Owner and head guide go big in Yosemite

El Potrero Chico has ben referred to as the Yosemite of Mexico. If you consider Yosemite a mecca and an icon for rock climbing in the USA then, yes; El Potrero Chico is the Yosemite of Mexico.

Here Mark and I are climbing a newer route, maybe the second or third ascent, in the Gun Sight on Middle Cathedral Rock across from iconic El Capitan. The route is about 1000' 300ish meters with the hardest pitch at 5.12 (7c).

The days started late because thats just how days start sometimes. We arrived at the base at 11:30am, hardly and alpine start. The first five pitches yield fun run out crack and face climbing for 50 meters at a time. They deliver us into a U-shaped bowl where after 75 more meters we arrive at our sandwich ledge. This is where the real fun begins.

After a tuna and cheese sandwich, some water and some laughs I set into the first of the four hard pitches. Its a 5.12a (7a) that has some wild moves including a classic yosemite sideways dyno. After Mark arrives at the belay and rests his feet he strikes into the crux pitch. It was quite anti-climatic because one of the three hard boulder problems on this route was right off the belay. After a few failed attempts, remember its getting late on us, I saddled up for the challenge.

I tried a mantle on to a pad sized crimp. That worked but led nowhere; fall. Next I grabbed a sloping crimp, put my foot on a good hold that was even with my nose and cranked through. This pitched sported a couple more moves that were just as hard.

The next note worthy event was the large pizza sized flake that Mark pulled off the next 5.11d (6c) pitch while clipping and already run out. He took the longest ride of his life, falling from the forth bolt 20' (3.5M) past his belayer. I, the belayer, managed to kung fu kick the flake and pin it against the wall. This stopped it from hitting my dangling partner. Mark got right back up there and sent the pitch. He only pulled off one more flake.

All and all this route deserves more traffic. It was a great fun time and in my opinion worth the two years of effort it took to put it up. Thanks to Mike Shaffer, Dana Drumond, and Jeremy Collins for putting those hours into Border Country.