Things have slowed down lately.  I climbed Habanero 5.12b and La Vaca, linking two pitches 5.9 and 5.11d into one.  Other than that... haven't done much so I'm anxious to get on some hard climbs.  Greg is back in town so I'm hangin with him and Adam a bit.  Funny how when Greg is in town I get drunk... fierce game of Gorilla Scrabble with drinking rules thrown in... three bottles of wine, 2 margheritas and a bottle of tequila later I was trying to find my way home. 
Lots of my friends are leaving now while crowds are starting to show up for Christmas.  With the crowds comes some questionable climbers.  I've seen one broken ankle due to poor technique (I told him not to put his foot behind the rope), a 4-hour epic on a 2 pitch climb (rapped the wrong route then didn't know how to tie two ropes together), and lots of rock-fall from being off-route.  Scary. 

new photos and trying to get some more...

This is a tale of perserverence.  My close friend here in Potrero, Reed, decided on day to try a climb in an area called the Vatican.  The climb is called Jesus Caballero (5.12a) a hand crack with no face holds... very unusual for the area so this piqued his interest.  The first difficulty was discovering in order to get to the Vatican you have to climb another route where all the bolts were smashed off during a flood.  Using some trad gear and slinging bushes, Reed pushed through to discover that the anchors were gone and he had to lower off a 50 year old piton that bent under his weight (a healthy 135 lbs).  He did, however, get a glimpse of the crack furthering his desire to get there.  He proceeded to rally together the locals to loan him a hammer-drill, bolts and hangers so that he could bolt an easy crack to approach the Vatican.  After days of work tearing out trees, cactus and loose boulders he had his route up and made it to the Vatican.  Of course the flood had smashed some of the bolts on Jesus Caballero as well so he had to replace those.  Over the next couple weeks he made attempts at the water polished hand crack, desperately shoving in hand jams to a crack that has friction similar to glass.  With his last day coming tomorrow he made peace with the fact that his climb may or may not go and he would leave Potrero happy.  Today however, the everybody at the Potrero was extatic to hear that Reed sent his project.  Chido guey... chido.

Well I've been having a great couple weeks climbing starting to really work through some 5.12 climbing:
Nov 25: Mother Superior 5.12a on second try
Nov 27: The Curse of the Furry Beast 5.12a 2nd try
Nov 28: Fully Engaged 5.12a onsight
Dec 1:   Conflict 5.12b flashed on toprope then redpoint on second go
Dec 2:   Hurdy Gurdy Man 5.12a on second try.

Gary left back to Portland, Clark took off for southern Mexico, and Reed is leaving on the 5th... the party is dwindling but we're still having fun.  I'm starting to look at bolting a route out here so that should be a fun adventure.  I'm looking for good route names too like "Clown Pocket", Humpty Dance in the Holy Land, or Fauxgasm.  I love my life ;)