The cab from the airport to Rancho El Sendero went smoothly, and after dropping most my gear off in the room, I met up with Nicole. She was kind enough to meet up at Rancho before heading up to Wonder Wall. After landing poorly on her ankle the day before, she was taking it easy and that gave me a great warm up opportunity. I knocked off the rust on One Dead Tear Drop, and then the first pitch of both Ramsey's Shenanigans and Evil Shenanigans. It was good to be back on the wall, and the shoulder wasn't feeling too bad, but I didn't desire to push it. We met up with the rest of the group at Taco Loco just outside the canyon, and set our sites for the next day's objective: Estrellita.
Henry and Amanda had convinced us to start early, as they rapped the route in headlamps the night before and that seemed less than desirable. Partner Dave and I would rope up together, and then Matt and Kelly would be right on our heels. Wanting to be near the first set of parties on the wall, we arrived in Estrella canyon around 7 am, and there was one party on the wall, and one waiting to get started. We ended up getting on the route around 8:30, linking the first two pitches, cruising the next 9, as well as the traverse pitch, which had a couple decent moves. After clipping into the fixed line, we moved thru the 3rd class pitch smoothly with the rope coiled, and enjoyed a snack before linking pitches 6 and 7. The gear was sparse but the climbing was easy.
Next came the first 10b, the 9+, then two more 10b pitches. All of these were more challenging than what the route had presented up until this point, with quite a move getting from the crack out to the face on the second to last of those pitches. Atop that 10b, Dave grunted and put me on belay. We had talked about potentially linking those last two, but after the first we called the audible. I followed the first, then exhaled pretty consistently thru some solid movement on the latter. The last pitch was slightly more committing than the guidebook gave it credit for, and we met the palm tree on the summit a little after noon.
Rapping off Estrellita went just about as smooth as the climb, sliding down a fixed line before 5 long raps off the back of the route into Los Lobos canyon. Painted arrows on the rock did a solid job of directing the rope (assuming it was light enough to see them). We were on the ground just after 2p making for a solid day, and the shoulder continued to feel great.
Over margs at La Posada, Dave and I landed on Pancho Villa Rides Again for the next day. We crushed some food at Checko's, enjoyed the jukebox at Leo's, and promptly crashed for the night. Also, if you're looking for a vegan meal in Hidalgo, Checko's can't wait to host you.
Pancho Villa sits on the Mota Wall, and after the first 10 or so feet there is no messing around. When describing the first 3 pitches, "no fluff 10+" is what comes to mind. On top of the first pitch (10c), I jokingly lamented to Dave this was the first time my fore arms were pumped in this country. The second pitch continued to wreck that lactic acid, as well as the third. Dave led all the pitches and I enjoyed following that pumpy thin crack. Also if you're ever fortunate enough to hear Dave narrate a route, I hope you relish that opportunity. With a handful of parties above us and the last two pitches of seemingly worse quality, we rapped down and went straight to Posada for margs.
Thursday would be my last day to get any routes in, as my cab was scheduled for Friday morning to head to the airport, so Matt and I partnered up and expected to do Jungle Mountaineering, and then maybe something after depending on how we were feeling. When we got to the top of the second pitch, of what we thought was jungle mountaineering, we noticed we were all of the sudden out of bolts.... When we had started the route there were parties obviously much higher than where we stopped. It turns out from the ground we saw the route, but it started slightly to the right of where we began, then veered left above our anchors to continue up the water streak. So we ended up doing Maria La Sabrosa in two pitches, thinking the first sub anchor was the top of the first pitch. After doing all of that, our rope got stuck on the way down and Matt led the first "pitch" again and the second time around the rope came right to the ground.
From there we sauntered over to Las Chimuelas and put up the 3rd ascent of the "fudge variation", where I've continued to miss the new anchors on the first pitch and end up at the old rap station to the left of it. This makes for a fun but heady first bolt on the second pitch, but Matt seemed thrilled. The only time he was less thrilled was with our ill-attempt at saddle-baggin' it on the descent.
Thursday night called for the dinner buffet at Leo's, followed by time with the jukebox. After dinner I packed up and then charged the camera to try to get some decent shots with everyone on the wall before heading out. Below we have Kelly and Olivia on Space Boyz, Matt and Dave actually on Jungle Mountaineering, and Henry leading out in Los Lobos.
