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yodadave
Mar 6, 2012, 4:08 PM
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Registered: Feb 11, 2008
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Just back from a wonderful week in Potrero so i thought i would share some quick impressions of the place.
2 days before leaving i managed, in a fit of spectacular clumsiness, to break a pinky toe. Of course in true climber style i rushed to my gear closet and frantically tried on shoes. I was hoping something would be at least bearable. Thankfully my old faithful Scarpa Infernos were freshly resoled and sufficiently bagged out for comfort.
Gone were any illusions of projecting or climbing hard. As it turns out this was the perfect setup for me as i was heading down there with my preggo wife and needed to keep her a priority and not just climb the whole time.
Getting there was wonderfully easy, on time flights and the happy smiling face of Ed at the airport made that possible. After the short 45min ride to La Posada i started the search for partners.
I was in luck that we were staying at what is now the climbers nexus of Potrero. So next morning i headed out. Those first couple of days were a beautiful way to ease into the climbing there. There are 10s everywhere and the majority are really pretty good. Even better is that there is something for everyone. Potrero really doesn't have a style.
The phrase of the week was "It's different than anything else i've done here". It has steeps, slab, tufa, crimps, cracks, dihedrals and on and on.
The other thing you'll hear a lot is "is it true to grade?" For my part everything felt a little soft but not ridiculous. Some agree some don't it really doesn't matter. For me the best lines were the ones that i got on because they looked good. Both happened to be dihedrals, one i still don't know what it was. The other was Don Quixote at the Virgin canyon. This i climbed in the best of styles, that is the top rope beta flash, onsighting is so 2011.
Then of course there are the multipitch routes. A lot of these can be done linking pitches and this leads to some phenomenal rope stretching pitches. One spectacular link is the wee 2 pitch Double Trouble over on Mota. It climbs well as one long pitch and really is very good. For the taller ones Space boys is popular as is Snot Girlz. Time Wave is huge and great by all accounts but people talk about the other 2 a lot more.
Over all i would say that my favorite routes of the week were mostly new ones. There is no shortage as routes are literally going up every week and if you want to escape the crowds it works out great as a lot of the new routes are a bit more of a walk thus thinning out the number of people willing to get to them.
So yeah Potrero is a great destination and i had a fabulous week even with a broken toe!
Also wanted to mention some non climbing things about going to Potrero. La Posada is offering yoga classes twice a week, Ann the instructor is a wonderful lady. The restaurant there is fabulous, I ate most of the different optiona and they were all great. On rest days head into Hidalgo for the market, super cheap fresh produce. There is also the Wonderful El Buho (the Owl) a wonderful wee coffee shop run by climbers, for climbers. Best Latte I've had on 4 continents and just a great place to hang out in general. Also they run as a non - profit and the money goes to school building projects.
(This post was edited by yodadave on Mar 7, 2012, 6:27 AM)
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jorgegonzalez
Mar 6, 2012, 8:24 PM
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Registered: Sep 17, 2005
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Ijole, que bueno que te aventaste huey!!!!
Me dan muchas ganas de ir, hasta tengo un primo en Monterey. Quien se avienta conmigo?
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potreroed
Mar 7, 2012, 9:08 PM
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Registered: Sep 30, 2001
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Dave, people are mostly concerned with the safety issues regarding travel in Mexico these days. Perhaps you'd share your feelings on that situation?
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yodadave
Mar 7, 2012, 11:02 PM
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Registered: Feb 11, 2008
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jorge, you should definitely head down there, it really is awesome.
Ed, good point.
So as far as safety goes here's my opinion. I've been really fortunate to travel to a bunch of places and I've spent time in several cities that have held the "murder capital of the world" title. That said i feel like i can tell when things are sketch. Hidalgo is a small rural town with no discernible visitors outside of climbing. This means none of the associated crime that comes with commercial vacation spots. The airport in Monterrey has plenty of police and military and the road from there to Hidalgo is very quiet.
If your driving down there i only have the second hand information that people down there tell me of smooth sailing the whole way.
So overall i would say safety was not a concern at all, so much so that i brought my pregnant wife with me. Don't let the american Scare-media deter you.
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