60 or 70m rope - El Potrero Chico

I am planning to go EPC in about a month (so excited!). Many have said "you better bring a 70m." How helpful/essential is it to have a 70m vs a 60m rope when climbing at EPC?
Thanks!
Sharon

My partner and I climbed there in 2005, so this info may be a bit outdated. We had a 60m rope and brought an extra 10m in case we'd need it. We never did.

On a related note, we were going to return to the Potrero next month but decided against it due to safety concerns. Have you done much research on this? We've been getting mixed messages as to the security situation down there.

63m would be ideal. Some of the multipitch raps were just a bit longer than my 60 m, so that I'd have to hang upside down and stretch to grab the next anchor from knots at the end of the rope.

I'm guessing the guys bolting the route weighed a fair bit more with the gear they were carrying and wanted to stretch each rap as far as possible.

Definitely take a 70. You may not "need it" for a lot of the routes, but it's really nice for linking pitches. It also makes getting down from many of the routes less stressful.

On a similar note to above, if you ever plan on linking pitches (which is the way to go on many of those climbs), make sure you have at least 20 draws.

I would take a 70M. Ed will probably chime in and say you can do 90% of the stuff down there with a 60M. However, a 70M is REALLY nice for linking pitches (which you will want to do) and a 60 just barely works on a few of the rappels IIRC.

Thanks so much for all of your thoughts/ideas/opinions! This is super-useful information - I will bring a 70 meter.

To Attila regarding safety: Thanks a lot for the head's up! I have done a fair bit of background research about safety and feel comfortable with the level of risk associated with travel/climbing in the area. However, I totally understand how others may not be.

I was in Potrero a month ago for about a week; I would definitely recommend a 70m for peace of mind, especially if you're planning to link pitches and swing leads on the classic multipitch climbs.

As far as safety, I drove down with a group of friends from Austin without any issues despite my reservations prior to the trip. Stay on the toll road and drive an older model car to avoid attracting undue attention. There were plenty of Mexicans entering into Mexico with shiny new SUVs and trucks that would've made much better carjacking targets than my dusty, old minivan :D.