Mexi-Come Climb With Me

Buckle up kid’s I’m back from Mexico and it’s TRIP REPORT TIME. As usual there’s a TL:DR section at the bottom.

EL POTRERO CHICO (THE LITTLE CORAL)

I first heard of EPC two years ago when a bunch of people from the club went during winter, and I sorta had my eyes on this place for a while now. Feels so surreal to have finally gone there and matched the places from those pictures to my own eyes being there in person. Anyway a group of us went to EPC this winter at different times, and for the most parts I’ll be talking about my part of the trip. ​

BASIC INFO

• A sport climbing haven in Mexico, an hour drive from the Monterrey Airport in Nuevo León 
• Located in the town of Hidalgo, which is quite climber-centric with super friendly locals
• Known for its tall multipitch sport climbs, but also features great single pitch climbs (and a few trad ones)
• Great climbing on limestone (not very slick or polished in my opinion), lots of features on the rock
• Lots of choss despite how popular the place is (I’ll talk more about rock fall potential later)
• Various levels of climbing, but great for those in the 5.10-12 range

The climbing at EPC is right outside town. If you see the photo above, past the “Potrero Chico” sign along the road you will reach the crag. Most of the campsites are right along the road leading into the crag, and town is about a 5 min drive from the crag along this road. 

GETTING THERE

EPC is just outside the town of Hidalgo, about an hour away from the nearest big city of Monterrey. To get to Monterrey you have a few options

• Bus: There’s a bus that runs from Texas I believe (Turimex) but I only heard this from other climbers I met there.
• Drive: This is a pretty common option. Mihail, Eric and Noah drove down the I-35 Southern Terminus at Laredo, TX, and had a pretty easy time through. From there it’s about a 3 hour drive to EPC. The downside is that from Champaign it’s about 22 hours so it’ll be a long ride. Traffic back  to the States seemed to be worse than into Mexico (their car got stuck in a 3 hour jam), but procedures were pretty much the same. 
• Fly: You can fly into Monterrey International Airport via a few airlines. Inbound I took VivaAerobus from Las Vegas direct, and outbound on Volaris which transited at Mexico City and then to Denver. While my inbound flight was delayed, I had no issues with travel except that the airports had no water fountains available (not sure about drinking from the tap) so you may need to buy water. If you can’t speak Spanish it’s fine as both airports had attendants that knew a English to help you with checking in etc. 

From Monterrey, you can either take a bus into town. I heard it’s rather cheap but I didn’t get details on that. The more common option is take a taxi service (in our case, Sean) who will be able to pick you up and drop you at your accommodations accordingly. This costs about $35-50. There’s a Facebook Group where people post about accommodation options and also ask about sharing a cab or something, probably worth checking out and just asking questions if you have any. 

THE ACCOMMODATIONS

Generally as pretty economical (or broke) climbers, many people at EPC opt for camping out. There’s a variety of options to camp, and most of these campgrounds have better accommodation options such as a hostel room or even a house for rent (albeit more expensive). All campgrounds have a communal kitchen where you can use boxes and refrigerators to keep your food and booze, toilets and showers, and usually a restaurant as well. 

• Camping: Bring your tent and sleeping bag, find your space and you’re done. Cheapest option, generally about $5/day. Most common option, especially for climbers staying for the long term there (some for a few months)
• Room: Hotel/hostel style. I only saw the one at Sendero but I believe theirs is a hostel style, while the other options are private rooms. Sendero’s rate was about $15/night
• House: Rent out an entire place for yourself, good if you’re staying with a bunch of friends and wouldn’t mind paying a little more over the duration of your stay. I believe the average rate is about $10-20/night depending on where you stay.

The following are the main campgrounds that we know of/have stayed at. There are more options that you can research on.

• Rancho el Sendero: Newest campground to the area, about 10 minutes walk away from the other campgrounds. We stayed here this year and I have to say I enjoyed it a lot and would recommend it. There’s camping ($5), hostels ($15), and a house ($??), but if you stay more than 10 days you get a 10% discount. While it is further away from climbing and the roads into the site are rather rocky, the huge selling points are
  1. Less noise for a better night’s rest
  2. Clean facilities including a well equipped kitchen and hot showers (though sometimes can be janky)
  3. Fantastic Wi-Fi that allowed me to Skype my family from across the world
  4. Buffet dinners on Friday for ~$6, including wood fired pizzas (I ate like half a damn pizza on my own)
  5. Bonfire nights where everyone chills by the fire and have an awesome time

• La Posada: This was where the UIUC crew stayed the last time. It’s more pricey ($8 for camping, $25 for rooms), and appears to be the most popular campground. Likewise there’s a fully equipped kitchen, toilets with (also janky) hot showers, a restaurant and a gear shop. Great place to meet people, but it gets pretty noisy till late (plus Leo’s Restaurant plays loud music nearby, and apparently the rooster that screams every damn morning is from La Posada), and also Wi-Fi seems to be kinda poor around the site.  Word of caution, the entrance has a cattle guard with obnoxiously large gaps, WATCH YOUR STEPS especially at night or you may get a sprained ankle falling through the gap. 
• Homero’s Ranch: The original climber’s hangout in Potrero since 1989. Cheaper option with camping at $4/night. Don’t really know much about the place except that the owner (Homero Jr.) who owns the place is a great guy, and they host the New Year’s Eve party which is dope, with drinks, a dance floor, DJ, a huge bonfire, and like a few hundred climbers. 

Didn’t really check out the other campsites but there are more such as Checo’s, La Pagoda and Lemuira. More info about accoms can be found here

THE TOWN

Mexico isn’t exactly in good light when it comes to safety, and the city of Monterrey has seen an increase in crime rates recently. That said, it is unlikely you are a victim as long as you take decent safety precautions. Also it is possible to avoid the city almost entirely during your visit to EPC. As for Hidalgo, it is much safer, and the climber-centric community is really friendly there. The locals are also super awesome friendly people. You can probably hitch-hike in and out of town for the most parts (we got a ride from a nice local driving along the main road, and two years ago Amanda hitch-hiked THE POLICE). During our stay there, we walked out on the streets at night as a group and never felt like we were in any sort of danger per say, and we didn’t really frequent town all that much. So anyway, at least from what I know, you would go into town for 4 main reasons: 

GROCERY STORE
You can get most of your essentials from the grocery store (marked on map). Selection is limited but I doubt you’ll really need much more. There’s a bigger supermarket further North but you’d probably require a car to get there. Groceries are pretty cheap and probably about half that of what you would pay in the States. Essentials from the store are mainly

• Snacks/granola bars/trail mix for you to bring on the climb with you
• Toilet paper since not ever cubicle will have them
• Toiletries such as toothpaste and soap
• Food for breakfast as it’s usually more inconvenient to eat out in the morning
• Any food you may wanna cook for meals

​EAT
There are a bunch of convenience/booze stores throughout town (there’s like 5 that you pass by before even reaching the grocery store). You can get snacks and stuff there but there isn’t really much. Only thing I can remember is that some stores will charge you a little more for beer and that’s cause you have to return the glass bottle for recycling for them to refund you that extra bit. Also there are a couple of roadside stores selling food (in houses or in food trucks) but we never really tried any of it.

However the one day that we did try the food in town was essentially their version of a farmers market, which happens Tuesdays and Fridays. The one on Tuesday is along a street about 2 blocks south of the grocery store. I did not go to the Friday one but I heard it is at a different location and is much bigger. The Tuesday market was just a row of stores that were set up on the street, selling things from produce to local foods to clothes and even had a bingo table you could sit and play. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND taking a rest day of sorts to go visit this market and try the street food, and also shop for groceries if you need, it took us no more than an hour to see everything so think of it as going to town for lunch. It reminds me a lot of night markets that you see in Taiwan or equivalents around Asia.

On of the few things I remember having were Sopes, where they had like flour tortilla dough discs about the size of your palm and they toast it then deep fry it and cut it open and toss a bunch of amazing toppings inside. IT IS SO GOOD and it’s like a dollar each WHATTTTTT damn it now I’m hungry but totally try that it’s so good. We also had freshly squeezed orange juice which was so tasty and also Walking Tacos which were basically nachos made inside a chips bag (usually Doritos). There’s probably a lot more you can get but I also already bought like 3 large pieces of fried chicken so I was forced to stop eating. 

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CHILL
When Mexico decide to start 2018 with some god damn snow you know that no one is going to be climbing, so everyone chills at the local cafe of El Búho Cafe. It’s run by a bunch of climbers who are staying here for the long run (I believe it closes in summer when the climbing season is over though). The cafe’s profits if I recall correctly go towards building a church for the local community. Pretty cool to see the climbing community and the locals having this symbiotic relationship. El Búho is where climbers go to chill and they have board games and books and pretty good food that is decently affordable (eggs, waffles, french toast, coffee are generally priced ~$1, stuff like a latte or hot chocolate ~$2). They sell coffee beans by the ounce, as well as merchandise such as stickers and t-shirts and also the latest guidebook (more on that later). This is a really nice place to hangout and the community is super friendly and cozy. There’s free Wi-Fi but it’s pretty much non-existent when there’s a bunch of people. El Búho also hosts weekly barbecues every Tuesday night where they get a fire going and you can bring your food to grill and share and have a dope ass time with everyone. Highly recommend going too.  

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ATM
This is the last reason I can imagine you going into town, but basically if you need pesos you can withdraw from the Santander ATM in town. It’s a little far away but if you go in the day time it shouldn’t be a problem (I followed Kyle during the day and it was fine). At this point I’d like to mention to never change money at the US airport. The conversion rate was ~1 USD : 19 pesos and Las Vegas airport was only $1 : 16 pesos, plus a $10 service fee which was fucking bullshit. I basically paid like $50 more than I needed. If you have the time, you can go to a bank to request for a certain amount of foreign currency but that needs a few days of notice. I would suggest flying into Monterrey (or if you’re driving, into any city), use the ATM to withdraw some cash using your US debit/credit card. The rate you get should be pretty decent based on the rate set by the bank. If you are unsure if the rate is good, you can always withdraw just enough to get you to Hidalgo then draw more money after.

THE FOOD

Food in Mexico is both fantastic and affordable (just like South East Asia which you should totally go to). If you were staying here for a while and wanted to save on expenses, you can whip up a dope ass meal for less than $3 pretty easily. If you’re buying from the local grocery store, most stuff are pretty standard but here are some recommendations for groceries that we enjoyed:

• Avocados: Holy shit if there’s a time to be a millennial it’s now and here because it’s like $1 for 3 avocados so whip out your damn avocado toasts for every breakfast and feel like a king/queen
• Chorizo: They come in little red tubes and I swear it’s not actually meat it’s just an entire tube of seasoning or something. Throw that on some eggs and they taste amazing
• Red Sausage Thing: I have no idea what the hell these things are but grill them over the fire and they taste phenomenal. They come in normal weiners packages. I didn’t really like the ones with cheese inside but the chicken and pork meat ones were amazing. 
• Coolers: I think that’s what they’re called but basically just alcoholic sodas. Taste pretty good and have same alcohol volume as beer. 
• Local snacks: There are a bunch of stuff like cookies and biscuits that I’ve never seen before so feel free to try some and maybe you’ll like them! 
• DO NOT BUY THE NACHO CHEESE IN A BAG IT’S PRETTY DISGUSTING :(​

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However if you do wish to eat out every meal, that’s super affordable here too. You almost certainly can get by with less than $10/meal and it’ll most likely include a big ass margarita. Also my impressions is that a good number of climbers are vegan or vegetarian and a couple of places I saw did offer those options which is nice. I didn’t try all the places but here’s a few that we came across.

Leo’s Restaurant: Right next to La Posada. They serve this amazing red chicken in some dope ass marinade that tastes absolutely amazing. For~$6 you get a BUFFET, I REPEAT, A BUFFET. There’s salsa and chips for starters, then the main meal of the chicken, rice, some vegetables and flour tortilla, and I think drinks are  $1 each. Also for winter there’s a nice campfire outside where people chill, and Leo’s has a digital jukebox that has a good selection of songs. Really nice place to chill and hang out with people. 

Checo’s: Opposite Leo’s. We had one meal there which was okay (I really like the guac tho). It’s an indoors restaurant which is clean and has a nice toilet at the back but other than that the food is ~$5 per dish and drinks ~$1 each. Nothing too memorable but it’s a nice place if you want to be warm and cozy indoors. 

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La Posada: Inside La Posada campground itself. Pretty Americanized, and honestly I didn’t really enjoy the food. The restaurant itself looks really fancy and nice (while us people inside are probably dirty and don’t look very nice). Service time was a little long, and the food itself was mediocre in my opinion. The desserts seemed nice but were limited, though that chocolate cake was the bomb. Average price for a meal ~$6. 

Rancho el Sendero: In Sendero’s campsite itself, beside the main kitchen. Didn’t actually try any of the food other than the one day with the buffet but there seems to be a good selection at a reasonable price ~$5/meal, and drinks probably ~$1 each. The restaurant is not the nicest looking one but it has a sofa and TV which is nice. But huge selling point is the Friday night buffet, where it’s all you can eat with chicken, rice, vegetables, chips, soup, and WOOD FIRED PIZZA, all for $6. It was honestly one of the best things I’ve ever had. Also there’s a nice big campfire outside afterwards where everyone hangs out. 

Face Burger: Didn’t actually try this but there was a lot of hype for it. Burgers literally the size of your face. It’s not really a restaurant but rather a house of one of the locals. Turns out everything’s closed on Sunday so we didn’t get to go, but it’s one of the best places to dine out in town. Also get there early cause the other group went but at 7pm there were like 14 orders ahead of them so they gave up. 

Arturo’s Tacos: Serves some seriously good tacos. Can’t remember what the options were but it’s basically beef or pork, and you toss a bunch of cilantro and onions onto it along with some amazing salsa. The trompo tacos are basically meat tacos that are slowly grilled on a vertical cooker that roasts the outside of the meat (which is why in a big group this option will involve a bit of waiting). But it’s so damn good, and each plate (which is like 5 small tacos I believe) is only $2, and soft drinks for $1. Bring some wet wipes or something cause it seemed like there wasn’t a toilet you could use or even a tap to was the oil from your fingers, but hey it’s so good you’ll probably lick if off. The Google Maps location was not really correct but they may have updated it. It’s in a small alleyway just East of the railroad. 

Taco Loco: No idea what this place was called but it’s basically a hole in the wall and they set up tables and chairs outside and serve like a burrito thing for dinner BUT they also have a big ass margarita. Nice place to chill with the outdoors seating and they also have a fire to keep you warm. Dinner and margarita is ~$6

Tacos Y Mas: This is the taco stand right by the entrance of the Potrero Chico sign that opens in the evenings where they’ll put out a covered shelter and set up a fire outside. Good food, about $1 for a taco I believe. 

Edgardo’s Pizza: This is where most of the climbers seem to hangout. Edgardo has a trailer which sells pizza, climbing gear, guidebooks, and (apparently the best) margaritas (and apparently does shoe resole too). You’ll know when he opens cause he’ll blast music from his van which can be heard throughout the canyon (which is kinda annoying actually cause it can start pretty early when you’re still on the climb). Lots of people hang out there by the fire which is nice and it’s a great place to chill after a day of climbing. 

There are definitely more options for food but you’ll probably have to ask the locals. This website might help too.

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THE CLIMBING

Safety

• Terrain: While some approaches are very very convenient (Space Boyz is literally 2 steps from the side walk), some walls will involve a slightly more committing hike. There aren’t really established trails around here, so there may be scree (super loose rocks) on the trails and there is a lot of potential for slips and spraining your ankles. Watch for these loose rocks also as some will roll down and potentially hit others on the trail. Additionally every fucking cacti is out there is murder you so watch out for those plants from hell. I fell on one and the thorn was stuck in my hand for the entirety of winter break. 

• Helmet : Bring a damn helmet. I cannot emphasize this enough. I trust that most climbers know how important it is and how it will save your life, but more often than not for ‘looking cool’ or the simple convenience of it, we don’t wear it. Especially coming from places like the Red and Jackson where it’s mostly single pitch stuff with minimal rockfall or choss, we can get complacent. But here we heard multiple instances of significant rockfall that were definitely fatal if they had hit anyone, and we personally witnessed an instance of rockfall where the broken rock fragment was the size of a head (shown below). It almost hit a belayer on an adjacent climb, and it left a huge indent in the tarmac road about 20 feet away from the wall. For me I always wore my helmet once I got near the wall even if I was not climbing because of the rockfall potential. Seriously, bring a helmet (and wear it), it may save your life. ​

• Rappelling: Middle mark your ropes, knot your ends, and always use an autoblock. We can get away with not doing this for single pitch since you can physically see your rope hit the ground, and you can get a fireman’s for backup from your belayer. But there is literally no excuse on multipitch. Rappeling is one of the top causes of death in climbing, and it’s almost always attributed to human error. Also make sure you and your partner are aware of what each other are doing. I had an instance where Kyle and I were simul-rapping and I almost went off rappel before he was in-direct. Spend a day running through your processes with your climbing partner to make sure you’re solid. Better safe than sorry.

Personally I have a stupid mistake that I made and I think it is important to share this. On the last day after topping out on the last climb, we got ready to rappel. Mihail went down first, and in the mean time I was in-direct to the wall while standing on a ledge. At some point, I realized I mixed up the biners I used and switched them out from my PAS. For about 5 seconds, I didn’t realize that I had no points of contact on the wall at any point. When I was back in-direct, I was literally quite shaken by what I had just done, and even now thinking back on it, it really scares me. It didn’t even occur to me that what I was doing was dangerous because I was on a ledge and the rope was right in front of me. Doing all those multipitch routes got me complacent and negligent on my safety procedures (I should have had 2 points of contact in the wall and at the very least 1 at all times). I didn’t realize what I had done could have killed me. I don’t mean to blow this out of proportion but I just hope that we never have to hear of an incident where someone we know gets injured or even dies from making a silly mistake that can be avoided. ​

The Crag
​EPC is basically just a canyon formed by two mountains (El Toro on one side and the other I don’t know the name). One of the best things about this canyon is short approaches​. Jungle Wall is literally right beside the road, and your approach to some climbs is literally two steps from the sidewalk. Even the more committing approaches took no more than 30 minutes and are steep but relatively straightforward (less the hike up to El Bobo which was a fucking nightmare).

The rock is limestone which isn’t as high-friction as sandstone, but I found that this limestone was still decently grippy and full of features, which is great for an edgy boy like me who loves to edge. The rock can be sharp so get those hands ready to be bloodied especially if you’re looking to hand jam. If you never climbed limestone before, it may be good to take a day to climb easier stuff to get used to it. I recommend using the first day to get used to the rock by doing single pitch climbs, because EPC boasts some solid single pitch climbs too. Another plus point for limestone is that it’s really porous – most of the climbs dried out so quick we never worried about wet rock for most of the trip. Downside about the rock however is that there is still lots of choss and even large death blocks (marked with a big X) which are loose. Always be aware of the dangers and make sure you yell “ROCK” if there are any pieces falling. 

For the multipitch climbs, note that there are usually rappel rings that are separate from anchor bolts. If you are climbing, use the anchor bolts unless you are the first party up or have a bad belay position, because you don’t want to be using the rap rings of a party ahead of you. There’s a bunch of basic multipitch etiquette that we had to learn (such as how much space to give a party ahead, or when to give up on a climb based on the queue), so make sure to not be ‘that annoying party’ at the crag. 
Recommended Climbs
Ok on a lighter note, here are a few climbs that we did and highly recommend doing. I’m sure there are more but these were all we could squeeze into our short trip to EPC. A quick point that you’ll probably find beta on linking pitches, which would involve more draws and potentially a longer rope. Highly recommend bringing 24 draws (at least a few of which are alpine draws), and a 70m rope (some routes can only be rappeled with a 70)

• Monkey Boy (5.11a, single pitch): One of the few single pitch climbs we did. Not too sustained and I found it really fun just based on the movement.
• Gettin’ Wood (5.10d, 2 pitches): Short climb on the Spires. Not too hard, and while topping out is a little scary on the fixed pieces of protection, it’s more for peace of mind, and the view at the top is super worth it. 
• Will the Wolf Survive (5.10a, 4 pitches): Classic, though you may find a bunch of newbies on the route since it’s one of the better multipitch climbs that is both short and well rated so it’s a good intro climb. Pitch 4 is one of the scariest and most committing leads you’ll probably do, super cool.
• Jungle Mountaineering (5.10a, 4 pitches): The grading on this may feel a little inconsistent but it’s not too far off. Enjoyable climb but just watch all the cacti on the wall (there’s a reason why the wall is called Jungle Wall). 
• Pancho Villa Rides Again (5.10c, 5 pitches): Climbing on bolts is cool for the first 2 pitches. Plenty of footholds for those that have trouble with cracks, but hand jams are a must. Crux is well bolted. 3 pitch is among my favorite pitches ever. Stemming, knee-bars, and high feet to get over bulges made it feel awesome. View from the top is spectacular. (Submitted by Kyle)
• Satori (5.10c, 7 pitches): Didn’t actually do this climb but I heard it was really good. Shares the same 1st two pitches with Off the Couch, so people have climbed both routes in a day (12 pitches total).
• Off the Couch (5.10d, 7 pitches): Despite the terrible hike in (because we bush-whacked for the most parts), there was a massive queue ahead of us. Cool finish near the top. 
• Treasure of the Sierra Madre (5.10c, 7 pitches): Get those jams in those cracks. Or if you’re like me just stem the features. Easy for the grades with only a few 10+ moves, slightly uncomfortable hanging belays, and a cool little roof section. Kinda sucked that our rope got stuck on the way down when rappeling though. Apparently the view is amazing but the day I went there was like 50 feet visibility due to the fog so it made a good LinkedIn profile picture. 
• Black Cat Bone (5.10d, 9 pitches): My personal favourite climb of the trip. Pretty easy climbing for the most parts, but the 10d pitch was phenomenal. Layback to face crimps to a roof on a decently sustained section, I’d have to say this is one of the best pitches of climbing I have done ever. Even as a standalone pitch this is a 4 star climb. After that, the following 2 pitches are stellar as well, especially the dihedral section which is slightly spicy. Bring a pen and some souvenirs, there’s a summit box at the top! 
• Space Boyz (5.10d, 11 pitches): Probably my second favourite climb. Pitches 5 and 6 were fantastic, with super cool moves throughout. Start of pitch 5 involves reaching out over a traverse ledge which is slightly scary but kinda fun as well. View from the top is fabulous. 
• Yankee Clipper (5.12a/10b A0, 15 pitches): Long and awesome. Getting to bolts 3–5 on the 15th pitch were hard, but after that it was 5.10 climbing and easier. French freeing helps but you still have to manage some tough moves at high exposure. Great climb with spectacular views. Pitch 13 is not the top. Anyone that says so is a quiter! (Submitted by Kyle)
• Time Wave Zero (5.12a/5.11b A0, 23 pitches): The test piece of my trip here. Had this baby on my mind for almost a year now and so glad to have done it. More on it in the highlights section below. 

There were a few climbs that were on my radar but didn’t get the chance to do were:

• Pitch Black (5.10d, 6 pitches)
• Snott Girlz (5.10d, 7 pitches)
• Estrellita (5.11a, 12 pitches)
• El Sendero Diablo (5.11c, 6 pitches)

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TRIP HIGHLIGHTS

Here are a few cool things that happened over the 10 days I was in Mexico

• SNOW IN MEXICO: Seriously wtf I ran to Mexico to get away from the cold and this happened on the first day of 2018. Like the first time in 20 years or something. Ended up with a rest day and a whole bunch of people hanging out at El Buho. Kinda cool I guess but not so much when you are in your tent waking up cold. Also I found out that there’s a hot spring about an hour drive away which people went to when it was cold, might be worth checking out if you have a car.

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• Friendly Puppers: I can’t believe how well behaved so many of these stray dogs are. They’re so friendly and they just make you smile. One dog came into the grocery store and apparently it’s the same one that Kyle saw from two years ago which is kinda awesome. Then there was this pupper from La Posada I think but he followed us all the way from Sendero to the base of our climb and waited for us the entire climb! He was shivering so we put a jacket inside my rope bag and let him sleep inside. Super cool pupper I wished we could have brought him home :'(

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• Time Wave Zero: This was the big climb that I was eyeing for a while now. Considering I have never really done anything more than 2 pitches before this winter, I worked on my endurance over the past months and spent most of the trip working up towards TWZ which was 23 pitches long, much more than anything I have ever done before. After a much needed rest day and plenty of beta from online and fellow climbers, Tanner and I embarked on our quest on Friday morning. Having scouted the approach the day before (recommended), we got up at 3am, had breakfast, pooped, and arrived at the base at 5am. Despite that we were the fourth party in line, not counting one party who bivyed on the ledge the night before. Starting our climb at 6.30am, we were on pitch 16 by about 1pm or so which was a pretty good pace, considering I had a couple of falls and takes on pitch 2’s 11b crux (which is actually much easier if you avoid the bulge). However we also realized that fast is relative because we were overtaken by this pair who were simul-climbing and they started at 11.30am like what. They overtook everyone within 2 hours of climbing and I believe they topped out in like 3.5 hours, absolutely insane. But anyway for me, I had a rough time on pitch 20 which was a sustained 10d, plus I went off route and took a 25 foot whipper which left me with a slightly sprained ankle and I just lost my lead head. On the 12a crux pitch, Tanner managed to french free it and pull me up, and we got to pitch 22 at 4.30pm. We then did the terrible last pitch traverse to the end which honestly was not very worthwhile and it set us back almost an hour, which led to 4 hours of rappelling in the dark. When we finally got back to campsite, it was 11.30pm, and our 21 hour day was finally over. I definitely feel like I didn’t climb all that cleanly throughout, and we lost time in our inefficiencies. But overall, having fought so hard on the climb, and getting back down safely, I can say that I am very glad for what a crazy experience it was to have done the second tallest bolted climb in North America. 

• The Community: Last point on my list, but perhaps the most important one. Before coming to EPC, I was a little unsure about how it would be like interacting with other climbers here, especially since for the most parts I would have been alone (but thankfully Kyle joined so I had a climbing buddy). But I realized most of these fears proved unfounded as I basically met a huge extended family of climbers here at EPC. Whether it was at the kitchen of Sendero, or El Buho, or 1500 feet up on a wall, I felt that there were no strangers, but only friends that I had yet to meet. This is unlike any place that I have been to, less maybe the Holy Boulders competition. It’s an incredibly comforting feeling, to have people that you can talk and open up to in a completely foreign place. And the locals too were very hospitable and welcoming, so I never really felt out of place. I will always remember the climbing and the beautiful scenery during my stay in EPC, but it is really the people that made it so memorable and pleasant, and I hope this inclusive and close knit community continues to live on. 

TL:DR

• EPC is a climbing haven in winter when temps are good (expect when Mexico decides to snow)
• Fantastic sport multipitch, generally 5.10-12 range, though there is also great single pitch stuff
• Drive down or fly into Monterrey then take a shuttle in 
• Bring about $300 for expenditure (that was my 10 days expenditure with 2 way local transport and camping included)
• Stay at Rancho el Sendero, eat at Leos, Arturo’s Tacos, Face Burger
• Bring 24 draws (some alpine) and a 70m rope
• Be extra safe and watch out for falling rocks and always make sure to knot ends of your rope when rappeling
• Recommended climbs: Pancho Villa Rides Again, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Black Cat Bone, Space Boyz, Time Wave Zero
• Go meet the amazing people and have a wonderful time

Just a quick shoutout to Sean for first introducing me to this place and for taking care of us, to Kyle for being such a great climbing buddy with me for the trip, to Tanner for tackling TWZ with me, and to the rest of the crew for making this trip possible. Glad we all got back safe, and I sure hope that I will be back again. 

– Shao