daniel kietzer

For the last ten days, I made my best effort to lose myself in Mexico.  All-in-all, I’d say I was pretty successful.  For those not in on the Twitter scene, on the 20th I took off to El Potrero Chico – a world class sport climbing destination about 45 minutes outside of Monterrey.  I had a ton of vacation time to burn up, so my friend Rami and I decided to do the dirtbag climber thing, living on the cheap south of the border and climbing as much as possible.  I could give my best stab at doing a day-by-day account, but I know I’d miss the good details.  So I’m taking a little different approach, breaking this thing up into a few different focuses.

The logistics:

This was my first time traveling into Mexico, beyond a handful of border towns.  Transportation to Mexico can be obtained fairly cheaply; Rami and I opted for the bus on the way down, $50 Austin to Monterrey.  I was nervous about putting $1000+ worth of climbing equipment under the bus, but the ride down went without any issues.  I speak a little broken Spanish/Portuguese fusion, and was able to get us from Monterrey to Potrero for $25 in a taxi.  I seriously thought the trip would end quickly as our driver darted in and out of fast-moving traffic.  We rolled into La Possada around 7:00pm, secured a place for the tents, and had dinner.

El Portero Chico is a circle of 1,500′ – 3,000′ limestone fins sticking up out of the ground.  It’s about three miles up the road from the town of Hildalgo, a cute little rural Mexican town centered around a big cement plant.  A small community has sprung up to accommodate climbers at Potrero.  La Possada is one of about six establishments, offering cheap camping, a nice communal kitchen, hot showers, a few casasitas, and a small restaurant.  $5/night gets you in, and from Possada you’re a 15 minute walk to the cliffs.  It doesn’t get any better.  I spent $10 on groceries in Hildago and cooked dinner most of the nights, but meals at the restaurant were only $5 if I didn’t want beans and rice.  Definitely living on the cheap!

The rocks:

Since we rolled into Potrero after sunset, we couldn’t really see the climber’s playground waiting for us.  The next morning, I was up right at sunrise, just in time to see the fresh sun hitting this stunning limestone cliff.  I’ve seen a lot of cliffs in my life, but I’ve never seen anything as beautifully textured as these.  And they were huge!  A person could climb for decades here, and never touch the same rock twice.  As you walk up the road into the canyon, a strong wind is always blowing, and the air is crisp.  From the first day until the last, my toes would always tingle on the walk up…

Potrero is best known for it’s long multi-pitch sport routes – clipping bolts way, way off the deck.  In Austin our climbs rarely venture over 15 meters, but in Potrero, like most places, the typical pitch is 30 – 35 meters.  We knew we could get over our heads rather quickly…

The climbing:

We were up early our first day in Potrero, and wanted to do our first multi-pitch route ever.  We picked an easy three pitch route to get used to the motions and learn what on earth we were doing up there…  It all went surprisingly smooth.  Rami led the first pitch, then brought me up.  When I got to the anchors, I was briefly freaked out to see I was being belayed off an un-equalized death trap anchor set up.  But nobody died, and a little lesson insured it wouldn’t happen again…  We went up one more pitch, then rapped down.  It was a good introduction.  We filled the rest of the day with fun single pitch routes, and came back to camp exhausted.

Day two we did another three pitches of a very fun and challenging route, gradually taking us higher and higher off the deck.  The nerves slowly started to die down, and I was actually enjoying myself three pitches up.  The rock in Potrero is sharp, sharp, sharp; and on any given route, you can find good finger/hand cracks, gnarly dirty off-widths, or fun chimneys.  Each day I felt like I learned a new technique.  But talk about exhausting…  The long routes, time spent learning, and route finding (I only climbed one route twice the entire trip) really took it’s toll on my poor muscles.

Thanksgiving morning, Rami and I hooked up with Chris and Kenley to climb Estrallita, a classic 12 pitch 5.10b.  We went up in two teams, with Chris and I tied together.  Chris is a super strong climber from Austin, and he led me up with a professionalism and technical experience I’ve never seen before.  I was feeling strong coming off a leisurely rest-day, and did the entire route with one hang.  The three 5.10 pitches were all hand/fist cracks, and the movements just clicked with me as I climbed up.  Everything just flowed naturally.  The view at the top was incredible.  Chris and I talked about our recent accomplishment, and the commitment it takes to do what we just did.  It’s been a long time since I’ve felt that alive.

I climbed a torturous off-width up the spires – a class Potrero rock formation near the end of the park.  I projected on an awesome 5.11d with Karl, and literally climbed until I couldn’t climb anymore.  So perfect.

The people:

As great as the climbing was, it’s the people I met in Potrero that’ll last with me the longest.  In November, Mexico has some of the best climbing weather in the world, and, combined with great rock, attracts a decent international group of climbers.  A lot of folks from Canada were there running from the cold, as well as a pretty sizable crowd from Europe.  And, whether you climbed 5.10 or 5.14, we were all bound together by our passion for the rocks.  In the evenings we had raging Uno games in the kitchen, fueled by cheap beer and tequila.  Stories of epic climbs from around the world filled the air.  The friendly vibe was so perfect for the moment.

And the Austin climbing community, visiting Potrero for the holiday, was so warming to have around.  We even had a full-blown Thanksgiving feast on Thursday.  We had our characters in the group too, providing constant entertainment.  All-around great guys like Chris and Kenley led some of us up amazing routes we would otherwise have been too scared or weak to get on.  Kenley had some good tales of his own too.  One night, fueled by two bottles of tequila, he and Joel tackled the first five pitches of Yankee Clipper.  If their nalgene would have been filled with water instead of tequila, they probably would have finished it…

I could spend hours more recounting each good moment, but you’ll just have to take the trip yourself to really see what I’m talking about.  Potrero is an amazing place, and every climber in North America should experience it.  I had a blast on my vacation, and I’m looking forward to starting the next chapter in my life on a very high note.  Hit the link for pictures.

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I had a lot of excitement in my life yesterday.  My friend John and I nearly drowned in the heavy flowing Barton Creek on the approach to our local climbing spot.  We were expecting waist deep water at the worst, similar to the crossing at Gus Fruh last week.  But it just kept getting deeper and deeper.  In the middle we were up to our shoulders and the current was really moving, and with a rope bag on my back, I couldn’t keep my feet down.  With John’s help, I managed to swim/thrash to grab a few branches on the other side.

But we got across, and that meant good climbing in sunny 65 degree weather.  We started the long and eventually incomplete process of drying everything out under the cliff.  Every once in a while a pair of climbers would shout at us from the opposite bank, asking how we got across.  No one was willing the brave the cold rushing water though, so we had the place to ourselves for the afternoon.  That, or they were scared away by John, who was wearing nothing but boxer-briefs and a harness.  The climbing was great.  We took it easy most of the time, keeping things at or just above John’s skill level, which was great for me to ease back into things after a week and a half away.

iPhone quality can't detract from the greatness in this picture.

I did get to test out my new quickdraws yesterday.  I need another six in my inventory for our trip to Mexico on the horizon, and seeing how I’ve been so impressed with DMM’s quality and attention to detail, I ordered six of their best – their Shield quickdraw set.  They have a pretty radical shape and design, and the gates are pretty stiff, which made me a little apprehensive.  But I was blown away from the first clip.  The shape just works so well in practice.  The curve in the spine just begs your extra fingers to use it, giving you secure leverage to get the rope past the stiff gate with no trouble.  The combination of usability and security is a huge confidence booster.

We risked getting hit by cars while crossing the Barton Creek bridge to get back to the other side, rather than brave the water again.  It was definitely the more sensible choice.  After a quick ride home, we ended up at another friend’s house later that evening, and spent the rest of the night in good company, talking about our exploits from a few hours earlier.

I’ve been away for a while.  Took a little trip, and spent too much time at the workplace.  Daily routine and worldly obligations have been cutting large pieces away from the things I’d really like to be focusing on, but I think I’ll be back to normal from here on out.

I had a nice little block of three days off last week, and my parents lobbied pretty hard to get me to come visit them.  I had grand visions of trains, camping, climbing and general debauchery; but at the risk of being completely disowned by my family, I jumped on an overnight bus instead, destination McAllen, TX.  As much as I dislike the Rio Grande Valley, at least a three day trip was easily digestible.

The morning I arrived I visited with my grandmother, who had good cancer news for me.  That morning the doctor told her she’s finished with chemo treatments.  Definitely a big milestone.  The two newest Kietzer’s, my brother’s wife and my new niece, were also in the same room, which was a pretty cool reunion.  Six Kietzer’s had dinner together that evening at my brother’s house, and, for a little while, it felt really good to be there.  I spent the rest of my time mostly with my parents, and trying to dodge the flu virus that was floating around my brother’s house.  It was a good trip.

Coming back to Austin, even after short trips, has always been a good feeling for me though.  Driving up to my house on Friday made me smile.

My weekend was a little lackluster.  I spent a lot of time at work watching the sun shine through the windows.  The one social encounter I wanted to have never quite materialized, and for some reason it left me in a poor mood.  Sunday I met a new girl at work who left fumbling for the right words as I helped her find some climbing equipment.  Absolutely gorgeous, and she just couldn’t stop smiling when she looked at me.  That helped me quite a bit.

I have today and tomorrow off from work.  Unfortunately it’s been raining since early this morning…  The forecast says it will dry out by this evening, and I certainly hope so.  I haven’t climbed in over a week, and my fingers are itching for it.  The last ten days of November, Rami and I, and whoever else feels like an epic adventure, will be heading down to Mexico for some big multi-pitch climbing at El Potrero Chico.  I want to be a little stronger before heading down there…

Yesterday I experienced a rare sight here in Austin.  The greenbelt has flowing water in it.  Word on the street says there hasn’t been water flowing in years, testament to the amount of consistent rain we’ve been having.  It was “dry” yesterday though.  The sun was even out at times.  And even though the humidity was hovering around 300%, Rami and I got a few good hours of climbing in at Gus Fruh.  Only a few critical holds were still wet; our shorts however stayed wet the entire time, after wading through the new greenbelt river to get to the wall.

We got started on Iranian Arms Deal (5.10a), moved over to an 5.11a, then finished up on Jerry’s Kids (5.11b).  These are pretty difficult routes for us, and we certainly were not helped by the moisture in the air, but we got a chance to work out a lot of awkward body movements.  I hadn’t been climbing since the last trip to Reimers Ranch, and I was definitely feeling the decrease in finger and arm strength.  Rami, however, is continuing to get stronger, and closer to his previous level.  I’m glad to have a good rope gun around.

We’re going to go again tomorrow morning, and at the moment I have plans for climbing at Reimers again on Saturday.  My toes are tingling.

Yesterday I talked through a few of my long term goals and objectives.  I don’t quite like starting something and stopping and the halfway point.  When I started climbing, I started because I wanted to beat my fear of heights.  It’s worked pretty well so far, but it’s far from finished.  Next summer I want to move back to Anchorage, AK.  By that time, I’d like to be fairly competent on technical rock.  The first summer in Alaska I’d like to learn more trad and alpine climbing technique, and then be ready to swing some ice axes by the time winter comes around.  A few seasons later, I think I’d be ready for big mountains.

I see bold alpine climbing as the pinnacle of the sport; where incredible skill and raw courage meet.  I’m not sure I can be satisfied until I get to that point.  That, and it’d be pretty incredible to finish my goal in the best style possible, in the mountains where it all started.

Whenever an exciting thought or exhilarating moment comes into my head, my toes start to tingle.  It’s always been this way.  Before I do a difficult or meaningful climb, my toes tingle.  When I’m immediately drawn to an attractive person, think about a big goal, hear a great song, remember a good memory – they always start going.  It’s my physical indicator that I’m doing something right, and tingling toes are an important part of my criteria for a “good day.”

My toes tingled a lot yesterday.  I was out at Reimers Ranch, climbing on limestone all day with Rami, and our new friends Patrick and Andrew.  Lots and lots of 5.10d/5.11 climbing.  We were really pushing the limits of our capabilities, and I totally love seeing my improvement from where I was a few months ago.  I gracefully pulled through moves that I could barely even attempt before.  We climbed a lot on Prototype wall, doing Prototype (10d), Sugar (10d, but felt harder than Prototype), and most of Bolt Talk (11a).  I feel like if I can continue my trend of improvement without injury, I’ll be leading 5.11 in no time.

I was talking to my mom a few days ago.  She said her and my dad have been talking about a move back to Alaska, probably two years down the road from now.  I won’t be waiting two years, but I do like the idea of my family following me up there.  I feel like things are starting to make sense.  Just a little bit.

This morning my housemate and I did a little cleaning around the house.  A few days ago the washing machine had a little draining malfunction while we were both out of the house, filling the living space with two inches of water.  It’s been hard to dry things out with the rain and humid weather, but I think we finally managed to get most things back in their place this morning.  I like having order and cleanliness at home.