Cerro de la Silla

SORRY

Here's what happened last Sunday on Cerro de la Silla ('Saddle Mountain', so named for its sorta saddle-like multiple peaks). It's luckily pretty close to campus (I see it every time I walk home from school). You can get a general overview of the mountain from the first picture I posted in the 'Sproing!' update. The plan was to hit the North peak (the one in the middle) and then the far left peak (with the antenna). We started off the day with a minor car crash before we left Tec but luckily the damage was only cosmetic and we were soon on our way (you could say it was all uphill from there, but I wouldn't do that to you). Anyway we soon arrived at a drainage pipe which was reportedly the official entrance, and began the ascent through what I will affectionately call the rainforest n' rock zone. Here's what a lot of it looked like, with little climbing scrambles mixed in:

Soon enough we got to a steeper portion of the trail which let us see above the trees and notice that we were kinda getting higher (a bit). This was the ending point for the day, the antenna peak:

First on the agenda, however, was the north peak. Towards the end of this bit of the climb it got quite a bit steeper so there were a few puzzling moments involving disappearing trails and large rocks. Eventually, however, we got to the top. The view was pretty ridiculous, as we could see most of Monterrey and the numerous mountain ranges surrounding it. Here's Monterrey from way up:

And while there was a lot of fog which kinda obscured our view of the down below, I think it made it a really cool experience all in all:

Here's a panorama off to the side, as always click for bigger.
What the following photo does not do a terribly good job of showing is the several hundred foot dropoff to the left side of the rock I'm standing on. This was certainly not a mom-approved photo op:

We ate lunch on this peak, and as we waited more fog started to roll in. It was kinda cool to see it roll over the valley between the two peaks.

Soon we descended a bit, then walked right along the back edge of the valley between the peaks. Remember the photo of the antenna from before? How it was nice and clear? Well, it was a bit different later in the day:

So yeah, while the dropoff to the right side of the valley was supposedly several hundred feet we had to take the guide's word for it as it was kinda impossible to tell. This whole section was really cool and a little scary at points, as the path was right on the edge of the cliff with some decent wind. At one point I did lose my balance a bit but elected to fall to the left of the path, into a comically large cactus. While that was not the most fun I had that day, I think I made the right decision in the end.
This section of trail also had some more pronounced rock-scrambling moments which were pretty fun. Eventually we arrived at the antenna installation, which as far as I can tell is there solely to look ominous. The facility had a bunch of satellite arrays and other such things and was enclosed in razor wire (I was getting a 'Jurassic Park' vibe, especially with the fog).
The walk down was not very much fun for me, as we used an access road for the antennas. I use 'road' in the loosest sense possible, it was pretty rough even by Mexico standards and was not fun to walk on. Luckily half way down we arrived at a strange concrete square overlooking the city. As it turns out there used to be a cable car to that point, but it had some sort of accident on its second day of operation (somewhere in the 60s) and was abandoned. Here's the cable car station:And here's the view from the concrete sqaure:
Needless to say it was a fantastic hike which I enjoyed immensely (except for the cactus spines which I'm still finding in my knees). I think it was a pretty good level of difficulty for me and the rock-scrambling bits were a nice surprise. So there ya go, Cerro de la Silla.

The week after the trip I got back my first round of partial exams which have at least temporarily calmed my fears of any remaining language barrier. For example, in Mechanics of Materials I scored 50% above the average (but my professor won't let me have a grade over 100 for some reason...) I've also been fencing twice a week, which is good as usual if but a bit lower key than at Purdue (the club owns 2 weapons between all of us). That should pretty much bring you up to date as nothing terribly interesting happened this weekend. Thursday I'll be leaving on a trip to Guadalajara which should be cool, I'll report back the 28th or so (haha!).