El Potrero Chico Is Magical

Camille and I have been climbing in Potrero Chico for a week now. Today is the first day of rain, hence why I'm finally updating the blog. Until now I've climbed every day and a rest day was definitely necessary.

Although there's the occasional loose rock here and there, the climbing here is really fun. It's mostly comprised of grey limestone which offers a huge variety of holds and climbing styles, depending on where in the park you decide to climb.

We're staying a La Posada, camping in the car amongst many tents and vans. The view of the mountains every morning hasn't gotten old yet.

Camille and I have climbed lots of single pitch routes over the week. So much variety all over.

I've also climbed with some other people for a few days. Here's Marino following me up a pitch of Treasure of the Sierra Madre, 7 pitch 5.10c.

Here's Dave towards the beginning of our send of Yankee Clipper, a 15 pitch 5.12a. We linked up most of the pitches and finished the route in less than 4 hours. It was also the first time I tried simul-climbing. A proud accomplishment for me for sure.

The view from the top was spectacular.

Here's the entrance to the park. It's a couple minute walk from the camping. Feeling quite spoiled here.

Camille and I also climbed up a few multi-pitches. Here she is during the very exposed traverse on Dope Ninja, 6-pitch 5.10b.

Tongue selfie to celebrate getting to the summit.

Awesome views during the rappel back down.

Celebratory margaritas at Edgardo's food and beer truck. The warmth of the fire was warmly welcomed.

The cold and rainy day today isn't fun, but the low hanging clouds are nice to look at.

The light here is consistently amazing.

Sometimes the moon says hello.

We're here for at least a couple more days. Temps have dropped considerably and there is now ice forming on everything. We'll see how the next couple days go!

Viva Mexico!

Did a little more exploring in Austin before heading South. Camille and I explored Hamilton Pool. I've been a couple times before but never with a geology enthusiast, which allowed for a cool new perspective of the area. Never noticed how the entire place was covered in fossils!

Then we stopped at Jester King Brewery. They make really tasty farmhouse beers and they had live music and outdoor games. We also did the tour which was really interesting and educational.

Then we drove to Mexico! We thought the border crossing would be straightforward but we were proven wrong immediately. We drove through a couple checkpoints where we were waived by without stopping. Then suddenly we were in Mexico... No passport check, no car inspection, just free to drive in Mexico... We were very confused. We followed some obscure signs, asked a few people and finally found our way to the vehicle permit office where they eventually charged us a bunch of fees, stamped our passports and gave us a permit for our car. Sigh of relief.

Then while driving away from the permit office I gave half of my carrot to a guy selling newspapers and he called himself a rabbit.

Then we got to Potrero Chico!

We are staying at La Posada, the most popular camping spot for climbers, as you can see in this photo of the communal kitchen. At the camp it doesn't feel like we are in Mexico because everyone speaks English. But it's a lot of fun meeting all sorts of people from all over the world. 

The climbing so far has been really fun. Just single pitch routes at the moment, but hopefully we'll climb something really tall soon.

More to come soon!

On The Road Again... South!

I'm getting really bad at updating this blog, my apologies! Lots has transpired since we last spoke. Camille arrived a couple days after Christmas and was tiringly forced to meet all sorts of family and friends in a very brief time. She handled it all very well.

Her right of passage with my brother was to shoot his AR-15. She hit targets so consistently that I'm now questioning whether or not she may be an undercover spy.

Then we went out to dinner with my Dad, sister and family friends for my Dad's 60th birthday. It was Camille's first time going to a Hibachi grill. It was a lot of fun but unfortunately no photo evidence, so maybe it didn't happen.

Then New Years. The plan was to go camping but mysteriously no one was interested in camping in -10 degree weather. So in classic Gudmand fashion, Keira and Christian had everyone over. Food was consumed, alcohol flowed and shenanigans commenced. 

Then Camille and I waited until the last possible minute to pack the car for our trip. Unfortunately that's the only way I know how to operate. On the morning of the 2nd we hit the open road in search of warmer temperatures. This is our tentative plan (With other stops along the way):

As soon as we got out of the snowy northeast we gave Saturn Jr. a well deserved bath to free him from salt and sand.

And I forced Camille to experience one of my favorite places in the country... Waffle House. Can you tell that I'm excited?

On day 2 of driving we explored Knoxville and Memphis. Still too cold to really explore much. Need to keep going South!

The Bass Pro Shops Pyramid in Memphis provided bathrooms, warmth and overnight parking. That store is the most ridiculous retail building I've seen thus far.

We took a small detour to visit Hot Springs National Park. The park is just a section of the town Hot Springs, AR. Apparently January is a quiet month and all but 1 of the bathhouses were closed. The 1 open bathhouse was $33 for the most basic bath offering and had an hour long wait. We passed on that, did some hiking, ate some Vietnamese food and continued South.

A long night of driving brought us close to Austin Texas. In the morning we finished the drive and headed straight to Barton Springs Pool, a spring fed pool that is free in the winter. Most importantly it has hot showers! Our first showers of the trip and they felt glorious. It's sunny and in the 50's here. And apparently we just missed a huge snow storm back in New England. Good timing, I suppose. Time to explore more of Austin and plan our Mexico border crossing.

Jingle Bells

Happy Holidays y'all!

Climbing and Parties and Beer, Oh My!

Lots going on back home!

Another wonderful Christmas party at the Gudmand's. In true Christian fashion, the party was one-upped again after he built a climbing wall in the living room. It was fun being able to set problems and see how people would climb them. Amazingly no one got hurt...

Thanksgiving at home was nice and cozy. Nephew Jude was once again the star of the show. He's almost 2 and his words and expressions have quadrupled since I last saw him.

Some family friends got engaged and I had the pleasure of doing an informal shoot with them. Congrats Sarah and Brad!

 I saw some weird looking dogs in our backyard eating all of our shrubbery...

I brewed a beer! It came out more pale than planned but still tastes good enough to drink!

Climbed a bunch too. It's now gotten too cold for climbing routes, but hoping for a few more days of tolerable weather for bouldering. I need to avoid climbing in gyms at all costs.