We returned to the scene of the crime (aka proposal spot!! <3) this year with a group of 10 incredible friends! Our mission: to climb long sport routes on limestone cliffs and eat as many tacos as possible. Aside from the awesome climbing, we enjoyed making new friends at the margarita truck, churros round two, and the local hot springs! On the first two days we ended up warming up on climbs on “Las Agujas” and in “Los Lobos” canyon, and sending Time Wave Zero on our second day.
Cover Photo: Mel and I on the summit of “El Toro” after topping out the route “Time Wave Zero” (5.11a A0)
Las Agujas
On our first morning in the park, Melanie, Julie, Lily and I wanted to check out the approach to Time Wave Zero. We dragged Marianna and Evan with us to scout it out. We took a wrong turn in the first 15 minutes and boy was our approach heinous! Cacti blocked our way constantly, and I’m pretty sure I got more scratched up that day than on the rest of the trip combined. Once we found the base of Time Wave, we identified the correct route and headed back down, setting up little cairns to help us the next morning.
The aguas (the “needles” in English), are a pair of small (ish) limestone towers with some interesting routes up each. Melanie and Marianna headed over to Los Lobos canyon to do “Will the Wolf Survive?” while Julie, Lily, Evan and I climbed “Aguja Celo Rey.”
The climbing on las aguas is pretty interesting, but the real treat is that if you have two teams ascending the two spires, you can get some great photos of each other!
After our fun warm-up for the weekend, we headed into Los Lobos canyon. We did a short 2-pitch climb then waited for Melanie and Marianna at the base of their climb. Together, we wandered over to the margarita truck after an excellent first day!
Will the Wolf Survive?
This was one of my favorite short climbs last year, and this year I got to climb it with Marianna on our first day! Super fun climb, and we made it down just in time for margaritas and friends by the fire.
Time Wave Zero
We heard about Time Wave Zero (5.12a/5.11a A0), a 23-pitch climb when roommate David first told us about El Potrero Chico. The climb felt incredibly out of reach last year. Early this year, the climb came up partially as a joke, but as we began climbing stronger in the gym and outdoors, it started to seem possible. We decided to climb the route with our friends Julie and Lily as a team of four, hopeful that our combined enthusiasm and skill would help us reach the top!
We quietly hiked uphill by headlamp at 5 a.m., pausing to admire the stars on a moonless night. On arriving at the base of the climb, we met two climbers from Austin, and tried to keep our nerves in check as we waited to get on the rock. The first few pitches went by quickly, including the 5.11a pitch we were somewhat worried about, and soon we were admiring the early morning light from a few hundred feet up the wall. Every completed pitch was accompanied by a small sigh of relief, and despite lingering nerves, a growing spark of hope that we would actually reach the top. The views continued to improve along with our confidence as pitches fell away below our shoes.
After the tough 20th pitch (5.10d that felt harder than the 11a!), we finally reached the 5.12a (5.11a aid) pitch. The wall looked overhung and fairly daunting, but luckily in exchange for setting top ropes on a couple hard pitches below, our friend Julie enthusiastically agreed to lead. Julie took off up the climb with a small tree clipped to her harness that she had plucked from the wall on the pitch below. With the help of this improvised stick clip, Julie crushed the lead, allowing us and her partner, Lily to follow.
Topping out on Time Wave Zero was unreal! We hit the summit at sunset (5:30) and all of the colors were out to play. We were treated with incredible views in all directions, and took a moment for victory cheers, photos, and snacks before beginning the 2300 ft rappel back to the base of the climb. Descending that many pitches in the darkness of a moonless sky is quite an experience, and we were glad to reach the sweet, flat, solid, safe ground just after 10 PM. Exhausted, we hiked back to the road, and shared swigs of celebratory beer with our new Austinite friends. We arrived back to camp to discover that our incredible friends had prepared a feast for us! I don’t think anyone has ever seen food disappear so fast…
