Taquitz Rock Climbing

Heat wave, red ants, tree to ledge jumping… whew!

Alex and I did a rock climbing weekend at Taquitz. Another potential Sufferfest in the making…

Preparing for the trip… Alex: So there’s going to a heat wave. Maybe 105 or 100. But we can probably climb in the shade so the rock won’t be too hot. What do you think?


Day before the 3-days of rock climbing...

Alex: So oopsie, I forgot something.

Me (he had just let me know he had forgotten the tent poles - now what?): What is it?

Alex: It's not a huge deal because I can rig something up. But it's your harness. We can use slings. I've got lots of them.

Me (slings are like immovable rubber bands): I don't think that's going to work (some other words may have been said here, maybe). Can't we just rent one or buy one?

Alex: We don't want to lose time. I think we'd lose two hours if we waited since the store doesn't open until 9am.

Me: Ugh. I really don't want to climb with slings. How about if I use yours and you climb with slings.

And suddenly Alex finds another solution. He asks everyone we meet if they have an extra and voila, I've got a harness!

While rock climbing… Me: How do I get up this part?

Alex: Well, you kind of jam your arm in the rock. There’s not really any place to hold on to so just wedge it in as much as you can and just kind of scramble up with smears (basically means no spots to stand on so you have to smear your toes into the rock for friction).

While rock climbing… Alex: Aaaah! (Flinging his arm violently) This is the infamous ant tree covered with massive red ants.

Me: Maybe just go around it?

Alex: Nope, you’ve got to climb on the branches to the top and then leap to the ledge.

Me: Can’t we just go around it?

Alex: Not really. But maybe the red ants will motivate you to just do it quickly and get it over with?

While rock climbing… Alex: Did you look down?

Me: Of course not! I’m already freaked out enough as it is. What did you do?

Alex: I love looking down. All that exposure and that huge drop. Love it.

Me: Creeps!

At the end of our first day of climbing (White Maiden) after waking up at 5am (yes, each day!)… Alex: Ok, ready for the next one?

Me: What? I am exhausted! I just want to head down.

Alex: Oops, I forgot to tell you about the walk-off.

Then proceed huge drops and a long and precarious climb down. Whew!

To add to that, our flight out of NYC was cancelled due to weather so our trip was doubly packed, I punctured my palm so I had a bloody hand (on top of my bloody arm from skateboarding a few days before), there were wolves tearing each other apart at night (luckily I snored through that, but Alex was freaked out by it), and sadly (maybe the worst part?) I somehow lost/deleted my photos. So I cobbled the below together by recovering some deleted photos (not great which is why I deleted them) as well as a few from the internet.