It Was a Most Adventuresome Weekend

Patsy spotted the turnoff onto the dirt road just before La Rumorosa, even though it was almost completely hidden behind a convoy of parked trucks. We set off south, bouncing down the dirt road accompanied by the strains of Brazilian music compiled by David Byrne. "How did I get here?" This was what the others were asking me when we arrived at the Tajo campsite in total darkness after innumerable turns, only one of which was wrong.

The only other vehicle was a VW bus, whose occupants turned out to Paul Kortopates and Michael Calnan. Paul was once chair of the San Diego Chapter of the Sierra Club's Rock Climbing Section (RCS). They were off to climb La Joya, a multi-pitch 5.11b route on El Trono Blanco the next day.

After a brief night's sleep, we six headed off to North Dome, the only area that was familiar to Patsy and me. Dave and Jane headed off to climb Blank Check, a 3 pitch route that offers the reward of a spectacular view from the summit of North Dome itself. Tom led Audrey up another three pitch route, Facial Expressions (probably the best route we have done at Cañon Tajo), while I led Patsy up Marigold. Still feeling pretty good and well rested at the belay after my first lead of the day, I went around the corner and led Pasa Tiempo. Alejandro and Alex, both from Tijuana, were climbing beside me a 1 pitch Paul Kortopates route named Argos. Returned from the summit of North Dome, Dave led Jane up Luke Skywalker on the Star Wars Wall and then they TR'd Hans Solo. Tom led Audrey up Argos while Patsy and I set off to climb Blank Check. When we returned to the Star Wars Wall on which Tom and Audrey were now climbing, Dave and Jane were climbing Facial Expressions.

Tom, Audrey, Patsy and I returned to camp to find those speed climbing demons, Paul and Michael, already back from La Joya. We sat around camp chatting and drinking preprandial beers and margaritas whilst, unbeknown to us, Alejandro's huge reflector telescope was gathering sufficient of the sun's evening rays to begin torching the driver's seat of his Bronco. Fortunately, Michael spotted the smoke before the seat caught fire.

After a sumptuous dinner of fish tacos, fruit salad and black Muscat, we sat stargazing. We were looking at a sky populated with a jillion points of light that one seldom sees in the light-polluted skies of Alta California. Stealing to bed at last, we caught up on our lost sleep.

Sunday we headed off to the Library Wall. The climbs on this wall are all one pitch, No Exit, Mucho Exito, Odyssey, Great Expectations and Little Women Dave led Jane up Little Women, while Tom led Audrey up Great Expectations and I led Patsy up Odyssey. I set a TR on Odyssey, which we later moved over to Mucho Exito, which Dave, Patsy and Tom flashed, Jane came close to flashing, while Audrey and I flailed and whimpered, respectively. Tom and I both led Little Women then Tom also led ?.

Around 2 pm, a huge bird droned overhead and shit big white ones all over the roof of the trucks. Next time we'll be ready with the proven anti-psittacine weapon, slingshots loaded with balls of ripe avocado flesh.

We packed up our climbing gear at about 4.30 pm and left camp at 6.15 pm, reaching the border just before 8 pm, the witching hour at which the insurance expired. We ate dinner at the "Greek Sombrero" in Jamul on the way home. An unusual but excellent Greek/Mexican restaurant that closes at 9 pm. We made it just in time. After spending Sunday night in San Diego, we fetched Dave and Audrey to the airport in time to catch their 6.45 am red eye flight back to San Jose.

Tom and I were climbing in our best form and Jane was simply indefatigable and in the buffest form imaginable. It was a most adventuresome weekend and we cannot wait until the next. Thinking that we should perhaps come up with a name for our motley climbing group, Tom suggested we call ourselves "Los Alpinistas" and the name stuck.

While some of us were leaving skin on the rocky outcrops above Laguna Salada this past weekend, I flew down to the little Mexican town of Puertecitos. It has a fun little rocky airstrip and the usual array of wrecked cars, anonymous metal pieces and bits of wire lying around and a beautiful rocky desert setting with plenty of beer and even a little imported cognac. I wonder if this Armenian bottle thought that it would be opened under a jillion stars in such a place.

On the flight back, we looked for the shinbusters by seeking their off-red 4x4s. This turned out to be relatively easy, since, apparently not fearing attack from the air, they had taken no precautions to camouflage anything. Surprised at seeing that they had by some miracle actually located Cañon Tajo, we descended into a bombing run. The weapon was marshmallows, since we decided to save the missiles for air to air action in the VFR corridor above the San Diego airport. Having attacked from about 1000 feet without flak, on a crystal clear day, I can see how it is that a city can survive a long time under bombardment from the air and why a few NATO F-16s are not necessarily the answer in Bosnia. One trouble I had was that about half the marshmallows in the bag had fused in the Puertecitos sun into a large nuclear marshmallow which I was reluctant to unleash. Who knows what they might have had down there to unleash on me in retaliation, refried beans or even a chili relleno, so I was frightened into waging a limited war with conventional food. It is much more fun to be having a food fight from a Cessna than in a restaurant with large caliber croutons and buns, by the way. In any case, the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction clearly operates and I am going to have to spend a lot of money on development if I even suspect they have acquired an anti-marshmallow snack of some kind.