Housemates

My new flatmates steal my cigarettes. They eat my food. In exchange they make me feel safe... If you think safety means to have a loaded MP5 on your kitchen table and a couple of pumpguns and revolvers in the bedroom.

Who cares? They bring tons of beer every night, and we are having fun singing banda music until the early morning....

My flatmates...


My kitchen...

Panchita

Monterrey is great fun… I just spent a couple of days there, bouldering in La Huasteca, later getting wasted and bouldering skyscrapers (pictures coming soon).


The most exciting adventure, however, was meeting “Panchita”, the first car I’ve ever owned...

First of all I called in response to some offers in the newspaper. It was unbelievable to see how people interprete the shape their cars are in… after a pretty long bus ride to look at a car that was described as “in good condition, except for a little bump”, I was shocked to look at a wreck that had obviously gotten hit by a truck, far from being ready to hit the streets, and offered to an incredibly high price.

In the end I found “Panchita”, a 1991 Chrysler Shadow with automatic transmission. I immediately fell in love with her, and took her home for a bit less than a thousand Euros. After the first two kilometers the reverse gear didn’t work anymore, so I had it fixed, just to find out that now the normal gears didn’t work anymore. I hit the gas to find out when the stupid thing would shift up… a bad idea in Monterrey, with 30 speed limit and police everywhere. I got pulled over in no time, and only avoided the 750 Pesos ticket by shaking the officer’s hand after hard negotiations (with a 50 Peso note in my hand). By the way, the guy who is responsible for Monterrey’s street design must have been totally stoned, wasted, stupid, or just evil…

And don’t worry, I found out what Panchita needs to be happy: some nice words, a little tap on the glove department, gentle pressure on the gas, and she’s a nice girl. Just look at her, isn’t she a real beauty?

Space Boyz

So far the highest multi-pitch climb I did, together with my buddy Jean-Francois from Montreal. Just look at it... the view is unreal!! The summit registry was empty, though, nothing to make us a good time on top after the 6 hours ascent... Nevermind.

The project: Space Boyz. 11 pitches of awesome climbing. 5.8, 5.9, 5.9, 5.9, 5.10, 5.10d, 5.10, 5.9, 5.10, 5.9, 5.9.


The team: J.F. (aka Pancho). Steffl (aka Steiff).


The goal: Space Boyz summit.


The victims: Two Red Chilies died on the way.

Gritters

Mexico is one of the countries with the greatest biodiversity on earth. This becomes quite obvious especially during the nights... Huge amounts of flying things, cockroaches, flying bugs, mosquitos, other flying stuff, rhinozerus bugs, spiders and ugly toads gather around the light and eat one another... it's really fun! Buen provecho...
One of the tings I didn't know is that Tarantulas are totally harmless and cute!! The other night we saw one crossing the street on our way down to the village. It is a weird feeling to have that huge hairy and leggy thing crawling up your arms and face... However, it would never bite you as long as you don't mess around with it!
We also saw a coral snake, this time a real one!! Black, red, yellow, I had to think of the German flag :) Schlaaaand!!

Plutonia

Plutonia is a sweet Bouldering cave only 20 minutes walk from my house... You could actually go down and explore it. It is at least 50 meters deep and supposedly there is a huge cave deep inside the mountain, but without headlamp and rope that's not a good idea ;)



Look at the new hairstyle! So far only two...

Will the wolf survive?

Stäff before...


and on top of his first multipitch climb, "Will the wolf survive" in "Los Lobos Canyon". 4 pitches, 5.8, 5.9, 5.9, 5.10, sitting on razorblade ridge, 50 cm broad. Sweet!!


Preparing to rappel...


Note the helmet... Safety first!!

The gate troll

The gate troll has never been seen outside his rolling home. He is lying on his bed all day long, collecting money from trespassers through a little window next to his pillow, and closing the gate afterwards with a rope connected to his bed. Modern technology is nothing new for him either: There is a mirror, impeding any intent of sneaking around the trolls home, without him having to move a finger... The area around the trolls trailor smells like urin, so we assume he doesn't even get up to do his business... what a life!

We found another dangerous species on the rocks... While I was giving a belay, Alexa, a girl from New York, almost put her hand on a king snake that was taking a sun bath on a small ledge. It attacked, fell down right next to me and tried to escape... I took the picture while it slid into its hideout. Everybody here told us it was a coral snake, the most dangerous species here in Mexico, and we should have killed it, haha!! Later we found out that it wasn't, we would have been really lucky to find a coral snake, because they are quite shy...


This encounter on the mini super wall was the most frightening one, after loads of geckos and millipedes, a squirrel, and the nasty 15 cm long centipede next to a bolt on jungle wall.