpa.  We set off to find the cave, and were left speechless when we stumbled upon the massive underground opening only 20 minutes downhill from the climbing area.  The huge mouth opened to let you see a giant water-carved staircase, that took you to a large ramp, which then led you into the dark recess of the cave until you reached the riverbed circa 500 ft below where you entered.  It was like being swallowed up by that whale in Pinocchio!  Once down at the riverbed, only a small portion of that was lit up by the sunlight entering the mouth of the cave about 500 ft above.  We could hear the bats chirping in the cave's ceilings, and confident that we wouldn't contract rabies, we donned bathing suits and waded into the chilly snow melt river for a much needed bath, AAHHHH the life!

Marie sitting at the mouth of the river cave.

You simply climb better in a Stoneworks tee!

Superman invades the Bat Cave

But what about the climbing!?  Marie already let you know about her various accomplishments at El Chonta, and it seemed that the luck was running thick for both of us during this part of the trip because just as Marie was able to surpass her goals, not only by climbing all the 11's but also upping the ante with her first 12a redpoint, I managed to grunt, scream, and hug my way up my first 5.13a/b (El Ataxco).  I redpointed this beast in 6 tries over 3 days.  I also onsighted my 2nd 12a, redpointed a 12b, and redpointed my 4th 12c.  All while adapting to a form of climbing that was beyond my comprehension.  Thanks to Marie's eerily intuitive resting skills, I can now add cosmic knee bar and tufa hugging skills to my repertoire.

 Clipping the crux on Mantis (5.12b)

Lastly, I would like to talk about Señor Procopio's family.  A family we came to bond with very much during our stay and whose company we always looked forward to when they dropped in to check on us or climb with us in the afternoons.  When arriving at Procopio's farm, if you are not accustomed to witnessing poverty firsthand, some might turn their noses up or feel sorry for the family's apparent lack of resources.  The house, though made of concrete, has a tin roof and looks dirty and dusty.  Farm animals roam freely everywhere and for this reason you need to be careful where you step.  When you first meet the children, they look dusty themselves, and your heart squeezes just a bit when you see Señora Aurora sweep a dirt floor with an old broom.  But these thoughts and feelings cannot last more than a few minutes once you see how close this family is, and I'll be damned if it doesn't turn into an happy type of envy.  They were always smiling and were so happy to help in any way that they could.  They took payment only for the services they provided, and left the rest of the costs to our discretion.  They happily let us walk through their land, explaining all about the farm and their family's history, and asking lots of questions about our families, where we came from and what we did, and listened to anything else we wanted to share with them.  They talked about how climbing and the recent development (including the Petzl Roc Trip) had exposed them to things they never imagined and gave them the opportunity to meet people they would have otherwise never encountered. 

 Señor Procopio's house

The children were always happy, and we often discussed how great it was that they entertained themselves for hours running around the woods shoeless, climbing trees, swinging on vines, shooting slingshots at bottles and iguanas, wrestling, and of course climbing.  They had no use or apparent want for iPods, computers, cell phones, or video games.  They were more than content to ride horses, go to rodeos and get bucked off bulls, play with bunnies, and chase chickens and rabbits all around the house.  All the boys from the youngest to the oldest were strong and fit, not an ounce of fat on them from all the running and playing in addition to farm work.  Diets consisted of farm-fresh fruits, vegetables, and of course meat, all of which we got to enjoy ourselves on our last night there.  But most of all you had to admire the pride they all carried, and the humility, courtesy, and hospitality they displayed during our stay.  Truly the richest family I've ever met.

Sharpshooter

 Familia Procopio

And now, we find ourselves on the opposite side of the spectrum, the flip side of the coin.  Las Vegas, Nevada.  If it wasn't for my family and Redrocks, I would never set foot in the kitty litter state again.  But here we are, trading trees for neon lights, tufas for crimps, and sleeping mats for a platform in a minivan, continuing our amazing adventure, my baby and me.

-Juan

Recap of the cave and other things

Whew!

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