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El Potrero Chico, 17–22 March 2025: Almost 80 Pitches in 6 Days

Original Post
Opal - · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Apr 2024 · Points: 0

(Broken up into multiple parts, as I wrote far too much)

The Backstory:

Sometime in December, I was emailed a sparse trip planning document, containing a mountain project link, and a date range. Coming back from winter break, with our feeds churning Potrero content (at least at me), we finally bought tickets once partners were committed to coming with. Spring Break in Mexico! (though not in the way many would imagine).

As the days got closer, we got more and more excited. My partner and I took an late January/early February trip to the red to practice some multipitches (though 2 pitch trad, descendible with one rap, really doesn't compare to what we were up against); we talked to friends who had been there prior; we talked out gear (I needed to remark the middle of my rope as Mammut ropes dislike having visible middle markers --- I ended up forgetting and marking with tape, which… worked) and baggage (getting nickel and dimed by only the best of Mexican airlines: VivaAerobus).

A wrench was slightly thrown when, two weeks before the trip, I pulled on a pocket the wrong way, leading to shooting pain from my finger down my hand and forearm. With basically 2 weeks of rest leading up to the trip, I was worried that I would 1) lose all ability to climb (or endurance to go all day) or 2) reinjure and not be able to climb. Thankfully, however, I mostly healed by the trip (and reinjured for real this week).

The Plan:

We were to fly to Mexico, and climb. 

There were talks of hitting Time Wave Zero, perhaps the most known route in EPC. As the days drew closer, and the weather looked like it would be nice to us, we knew we had to at least try it. This became everyone’s main objective.

Other than that, all we wanted to do was climb a lot of pitches, and distract ourselves from school and real life. 

Most of the stuff, laid out.

Armed with a rack of draws, rocky talkies, quads, and the unbridled energy of 19-21 year olds, we headed to Hidalgo.

The entrance to EPC.

We were to stay at La Posada, hopefully not too crowded given it being shoulder season.

La Posada the morning after we arrived. 

Individual Notable Climbs:

Treasure of the Sierra Madre:

(I perhaps gumbied a bit on this one.)

After coming to Mota wall on our first climbing day, around 9, we headed for Treasure of the Sierra Madre. A classic 7 pitch 10c that takes you up to the ridge at the top of the sense of religion wall. There was already a party headed up the first pitch, so we distracted ourselves with some shorter climbs.  

The view of El Toro from Mota wall

A bit after 12, we started up the route. I linked P1 and P2, getting to a godawful hanging belay that convinced me I would be buying a new harness after this trip. My partner led P3, which we both found stout, especially with our calves already burning and the sun baking us. Not initially seeing the anchors, he called out,

“Is this one of those long-ass pitches?”

He found the anchors shortly after, and I then led P4, uneventfully.

“Why the fuck is there a roof above us?”

The roof honestly wasn't that bad, and coming up to the start of P6, we ran into the other party rappelling. We had a cozy little party at the belay, they shared some snacks, and told us there were actually 3 more pitches, but they were linkable (later learned that the anchors were intermediates for rappelling with a 60). I headed up, pulling a car with me on the final pitch. With my partner calling out 5 feet left of rope, I finally reached the summit anchors.

“Ok Opal, you are off belay”

“Pulling rope”

“That's me”

“fuck Fuck FUCK FUCK FUCK”

“Was that a grigri”

“You’re on belay, on a munter”

The first day was certainly a choice for losing my grigri to the ground 700 feet below. I belayed him up, seething at myself for my stupidity, and the fact that I would be killing my weak shoulders belaying from above with an ATC all week. By the time he reached the top, (~4) I think I was crying. Thankfully my partner was a good sport. The view from the top also helped. 

Top of the sense of religion wall.

Once I calmed down, we started the descent, which took about 2 hours. We had originally planned on checking out a few more single pitch routes, but the day had somewhat spent me. A scan through the scree did not turn up my grigri, but the vibe leaving the canyon significantly helped my mood, with locals blasting music, and some guys offering us some free (ice cold) beers on our walk out. 

Time Wave Zero:

This climb has probably been trip report-ed to death at this point. Yet I will still write one because I want to. 

We had originally planned to wake up at 2:40 and leave La Posada by 3:20. We were slightly worried about other parties as, despite it being the shoulder season, it was the nicest day of the week (high of 66, low 48). However, at 1:30 my partner and I both woke up, and unable to go back to sleep, we decided to just go for it rather than staring at the ceiling of the tent for the next hour.
After cooking up a small breakfast, we grabbed everything we had pre-racked the night before, and set off.

Expert photography in the canyon. 

We arrived at the base of the climb, and at about 3 am, we started, in the light of a half moon. My partner led P1 and I started on P2, the first crux pitch. Unfortunately, though I had cruised it the day before, with a pack on and being unable to remember or see holds, I couldn't get from the final bolts to the anchor. Incredibly disappointed in myself, I lowered, and my partner finished it. 

Though unhappy with my performance on 2, the next 5 pitches were lovely, linking and just dancing up limestone slab by the light of the moon and our headlamps. Pitch 8 was an unrope and walk that we somehow messed up and made a wrong turn on (it was dark, okay!) somehow scrambling on loose ground scarily high off the deck. In the next few days we did routes on the other side of the canyon in which we could see the very obvious path even from hundreds of yards away. Perhaps not our best moments. 

We climbed pitches 9--12 in the time between first light and sunrise. It was an experience that made me want to suffer through more alpine starts in order to see the world quickly come awake. We could finally make out the mountains surrounding us better, see the light hit the other side of the canyon where we were climbing just the other day. By this time, the imposing shadowy spires along the approach were nothing but needles far below. Despite grabbing a cactus on the 10b traverse, and having to pull it out with my teeth, it was probably the best climbing experience of my life. When we got to the P12 bivy ledge at 6:50, the sun was up. 

The best view of my life.

A short break later (including my partner about to start climbing before saying, “you know what, I think I will use that wag bag”), we were off again, at around 7:15. 

By the time he was getting to the P13 anchors, our friends were coming within earshot and I got to be privy to some of their lovely belay conversation. 

We linked and linked up to P20, the sun trying and failing to stop the wind from blowing through me. The weather was originally appreciated, especially for EPC in late March, but wow, did it feel quite cold. Anyways, P20 was a tough 10d and was missing its first bolt, spooking me somewhat, especially with the memory of the failure on P2 not too far behind. After a preliminary climb and downclimb, I put my big girl pants on and sent the pitch. 

P21, the 12a crux pitch, was here, with a lovely standing belay. As the only other party that day was a few pitches behind, my partner had a couple RP attempts, and I had a lead go. We both quite liked the pitch, and though neither of us sent it, it was fun to feel like we were cragging 2000 feet off the deck. 

From there, it was a last sprint to the summit. A pretty runout feeling 5.9 (though perhaps that was my exhaustion) and a scary (to me) fixed line ridge walk. A bit before 2 pm we were at the top of the climb, and what felt like the top of the world. 

Views from the top. 

At about 3, with our friends coming up P22, we started to head down. Though rappelling 21 times sucked, the scenery around, the cirque of mountains surrounding us, the swallows swarming--- most importantly, my partner reminding me of these things and how lucky we are to be able to torture ourselves in such a way--- made it better. Though the wind was still sucking the warmth from me, the sun was still, thankfully, out for our rappel. Our feet finally touched the ground again at 6:30 pm. 15 hours and 30 minutes later. 

Back on the ground, headed back.

We were back at La Posada at 7:15 for dinner and the best sleep of the trip. The entire outing still doesn’t quite feel like it happened to me. 

Opal - · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Apr 2024 · Points: 0

(part 2)

Intergalactic Overdrive:

It was the final day of the trip. A non-zero amount of toil had gone into deciding on our final hurrah. Yankee Clipper? Space Boyz? We kind of wanted to get to 80 pitches for the trip. The final verdict was a linkup of Super Nova, 5 pitches of Lucy Goosey, and finishing on El Chupacabra, which would take us to a low 5th ridge walk that I would call a pitch. We would find 2 pitches somewhere else. The name ‘intergalactic overdrive’ I believe is just Supernova and all 8 pitches of Lucy Goosey, but I think the ridge walk on El Chupacabra takes you to the same place. 

We got a reasonable starting time, arriving at the base (with a dog who followed us up the approach!) at around 9. After flipping a carabiner, I started up the 11a pitch probably around 9:10. I loved that pitch, a fun mix of movement with foot swaps and finger locks. Supernova as a whole was very different in character than much of the rest we had climbed in EPC. Polished, incut edges. Almost Devils Lake-esque to me. My partner led P2, and we decided to simul 3-6. Two more pitches later, we were done with supernova, around 11:10. 

Helpful sign on the approach to Lucy goosey. (Everywhere in EPC is labeled even more than Muir)

After a slight break, snacks and taking the shoes off (I’d been climbing with a huge ruptured blister on my heel since wednesday) we were off. My partner linked P1 and P2, and I did P3 and P4. The fifth pitch was a fixed line walk that took us to around the start of El Chupacabra. By 12:50, we were done with Lucy.

View of El Toro from the bottom of El Chupacabra.

By now, we were in the sun, and it was somewhat baking us. After locating the bolts of the first pitch, I started, eager to be done with it, especially as it required climbing through cacti and other assorted spiny plants. My partner led the second pitch, which I thought had decent movement in an interesting feature, though a hold broke on a traversey part, leaving me hanging in space for a good while. More disappointingly, however, it topped out and took a random 90 degree turn on loose scree at the end was a bit disappointing. But we both topped the 11c pitch regardless, and there were inexplicably 2 shoes waiting for us at the top. 

The shoes in question (perhaps I should have taken them, as I blew through my TCs on this trip.)

We left our bag and rope here for the final ridge scramble. Which was Long. And terrible to do in sandals, featuring somewhat of a boulder problem. I don't have an exact time for it, but we ended up summiting at 2:40, and returning to the last anchor at 3:20. The top was nice though, and allegedly the highest you can get in the east side of the park. 

The top. Looking further east in the park looked much more vegetated and interesting.

When we returned to the El Chupacabra anchors, we had 2 terrible rappels through scree and plants.

Rappel in question.

The Lucy Goosey rappels were a slight improvement, and the Supernova ones still, but we were still crashing as we neared the ground.

At 5:30, we returned to the base in fugue state, wanting to murder whoever wrote the MP description of El Chupacabra. 

The bag we had left at the base was not the way we remembered it, though all the cards were still there, and we couldn't tell if money was missing. We thought we were just delirious, but when my partner checked his phone that was left at the base, we were treated to lovely selfies of the 2 kids who rearranged the bag, and took a couple bucks.

We headed down the approach, talking to some people on the way down. I’ll sum it up in a phrase from my partner: 

“Should have done fucking Yankee Clipper”

Though we didn’t exactly do our full 80, as neither of us were crazy enough to do another 2 pitches after that, with some magical thinking (counting multiple attempts on time wave crux pitches) we got to 80. 

I hope I can return soon. 

We left the park for the last time, watching the sun set on the day and, sadly, our trip. 

Ticks:

Day 1:

Crescent Moon/Death of a Tradman. 1 pitch, 5.10a:

  • First climb of the trip. Not terrible, not a standout.

Two Pumped Chump. 2 pitches, 5.11a 

  • Super fun and varied, one of my favorites.

Treasure of the Sierra Madre. 7 pitches, 5.10c

Day 2:

Satori. 7 pitches, 5.10c.

  • So, the route gets morning shade, but you do not. Still super fun. 

Gringo Ate My Baby. 1 pitch, 5.9.

  • We climbed this because the name was funny. The route was fine.

Don Quixote. 1 pitch, 5.11d

  • One of our favorite pitches of the trip. 

Day 3:

The first 2 pitches of Time Wave Zero.

Texas Tumble. 1 pitch, 5.10d. Linked with Remember the Alamo, 3 pitches, 5.9

  • Texas was a fun and interesting crack/face climb. Alamo was a bit adventurey

Dead Man Walking. 1 pitch, 5.9

  • Fun, long, calf-burning bolted dihedral crack. The “105 foot” route used all of my 70 meter rope to lower. 

Aguja Celo Rey. 2 pitches, 5.10b/c

  • My nemesis, aretes. But I pushed through and won a bail biner. 

Day 4:

Time Wave Zero. 23 pitches, 5.12a

Day 5:

Estrellita. 12 pitches, 5.11a.

  • We did the climb with no variations.

  • This climb was pure fun. We passed a nice Canadian couple on the way up. We also especially enjoyed that there were only 5 raps, which we actually enjoyed. We called this a ‘rest day’. Ground to Ground in about 4 hours.

Day 6:

Supernova. 8 pitches, 5.11a. Lucy Goosey. 5/8 pitches, 5.10c. El Chupacabra. 2 pitches, 5.11c. “Intergalactic Overdrive”

Notes:

On the Climbing:

I’d never previously climbed on limestone. I quite enjoyed it. The polished stuff was a nice respite for the skin, and as it wasn’t incredibly hot, and we generally weren’t climbing that hard.

In all honesty, I was a bit disappointed in my actual climbing performance on the hard stuff. Bailing on the last move of an 11b that I did the day before (it was 3 am, but still). I wish we had tried some harder single pitch, perhaps not to push grades, but just for some variety, as there was tons of single pitch that seemed fun and in my style. 

There was a fair bit of loose rock. We never pulled anything off, or had anything thrown at us, but on our first day, we heard some severe rockfall and some screams from across the canyon. 

We were also lucky enough to never get our rope stuck on a rappel, though the other pair in our party did.

I’m now super stoked to just do harder single pitch for a while. Rappelling is just not my favorite.

I should probably wash my rope first though. (My hand after the TW0 rappel)

On the other stuff:

We got extremely lucky with the weather, I think. For being in the shoulder season, we were climbable every day. Most days had a high in the low 80s, we had only one day that got to 90, and one day that only got to 67, and actually felt quite cold. 

Day 3 had pretty poor air quality, visible, and causing mild, though noticeable symptoms in some of us. Other days were pretty much fine. We still climbed because it was either climb-- outside-- or sit around--- still outside.

As a group, we went to town 3 times for groceries/other. We probably didn't need to go that much, but it was a nice respite. El Buho was nice, as was some random torta place we went to. Hitching a ride to/fro was easy. 

El Buho Balcony. 

La posada was nice to stay, at this point in the season relatively empty. We still met some great people. The chickens and dogs can still be loud in the night. Bring earplugs. 

With a fairly even split of cooking ‘slop’ and eating (sometimes multiple entrees) at the Posada Restaurant, food was still pretty cheap. I spent a bit over $70 on food for the week. Including our group eating 90 eggs. 

And now we are back at school. The post trip blues hitting, and my thermo exam hitting harder. 

Micah Robinson · · SFBA · Joined Mar 2024 · Points: 1

Slop you say? I call it fine dining!

Great write-up and great trip! Y'all totally crushed it. Cragging 20p up is another level.

Cameron J · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jun 2023 · Points: 50

Great write up! There is so much climbing in EPC I feel like grinding out pitches like this is the only way to go. I did a lot of the same routes when I was there a year or so ago.

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

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