What do you think? Comments and questions welcome. You also can contact me via Facebook, IG or email about this route or the organization Climbing Borders.
On February 12th 2018, Bicho and I climbed Timewave Zero (23 pitches, 5.12a) for a timed ascent of 2:34.
Bicho had the idea, and at first, I thought it was silly – the last time I’d tried TWZ took 19 hours. Then I thought maybe it’s worth a try, and that maybe this was an opportunity for our friends at Monkey Hands, Exposure Industria and Mad Rock Climbing to give us gear that would afterwards go to the local youth climbing program that I work with, Climbing Borders.
Given the name Timewave Zero, I also think it’s fitting that climbers go for a speed ascent!
TWZ Speed History
With some research at the local climber cafe El Buho, we found that Honnold had a 1:45 solo ascent, and another team claimed 2:51 on 8a.nu. Then I heard that Mexico legend Carlos Mac claimed an unofficial 1 hour 30, soon after the route first went up, and I caught up with Carlos Mac in El Salto a few days before Bicho and I planned the timed ascent. (A bit of background info: Carlos Mac has many first ascents of his own lines, including the monster El Gigante at 30 pitches, 5.13, so his achievements are nothing to sneeze at.) When I asked Carlos about Time Wave Zero, he said: “We climbed like crazy! We started at 4pm and arrived above at like, I don’t know, around 5.30. We had 50 draws!”
Okay, Carlos Mac, possible 1:30 time record on TWZ. Well shit, I thought. Who wants to beat that? We didn’t care too much about having an actual time record, but Carlos’ 1:30 on Time Wave Zero is impressive.
Part of me wanted to think that as years warp our memories, stories are inevitably exaggerated with each re-telling. Also, time also moves very strangely when you’re in the flow…as Einstein says, “When you sit with a nice girl for two hours you think it’s only a minute, but when you sit on a hot stove for a minute you think it’s two hours. That’s relativity.” When we ran up TWZ in 2:34, it felt like 30 minutes, but when I give a belay for 30 minutes, it feels like 2 hours.
But if Carlos (and his partner) say they hold a record, I’ll give it to them. It isn’t important that it wasn’t official, I think, since he’s climbed so many badass adventure routes that are much scarier and more technical. I also want to believe this OG Mexico climber’s could kick any millennial, Generation X/Y climber’s nerveless ass – including ours.
Bicho’s Simul Plan
In theory, with a ‘quick clip’ simul can be as fast or faster than soloing, and the biggest factor is A) when the top climber runs out of draws to protect with. The second biggest factor is B) the extra weight of having a lot of draws, and the third is C) spacing out protection – skipping bolts is faster, but more risky, and a fall from the follower is much more serious, potentially fatal to the leader. So for A), we had a plan for stashing draws on the wall that we could pick up on the way up, and for B), our friends at Mad Rock Climbing provided 30 ultralight draws that weigh 2.58 oz each which would be donated afterwards to Climbing Borders. Last, for C), Bicho skipped bolts where we felt comfortable doing so and had enough draws to just keep climbing, so he never had to stop climbing. (He skipped probably 200 bolts in total.)
The Go
At 2:35pm on Monday, when our stopwatch started, Bicho had 20 draws to get him to the pitch 8 ledge. There, he grabbed 30 more draws (Mad Rock ultralights) for the remaining 15 pitches. That meant I followed the whole way, which isn’t the same as leading, but meant that it was critically important I didn’t fall and pull Bicho off a run-out for a nasty whip.
Just below the summit we actually lost 15 to 20 minutes for a party at the crux. When they saw Bicho’s head pop up under the pitch (21), the leader gave a final successful effort to pass the 5.12a move and the team graciously let us pass. Bicho impressively climbed through the crux without pause, stopping only when he reached the summit to wait for me as I scrambled over the beautiful fourth-class ridgeline to the top. When punched the clock at 2:34, it was 4 minutes over our goal. Funnily enough, we had mixed feelings: we were fast, but we knew that we could have been faster. But in the end, it was amazing to experience. We kept the flow for so long, and trusted each other on a big foal just on the edge of our comfort zone. Bicho’s knees shook a little on the first rap – I realized he was more nervous about rappelling than skipping bolts! We could agree that it’s always a good thing to be a little nervous on the descent, especially since EPC has a history of climbers rapping off the ends.
About Timewave Zero, 23 pitches, 5.12a
Timewave Zero (23 pitches, 5.12a) is said to be one of the longest routes in North America – whether this is true, I don’t know, but the line is in my backyard near Monterrey. Mexico. The longest is said to be El Gigante, a monstering 30-pitch 5.13 located in cannabis fields of northern Mexico, and rumored to be accessible by one guide.*
Timewaze Zero is named for a crazy theory on time by Terrance McKennan, an ethnobotanist obsessed with a pattern in major events in the last 50 years and who coincidence his theory of the end of the world with the Mayan calendar. Fittingly, Bicho and I talked about Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five and another perspective of seeing time: as a mountain range much like the Rockies stretching endlessly in both directions. On the wall, we agreed that as humans we forget how small we are in the big scheme of things. That the record is be significant, and the act itself of speed climbing was a way for us to be in the present, in the flow.
If you’re going to speed climb a sport route, Time Wave Zero would be the one: the line sits 15 minutes from the car, 20 minutes from a hot coffee and stack of waffles at the climber’s charity Búho Cafe, and an hour’s drive from the third largest and by far most Westernized city in Mexico. A visible white streak running down from the summit like a thin cascade, it pours into an area at the base called the Surf Bowl, and because of TWZ’s popularity, the line is relatively clean until the toothy summit – a fourth-class pitch – and easy to follow. TWZ is a classic hotcake stack of easy climbing, mostly 5.9s, with a few moves of .11a and .10d and topped with a tiny dollop of 5.12a.
According to Magic Ed in one of the original and most popular guidebooks, TWZ was originally bolted to the large ledge (pitch 8) in 2000 by Magic Ed and Dave Benton, and known as “Jambo Bwana”, until the following team pushed the line to the top: Dane Bass, Jimmy Carse, Paul Irby, Will Meinen, Jonathan Robinson, Magic Ed, and Tami.
*A note on El Gigante: local community heroine Maria Fernanda Rodriguez once summited El Gigante with a female partner in 2014 in spite of twisting her knee on the two-day hike in to the base. She persistently jumar-ed her way to the top and was in physical therapy for months after.
Getting down
A few rappels are exactly 30m, so our 65m rope was just enough. We made sure to tie knots in the end of the rope. For double rope raps, the toothy rock, lechuguillas and palm trees can grab the rope, so on the few traverse raps it’s worth coiling and bringing the rope on the way down. On a separate descent, my friends watched from below as I wrestled with a palm tree.
Why simul for speed, when there’s more risk?
Good question, put forth by a friend in El Búho Café.
I actually had an internal conflict doing something considered dangerous, while I mentor with youth.
In short, we’re taking a calculated risk that is minimalized by our experience, and simplify the factors as much as possible to the point that we almost always know what the other is thinking, or should be thinking. Climbers have died and taken trips to the hospital simul-ing in El Potrero Chico, and Bicho skipped 180+ bolts with the same potential consequence, but with more awareness and care. Bicho is technically a stronger grade climber, but we are pretty evenly matched – I’ve climbed 5.13c, competed in world championships for speed, sport and bouldering, and in total have been climbing non-stop for 20 years. Only because of our extensive experience did I accept Bicho’s invitation to try simul-ing for speed. I was even skeptical we would go fast, until our planned two-day test run.
On the test run, we checked the weather, talked logistics and prepared for the worst – rain, dehydration, darkness, other parties. Capable friends knew where we were.
We simul-ed up with heavy packs to the ledge, pitched camp, read a bit, napped about an hour, and watched the clouds pass. Then since the weather looked good, we decide to check out the rest of the route, and topped our two-day test run in 5 hours.
About Our Youth Program “Climbing Borders“
We received some old gear of Magic Ed’s youth climbing efforts as a donation to our youth program Climbing Borders, a kind of passing of the torch: three ancient helmets and seven left climbing shoes. Granted, the gear wasn’t very useful, but the gesture was a nice one, and the gesture motivated our youth leaders to come to Potrero Chico. Like everyone before them, regardless of country and economic class, they are always awestruck at the lines, and explore the walls’ features ravenous eyes.
Finally,
Thanks to Mad Rock Climbing for donating 30 draws to Climbing Borders!
-Tiffany
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The Alpine Addict 