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 Chris McNamara leading Pitch 3 of Tangerine Trip, El Capitan. Credit: Corey Rich |
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Basic Leading Technique
This is the most important part of the book. Most big wall climbers fail because they learned the aid climbing basics but never took the time to master them. There’s a huge difference between knowing what to do and being able to do it fast.
Having the basics dialed means moving up your Aiders almost as fast as walking up a stepladder and then making a smooth and quick transition to the next piece with minimum time spent organizing gear. This translates to climbing a C1 or C2 in less than an hour. It means getting to the bivy with hours left in which to enjoy the end of the day instead of setting up the portalege by Headlamp-Review-Review-Review-Review-Review. It means finishing with extra water on the summit, not rationing water and climbing light-headed on the last day.
The good news for folks who don’t live near Yosemite is that 80 percent of success comes from mastering aid climbing basics that you can do just about anywere—at your local cliff, in a gym, or in your backyard tree. You don’t need to be in Yosemite until you get to the multipitch training.
Skills to Learn:
Efficiently moving from piece to piece Keeping the Aiders untangled Always knowing where the Aider is Using the most simple system possible Walking as high in the Aider as efficiently possible Where to Practice
The best wall to learn on is on a wall that is 30 to 50 feet tall and just less than vertical. Important: Don’t start on an overhanging wall or you will be frustrated and start developing bad habits. Some good places to start:
• A bolt ladder in a climbing gym (important that it is less than vertical).
• A sport climb with bolts close enough to reach (you only need four to six bolts).
• Any short crack route that takes gear every four feet.
Solo fixed rope self-belay or partner?
It is always nice to have a belayer and partner. However, on your first aid lead you will discover a fundamental law of aid climbing: you are always moving slower than you think, much slower. You feel that you are moving at a moderate pace but your belayer and the clock tell you otherwise. Trying to find a partner to aid climb with is like finding a friend to go to traffic school with. It is possible to practice almost every aid technique with a fixed rope self-belay by anchoring (or “fixing”) a single rope to the top of the cliff and then using a device like the Petzl MiniTraxion to self-belay.
The ideal setup is to find a buddy to do this course with you. You then find a cliff that has two climbs side by side. That way 30 percent of the time you can belay, encourage and help each other person while 70 percent of the time you can self-belay on a fixed rope. This way you each get in a lot of laps.
Warning: there is a big difference between a solo fixed rope self-belay (described above) and solo lead self-belay. On a properly set up fixed rope self-belay, you don’t “fall” because you are essentially on top rope. Solo lead climbing is a whole different thing. It is much more advanced and dangerous than a fixed rope self-belay. It is more dangerous than lead climbing with a partner because there are so many more things to go wrong. It is an advanced technique not covered in this book (but maybe in a future one).
Essential Gear you Need to Start
2 Aiders (ladder Aiders are best to learn on) 3 locking biners helmet rope gear for anchor belay device fifi hook 4-6 carabiners quickdraws (1 per bolt or placement) stopwatch Optional gear: fingerless gloves, fixed-rope self belay device, knee padsThe Basic Aid Climbing Sequence
The Basic Aid Climbing Sequence
There are four ways to set this up.
On top rope On top rope trailing a second line as a “mock lead rope” Solo fixed rope self-belay LeadingDo whatever is most conducive to getting in a lot of laps.
2. Clip your Aider directly to a piece. Never clip the biner attached to the piece because this shortens your reach to the next piece. If using etrier-style Aiders, make sure the Aider is oriented correctly (if stepping with your left foot, the step is left of center).
3. Without stopping, walk up all the way until your waist is at the piece (or higher if you can).
Tip It's more comfortable to put yours heels together and smear the foot that is not in the Aiders on the wall.
4. Take your other Aider and clip the next piece. Make sure the Aiders are not overlapping and the steps are not twisted.
5. Step into the next Aider at the highest step that is comfortable (usually this is a step or two up from the bottom).
6. Unclip your bottom Aider and clip to the side of you harness. Always clip the Aider to the same spot so it forms a habit and you always know where to go for it.
7. Clip the rope to the piece (skip this step if you are top roping without a mock lead rope).
8. Walk up the Aider all the way until your waist is at the biner. If you can balance, then go even higher in the Aider. In general, you want to walk as high as efficiently possible.
9. Repeat.
Video: The Leading Sequence
Video: Moving up The Piece
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Bad habits to avoid
1 - Don’t stop walking up the Aider until your waist is at least at the height of the piece. For this reason I have not mentioned daisy chains because daisy chains add the temptation to rest before walking to the top piece.
2 – Don’t use four Aiders. One of the main goals of this book is to get people to stop using four Aiders (Four Aiders means two Aiders on each piece and two Aiders ready for the next piece). Four Aiders is a big hindrance to efficient climbing. You spend way too much time:
• Taking more steps than you need to get to the top of a piece.
• Creating twice the clutter and twists. Every 15-30 seconds spent dealing with the extra Aiders on each piece adds up to hours over the course of a multi-pitch climb.
More on Why to Use Two Aiders–Not Four Aiders
Why do some climbers use four Aiders? Usually it is because they camp out on a piece of gear so long that their feet hurt. But if you follow the advice in this book you won’t spend more than a minute on each piece and so sore feet won’t be an issue. It is also a little easier to balance and reach the next piece if you are standing in two Aiders on a single piece. However, this benefit is far outweighed by the downside of having every leading motion involve more tangles and clusters.
I started with four Aiders because that is what I thought the best aid climbers did. Later I learned that not only do the best aid climbers today use two Aiders, the pioneers in 50s and 60s in Yosemite only used two Aiders. Legendary Yosemite climber Tom Frost used a system of only two Aiders and no daisies. In the late 90s he returned to Yosemite to climb El Capitan four times. He was surprised to see how complicated the aid systems had gotten with all the Aiders and daisies but not surprised at how long everyone was taking to lead despite the dramatic improvements in climbing gear.
On a long hard aid lead I occasionally use three Aiders: two regular Aiders and a third Aider that has three steps. [STUDIO PHOTO of short third Aider clipped to main ladder] But this is only if I am going to spend hours placing copperheads or making lots of intricate pin placements. Even then, this third Aider stays clipped out of the way on the back of my harness 80 percent of the time. If after days and days of practice, you find two Aiders uncomfortable, then a third one is okay to occasionally introduce into the system. But make an honest effort to use two.
After reading this book some people will continue to use four Aiders. They are set in their ways or like the comfort of four Aiders. Four Aiders work, they just take longer and involve unnecessary clusters. The goal of this book is to show you how much more fun and safe it is to climb big walls efficiently. The four-Aider method is one of the main hindrances to efficient climbing.
Video: Use Two Aider - Not Four
A note to experienced aid climbers
If you are set in your aid climbing ways, this chapter could be tough. You’re thinking, “I’ve always used four Aiders, why change now?” My answer: if you leave your comfort zone and try things differently, the payoff is sweet. There is a short and painful withdrawal period. But happier and more efficient aid climbing times lie ahead.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record…
I understand why a some people whip through this section pretty quickly. After a little practice they’ll say, “Yeah, I get it. You step on the piece and place the next one. Right. Got it. Now it’s time to learn to haul and pendulum!”
I understand their haste. That’s been my story, too. I usually want to jump to the next level as fast as I can. Back when I started climbing, if I hadn’t been 14 years old, if I’d had a car and didn’t just have my backyard tree, I would have glazed over the basics, too. But I was stuck learning the basics in a tree, over and over again.
You won’t regret getting the basics of aid dialed. You will regret getting stuck in the Stovelegs on The Nose at night because–and thousands of Nose bailers have said this: “Somehow we must have moved so much slower than we thought.” After retreating the next day, you will be back in El Cap Meadow looking up at the wall and thinking, “All that time and money we spent to get here… If only we had mastered the basics we would be doing the King Swing right now and on our way to the summit.”
Don’t start aid climbing on gear and doing the other advanced stuff covered in the next chapters until you can move up Aiders on a bolt ladder about as fast as you free climb.
Master Checklist items
3. Basic leading on low-angle terrain
Sessions 1 and 2
Set up a practice bolt ladder described on page XXX [ ] Aid it once, timing yourself to get a benchmark.
[ ] Now aid it 10 times. Focus on smooth but consistent movement.
[ ] Time yourself on the tenth time. Aim to be 50-75 percent faster by the tenth time than the first time.
[ ] Now aid 10 times where you focus on smooth movement. Try to never stop moving up the Aiders from one piece to the next. Remember, “Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast.”
[ ] Now go another ten times, focusing on both smoothness and speed. Try to get 20 percent faster than your last timed lap.
[ ] Overall, aim to do at least 50 laps over the course of two days.
