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| Messages 1 - 19 of total 19 in this topic |
Ihateplastic
Trad climber
Lake Oswego, Oregon
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Topic Author's Original Post - Jan 14, 2010 - 03:28pm PT
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John knows his stuff! This piece is perhaps a bit dated (1992) but it was THE primer at that point in time.
Nice work Deuce!
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Ihateplastic
Trad climber
Lake Oswego, Oregon
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 14, 2010 - 11:51pm PT
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What? No one is interested in aid?
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Porkchop_express
Trad climber
Currently in San Diego
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Jan 15, 2010 - 12:53am PT
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I am very interested in Aid. However I can gain only so much from reading about it...I want to get out and try it. But its tough finding a partner to help you try it when your best selling point is that you're keen to learn...
I got the free gear for it, just need some iron and aiders. I even have ascenders. And a haul bag. No partner. Ugh.
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adamiata
Ice climber
Candia, NH
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Jan 15, 2010 - 07:57am PT
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Echoing the hard-to-find-a-partner blues.
Luckily, aiding is easier to solo.
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Studly
Trad climber
WA
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Jan 15, 2010 - 09:57am PT
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Not impressed with Chris Kalous in the video clip. He's just to impressed with himself. I think I read the same thing in a article in one of the climbing mags by him. He slams aid climbing and aid climbers. We all climb on the deeds of the ones that went before us, and there is a place for aid climbing in our climbing world, so get over it Chris. and don't knock some overweight guy that is out climbing trying to get it done just because you think you're the sh#t.
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Pie
Trad climber
So-Cal
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Jan 15, 2010 - 12:19pm PT
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messged u chop
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the Fet
climber
Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La
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Jan 15, 2010 - 12:23pm PT
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Thanks for posting this!
Color photos, easy to read. This is the way to post old articles.
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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Jan 15, 2010 - 01:56pm PT
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That was an excellent article. About the only updates I can think of would be on cam hooks (exceedingly important), beaks, and route maintenance (i.e. how to re-set or re-place a head). And yes, aid routes are the easiest to solo.
John
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jogill
climber
Colorado
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Jan 15, 2010 - 06:35pm PT
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I think aid climbing may make a comeback as free climbing becomes less accessible to those of normal statue and genetic heritage. Can't wait for young female Chinese acrobats and gymnasts to really get into the aid-less game!
Layton Kor was a terrific aid climber. I recall examining a route he did around Twin Owls in Estes Park. Those long reaches coupled with rurps in seams you could barely see.
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deuce4
climber
Hobart, Australia
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Jan 15, 2010 - 07:42pm PT
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Can't even remember writing that one. Think it was a quickie piece edited by Duane Raleigh, perhaps some was even written by Duane, another big wall hardman of the era.
My original "how to aid climb" pieces were in Climbing 99 and Climbing 100, and were the basis for the "Big Wall Tech Manual", then became the crib notes for the book that John Long and I wrote together. This piece came later, I believe.
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jstan
climber
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Jan 15, 2010 - 09:26pm PT
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"I think aid climbing may make a comeback as free climbing becomes less accessible to those of normal statue and genetic heritage."
Doesn't this conclusion follow only if a large percentage of climbers have set their sights on themselves advancing the standards?
I would be surprised were this true. I never thought this and I have trouble listing the names of friends who seemed to have had this as their principal agenda. For a fact this was never said. Just seeing what we could do each weekend was a trip, all by itself.
But who knows. Maybe people are entirely different now.
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R.B.
Big Wall climber
Ripped from Salmon
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Jan 15, 2010 - 10:10pm PT
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Come on Deuce ... you know I know you were quite influential in the early to mid-late '80's ... you are da man ... but I remember too that you can free climb as good as any can as well. I remember you attempting the FA attempts of "shutdown" at G.M. and just doing fine ... it is a pleasure to call you a friend.
RB
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Tom
Big Wall climber
San Luis Obispo CA
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Jan 15, 2010 - 10:30pm PT
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I think aid climbing may make a comeback as free climbing becomes less accessible to those of normal statue and genetic heritage.
Aging climbers might also prefer to aid their way up various climbs. I'll do short bits of 5.9 on walls, but I won't even consider top-roping anything harder. The mechanical stress on tendons, ligaments and joints seems too high a price. My youthful-recovery-rate is long gone ... . and all that's left is the ability to fake my way up. I can send the Cap on C1, and feel good about myself in the morning.
And, besides, John Salathe (who began climbing at the age of 50, or something) once famously remarked, "Enough of this hiking, let's get on with the climbing."
Many real climbers are repulsed and offended by the idea of aid climbing, just as they are repulsed and offended by sport climbing.
At both ends of the climbing spectrum, there is a leisure class
 Dr. Johnson, plagarising Eric Beck
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Ihateplastic
Trad climber
Lake Oswego, Oregon
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 15, 2010 - 10:48pm PT
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Deuce (and others) I'll post those other big wall articles this weekend.
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jogill
climber
Colorado
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Jan 16, 2010 - 08:24pm PT
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I think aid climbing may make a comeback as free climbing becomes less accessible to those of normal statue and genetic heritage. Can't wait for young female Chinese acrobats and gymnasts to really get into the aid-less game!
I'm not saying "normal" climbers will convert to aid, merely that the aid subculture may grow among those who are quite competitive. Maybe not. Just a thought. Doesn't apply to us ancients! As a life-long amateur, like jstan,I appreciated those weekends, too. Don't think I would have been happy as a professional.
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deuce4
climber
Hobart, Australia
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Jan 17, 2010 - 02:09am PT
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Aid climbing is basically a constant stream of torment broken by brief moments of relief. In itself, it's a pretty silly pursuit.
But, to climb a big rock wall, and to experience the amazing feeling of being surrounded by a massive vertical sea of granite, most folks need to resort to aid.
Until Leo's near flash of El Nino, most of the first free ascents of El Cap had used more "aid" (eg, weighting gear) than a typical aid ascent up the same route, in order to work things out for the eventual free ascent.
It's really only recently that some true "big walls" have been getting climbed pure free on their first ascent.
I've always enjoyed free climbing much much more than aid climbing, naturally, but when I started climbing, I was in awe of the big rock faces. It seemed to me the goal of climbing was to climb bigger and bigger things. Peaking at the 5.12a/b free level, there was nothing to do but resort to aid to pursue my dreams of the big stones. Course, once one's human limitations are accepted, the engineering challenge of a spicy A4 pitch can be pretty cool (in retropect!).
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BASE104
climber
An Oil Field
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Jan 17, 2010 - 03:07am PT
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Yep John,
That is what aid is good for. If you and Xavier had showed up in Pakistan with just chalkbags, you would have had a short trip.
For those of you who have never met John, he is as nice as a kitty. I do hope he showers more often, though. He holds the record for the most filthy white painters pants that I have ever seen!
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deuce4
climber
Hobart, Australia
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Jan 17, 2010 - 04:49am PT
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Thanks Mark!
Well, I had to do something to keep all those Yosemite gals from swarming, eh? Just joking--I was a shy as an Echidna. Course, those super smelly days were before we on SAR got our "Curry Cards' which provided shower privileges, ending the stress of sneaking into the Lodge shower rooms.
These days I do shower, but not every day--we only have tank rainwater, so we need to conserve the precious stuff (pretty dry here in South Arm, Tasmania). Every other day, though ;)
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jogill
climber
Colorado
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Jan 18, 2010 - 04:03pm PT
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jogill- can you remember the name of the thin Kor line at Twin Owls?
Somewhere near the front of Twin Owls. Perhaps Pat Ament or rgold would remember. One of them told me about it I think. It looked formidable, but of course these days it's probably a sport climb.
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