El Potrero Chico

Trip Report

Summary

• A group of four spent 1 day travelling to El Potrero Chico via Monterrey, 5 days climbing, and 1 day travelling back to Seattle, also via Monterrey.

Logistics

• El Potrero Chico is located in Nuevo Leon, and is about an hour northwest outside of the city a Monterrey.
• From Seattle flying to Monterrey is the best option, any number of major airlines have regular flights to Monterrey.
• A vehicle is not required, though a taxi to and from the airport is. This can be arranged through places such as La Posado, or on your own at the airport.
• Lodgings are plentiful in El Potrero Chico, we stayed at Quinta Santa Barbara and had very, very short hikes into the climbing and amazing views right from our doorstep.
• Ability to speak and understand Spanish is a huge help though not required, In Monterrey is it very easy to get by without Spanish, however, once in Hidalgo and El Potrero Chico, very little English is spoken.
• There is a Tourism office at the park entrance which is best to register at to help fund the park - 250 pesos a person for what's effectively a parks pass and part of how park usage is tracked. Took 5 minutes to complete.
• Food, groceries, etc., are cheap and plentiful. A trip into Hidalgo from El Potrero Chico is a great way to load up for the week. We opted to buy water and otherwise filter water, though opinions were split on tap water in El Potrero Chico.
• Late February starts to be shoulder season, and we had variable temps and conditions though no rain! Coldest day had a high of 40 deg F, hottest day had a high of 80 deg F.

Trip Report

• Day 1
  • Flight from Seattle to Monterrey, must go through customs and immigration once entering Mexico. Monterrey airport is not very large and this was a fairly fast moving process.
  • Taxi from Monterrey to Hidalgo takes about an hour and costs anywhere from 1,500 to 2,100 pesos. It's much easier to book this in advance via any of the larger lodging options in Hidalgo.

• Day 2
  • While El Potrero Chico is known for it's long multi-pitch sport routes, don't sleep on the single pitch climbing as they are equally fantastic!
  • As it was a cold day for the area with highs in the 40s (deg F), we opted for Mota Wall which is south facing and gets a ton of sun. We had a late start, and walked two miles into town to go get coffee from El Buho and to get groceries, A quick taxi ride back with packs full of water and food cost 100 pesos and took maybe ten minutes.
  • For the afternoon we climbed single pitch sport routes at Mota Wall, generally in the 5.10 and 5.11 range. Had a blast getting accustomed to the sharper limestone rock!

• Day 3
  • First multi-pitch day, again at Mota Wall as it was another colder day. We went up the classic 5 pitch route "Pancho Villa Rides Again", a bolted 5.10c sport route which involved quite a bit of crack climbing!
  • The first two pitches are mostly why people climb this route though all were quality. Pitch 1 and 2 are very fun bolted crack climbs, generally in the hand crack size.
  • We did accidently climb the 5.11c variation on the last pitch. There's two options for this pitch, the standard 5.10a pitch which is the right-hand bolt line and follows cleaner black/grey rock, or a left-hand bolt line which starts off easier and ends up on orange/tan rock with a very tricky, thin feet and steep stance crux section.
  • All hanging belays, so be prepared for that!

• Day 4
  • Second multi-pitch day, again at Mota Wall. We went up another classic 7 pitch route "Treasure of the Sierra Madre", a bolted 5.10c sport route which involved quite a bit of crack climbing!
  • This route was awesome start to finish. The P5 crux pitch that goes at 5.10c is definitely a noticeably harder pitch than the P3 5.10c pitch. P5 is a great pitch, starts with a technical slab for the first few bolts into a burly roof to pull through, followed by easier and easier climbing.
  • Probably the only downside of this route is that everything is a hanging belay again, after a bunch of hanging belays the day before that was starting to get old.

• Day 5
  • We want back to having a single pitch sport day to rest our feet and hands a bit. No more hanging belays on this day!
  • This time we went up Las Estrellas Canyon, a beautiful canyon that narrows more and more as you walk uphill. On both converging walls you have any number of sport routes to choose from!
  • We started on an awesome, very long (probably 36-37m that reached ground with rope stretch) 5.9+ route called "Mr. Fluffers Wild Ride".
  • The rest of the day was more projecting level, including my favorite pitch of the entire trip, "Bobert's Mind Trix" (5.11b). This was a very technical low crux followed by a wildly fun thin corner with plentiful face holds on either side of the corner.
  • "The Sword" (5.11d) and Indus (5.10c) were two great follow-up single pitches. The Sword is similar to some harder sport routes at Smith Rock, very sharp and thin low, and an amazing hand crack high up to the anchors. Indus was somewhat similar with slab climbing close to the ground followed by a bolted flake that starts at a #4 sized cam size, then gets to hand crack size until pulling a ledge to an anchor.

• Day 6
  • Decided to finish the trip with one last multi-pitch climb, a fun 5.10c called "Excalibur", which is probably closer to 5.10a.
  • A climb with big belay ledges was perfect for this day, the route is north-facing and shaded all day which was great for a hot day.
  • This route had a very fun offwidth on the second pitch with a handcrack deep into the offwidth, and a technical crux on the fourth pitch involving some stemming and smearing. The reward at the top of pitch 5 was incredible views and a "sword" in the rock!
  • Finished with a night eating at Leo's, awesome spot for food and one you'll find in a lot of trip reports on El Potrero Chico.

• Day 7
  • Travel day back to Seattle! If flying with a connection in the United States, your first connection will require going through customs and immigration, picking up and rechecking your checked bag, and going back through TSA. Ensure you've enough time to get through all of this.

Gear (per team of 2)

• 70m ropes (note: 60m will get by but will limit route options)
• 24  sport draws & alpine draws mix (note: some pitches on some routes can be linked up which can make for a more pleasant climbing experience. If not linking pitches, 16 or so draws is a good idea.
• Personal climbing gear including micro-traxion, this came in very handy when a rope got stuck on one pitch.
• Rocky talkies. Super helpful for communication as you're not always in eyesight of your lead or following climber, and it can get windy.
• InReach

Map