If you ever climbed at Hueco Tanks, Texas during the 90's you will no doubt have met 'Hueco' Pete Zavala and his wife Queta who ran the Hueco Tanks Country Store.
That's really sad news.
What a great bloke he was. I rang him out of the blue when I arrived in El Paso in Nov. 92 just to ask how to get to the country store - next thing I knew his son arrived at the airport and picked me up in the most beat-up truck I've ever seen. Pete and Queta were like surrogate parents to the rag-bag of climbers at Hueco and were generous to a fault.
'86 Jim Karn and I worked for Pete for free board. Mornings we'd go downstairs and ask Pete what needed doing. He'd always have a little job for us and would always feed us.
That Christmas Pete and Queta invited the inmates of the upstairs to their house in El Paso. They fed and watered us and we had a great time. Their hospitality was unbeleivable.
I've got a lot of happy memories from a trip to Hueco in 95. My tent got trashed the first day I was there, so I ended up living in the upstairs hut for a couple of months.
Pete's place was legendary, and rightly so.
Ste Brom18 Aug 2006
In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com: aw nuts, he could cook a mean enchilada and pancake, poor old pee wee RIP...
This is sad news. I camped at the Store for a couple of nights in 1996 while waiting for our camping spot in the Park to be free. I (honestly) forgot to pay Pete for the camping - I still feel guilty for it now
