Potrero - Feb 2003

BlackCatBone_Esteban_1.JPG BlackCatBone_view.JPG BlackCatBone_Trip_2.JPG Summary: Perfect climbing weather, Imperfect climbing focus Esteban and I left Austin sometime during the last week of February. When we arrived at the Potrero it was already dark. All my favorite spots appeared to be taken at Homero's and most of the Austin crowd had already covered the ground at La Posada. Esteban preferred to try the Pagoda. All the indoor spaces were surprisingly taken so we pitched tent on the soccer field. It's the first time I can remember not staying at Homeros. The individual rooms were taken by a group from Toronto and the House was taken by a BBC film crew. Four of the crew was up on the fifth pitch of Sendero Luminoso, and they were already asleep judging by the lack of lights when I looked up there. The next morning, we took our time and I think we started up Black Cat Bone sometime before noon. Esteban tweaked his finger almost immediately but decided to continue anyway. I had been up the route a few times already, but I'd forgotten the upper pitches - especially the chimney two pitches above the roof pitch. Esteban got to lead the crux since he was new to the route. He had no problem with the crux leading up to the roof, but was then too wiped out to cross the roof without hanging. Plus, I'm not sure that he had enough draws. The first time I climbed it, I "accidentally" stood on the last bolt before the crux (yes, unbelievable but true) and probably wouldn't have made it without Dane's secret "reach way up left" secret hold beta. We had no other incidents other than the fact that Esteban had no feeling in his middle finger. I flipped him the bird to see if he could respond back - and he did - so I was confident that his middle finger was at least functioning. We didn't spend much time up at the summit and neither log book nor stash were there. We didn't simul-rap (very slow) and both of us were climbing fairly poorly. We had been thinking about going up Timewave after the weekend but it took us about 5 hours round trip which was way slower than we needed for timewave zero. It is always nice to go up a Dane & Ed route, but we hoped that this route was no indication of the rest of the trip. Esteban introduced me to some very good variations on Mexican food at the place to the right of the place across the street from the Pemex. I also enjoyed a long game of Taboo with the "One Green Bottle" Austin group after dinner. Esteban_Pangea_12.JPG Esteban_Pangea_16.JPG Tenasi_Aspire_10.JPG Tenasi_Aspire_11.JPG Tenasi_Aspire_12.JPG Tenasi_Aspire_14.JPG Tenasi_Aspire_15.JPG Tenasi_Aspire_18.JPG On the second day, we also took our time getting up. We met a yoga instructor named Tenasi when we came down from Black Cat Bone the previous evening and he joined us on the spires. I wanted to do the 11c (Eternal Fatalist) on the Outrage that David, Rick, and Mike were going up, so I left my rope with Tenasi and Esteban and went over to the other route. It turned out they were doing both Elena's 11a and the 11c on the Outrage so I had to wait. In the meantime, Tenasi had set up a toprope on Dirty Dreams (11d) that I went up after Esteban. Both Eternal and Dirty were harder than I had remembered, so I was a little disappointed with my climbing. David, however, got his onsite of Eternal Fatalist. By the time I got back to the Spires, Tenasi had set up Pangea (11d) on the backside. I snapped a few pictures of Esteban at the crux. For those that don't know it, this can be one of the pumpiest 11d's in the Potrero. Due to it's usage, it also has some of the most slippery toe placements in the potrero. I'm positive that it wasn't that slippery when John Myrick first drug my ass up it three or four years ago. Anyway, here is Esteban figuring out the crux for the first time. After this, I left my rope with them again to continue up to the Surf Bowl with the Rick, David, and Mike. Tenasi and Esteban decided to go up Aspire (12a) to the right of Pangea. I had traveled half-way up this 150ft. route but never finished it. The distance means that you have to belay from the top (unless you have a 300ft rope). I might have liked to join them, but three would have been a crowd on a route that long. I snapped several pics of Tenasi as he got started (Tenasi, shoot me a line if you'd like to get the rest of these). I definitely want to finish this route when I get my climbing focus back. Trip_Guppie_10.JPG Trip_Guppie_11.JPG Trip_Guppie_12.JPG By the time I got to the surf bowl, everyone was going up the first pitch of Rodney's famous Texas Tumble (10d). None of us felt like climbing that day and we only had one rope up there so we couldn't keep setting up routes. David was having a great climbing day so he agreed to try Guppie (12a). It's a pumpy climb, but all the individual moves are fairly easy. I normally climb it with one or two hangs but occasionally get it clean. Like I said, none of us felt like climbing, but I didn't want to leave without at least going up it. So, I led it bolt to bolt. This didn't give David the greatest confidence, but it did leave him a nice top rope to follow. He didn't have much problem other than the general lack of climbing desire that we all felt. Tenasi came up when we were just about to take it down. He led Guppie with little problem and then we called it a day. Through the radio, we found out that Trey & Trey were near to finishing their one day ascent of 23 pitch Timewave Zero just above us and Tanya & Jason were on top after their 2 day ascent - but almost out of water. Knowing how determined Jason & Tanya are, we figured they'd be back before midnight. At some point, I wound up at Sue and Dane's place (Mel's house = Kurt & Eleina's old place) with Tenasi. I hadn't seen Sue in two years and she promptly filled me with El Jimador tequila. Dane lay down on the bed because he's already met a lot of Mr. Jimador. At some point, two lost Mexicans came in from Monterey and Sue thought they must know Dane. They didn't, but when Sue asked them why they we there, they said it was one of their birthdays, so Sue gave them tequila too. When she introduced them to the briefly standing Dane, one of them said "Dane, Dana Bass - you're THE Dane Bass" - which was pretty funny. El Jimador is incredibly smooth. After sitting for a while, I tried to stand up and found out just how sneaky smooth it was. At some point, I also went by La Posada where Gary and Eliza provided excellent post-climbing hors d'oeuvres as usual. I think I then went to dinner with Esteban and Sean Milligan. Sean was the guide for the Toronto group at The Pagoda. We went to the chicken place about a mile or so West of the Pemex on 53 and had excellent chicken. ClubMex.JPG ClubMex_Andy_1.JPG ClubMex_Andy_2.JPG ClubMex_Stephen-Trip_Mongo.JPG ClubMex_Trip_Mongo_1.JPG ClubMex_Trip_Mongo_2.JPG Estrellas_Shaun_TimOneill.JPG ClubMex_TimONeill.JPG

On the last day, Sue and Tenasi and I had planned to go up Celestial Omnibus. I was supposed to meet Sue at the Pagoda, but Esteban introduced me to a bunch of French teachers from Monterey who were camping on the stone slab below the mota wall. I couldn't pass up the chance to speak French with cute climbing chicks, so I was late. When I got back, the plan was changed to going up to the Estrellas/Club Mex wall with Sue, Tenasi, Sean and Tim. When we got there we met Andy and Stephen who were climbing the same things that we wanted to climb.

I forget who is in the first photo, but it shows the thinness of the Club Mex wall [UPDATE: it is Tenasi who is waiting at the top of Salty Dog (12a) for someone to finish Fear of Flying]. Everything there is thin, sharp, and very vertical. Sue was being bold and decided to warm up with a 12a (Fully Engaged). It turned out to be a pretty daunting 12a. Tenasi and I decided to warm up on one of the only non-12s there: Kung Pao Pupert (10d) which shares the same anchors and Good Kung Fu (11d) just to the right. These both seemed hard for the grade (but then again, everything had seemed overly difficult this trip). At one point I short-roped Tenasi. There was a kink in the rope, but I should have caught it before it affected him. He promptly gave me a "real" belay on my turn up Good Kung Fu - not the sissy Austin belay, that I'm very familiar with and where there's no slack, but a real belay where you have to start over if you fall. It wasn't really payback, but it did have the nice effect of shaking me out of my lazy complacency. Everyone agreed the climb was sandbagged at 11d and it definitely sandbagged me. I almost never get headaches, but I had felt a mild headache the whole trip that then became rather intense for a few hours. I laid down for what seemed like a long time. Tenasi said he thought I was "overly tense" and "needed to focus" which was true, but can also be interpreted as "pay attention and don't short rope me you bonehead". Of course, his analysis was right. I was more concerned about my business venture failing, and being broke, and needing to go work for someone else again - not something I should concentrate on while climbing sharp/thin 5.12 faces.

After a rest, I heard that no one wanted to clean the short, but difficult Telegram for Mongo (12a). I volunteered and hung at least twice and was not entirely confident I could have completed the climb on lead. I did not even attempt Conflict (5.12b) which Sean lead initially and I think everyone but me climbed as well. Sue and Tim played a lot on Fear of Flying. I was there two years ago when Sue first got it clean for the first time. Tim at least had a difficult time with it. He must have spent 15 minutes going up and down and around in circles at the crux - but he got it after an impressive display of endurance.

When we got down, I pulled out a bottle of El Jimador to share with Dane and Sue and washed my headache away with a few of the sweet lemons that Tenasi always carried. There was some discussion about the "living" and "raw" foods that Tenasi espouses, and I have to admit that I missed most of the conversation, but there's some interesting info here: Living and Raw Foods

That night I got to see a lot of old friends at Checo's. Simean and several others were back in town. At some point, I ran into Tim ONeill who had a DVD that he was in called Front Range Freaks. Tenasi, Tim, and I went over to Cerro Gordo and watched it on someone's laptop. It's pretty funny if you haven't seen it. One of the guys that introduced me to modern sport climbing, Hank Caylor, is in it too. Tim said he might put a link on his website about where to buy it if you haven't seen it: www.timmyoneill.com

- Trip Lucas

TLucas@mindspring.com