El Potrero Chico

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.