Practice aid critique

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Prod

Trad climber

Topic Author's Original Post - Oct 22, 2010 - 11:54pm PT

I have decided that a Big Wall solo is in the cards. So I decided that I need to first get a system, and then work on it. This brought me to Aid Crack on Cob Rock in Boulder Canyon last Friday evening. I’ll post what I did and would be interested in some constructive as well as non-constructive feedback.

My rig is a modified Gri gri with a chest strap, 2 adjustable dasies cloved to my harness tie in and 2 sets of Fish easy aiders (free from the dasies). Rope on the ground up over my shoulder.

Aid Crack on the right.

Anchor Location

Anchor of a cordalette to a power point.

Moving up.

I noticed that if I was not paying attention the weight of the anchor would pull more slack than I wanted toward the ground. To fix this I cloved the lead line to a solid piece 1 piece below the solid piece I was standing on.

It was getting dark and we had dinner plans so I stopped shooting pictures. In general it felt like a cluster fuk. If I stopped paying attention for a second my aiders would be tangled in the rope and the dasies.

Have at it.

Prod.

Srbphoto

climber

Kennewick wa

Oct 22, 2010 - 11:57pm PT

The only critique I have is...

yur gonna die!!!!!!!!!!

Ghost

climber

A long way from where I started

Oct 23, 2010 - 02:03am PT

Looks like a perfectly good blue Camalot placement in the upper left crack in the anchor location pic. What did you use up all those other pieces for? You better delete this thread before Donini sees it.

Wayno

Big Wall climber

Seattle, WA

Oct 23, 2010 - 02:05am PT

LMAO.

Mungeclimber

Trad climber

sorry, just posting out loud.

Oct 23, 2010 - 02:15am PT

a clove in the middle of the pitch will start the calculations over for when you start to increase your factors. I think pete has some pretty good rants on that.

rope feed is the nemesis of any solo'r.

I'm not an expert, infact, I probably only know enough to be dangerous, but I suspect the clove in a string of bad placements would be a bad idea.

prolly get better feedback on bigwalls.com when folks get back from Yos.

rain is coming

jack herer

climber

Veneta, Oregon

Oct 23, 2010 - 02:52am PT

clove hitches could possibly chop the rope during a fall instead try useing a pussik or a large rubber band(wich will just break in the event of a fall. or a butterfly not.

Prod

Trad climber

Topic Author's Reply - Oct 23, 2010 - 09:54am PT

Yeah Mung and Jack, I knew that it was risky but I did not have any rubber bands with me, so I opted to get 2 solid pieces then clove to the lower one keeping the upper one as my new Jesus nut.

Any thoughts on a clean system. I felt very encumbered.

Prod.

Critter

Trad climber

State of Jefferson

Oct 23, 2010 - 11:09am PT

ok...
1st- attache a dreamer (screamer. load limiter) to the anchor so it is dynamic.
2nd- get long prussiks and understand ptpp "rebelay", you absolutely dont want to start clove hitching mid pitch unless you are only planning on... well you just dont want to.
3rd- you dont want your aiders free, you will drop them, then you will lose them, then you will be.... attach them to your daisies with a locker... lock it.... atach a non locker now to you ladder clip in point. this non locker will be what you use to clip into gear.
4th- you need to have your sysmtem dialed with a partner before you can imagine what it would be like to have it dialed by yourself. add: ledge, bags, more ropes, more gear, wind, and exposer, and you get the idea.

lastly- practice is best done on the big day. just get out there and do it.

"luck favors the bold"

WBraun

climber

Oct 23, 2010 - 11:09am PT

The best way to learn this is just keep doing it.

You'll start to iron out and see all your small problems and inefficiencies in your system.

Experience will be your friend.

Slakkey

Big Wall climber

From Back to Big Wall Baby

Oct 23, 2010 - 11:46am PT

Wow, there is like 4 aid climbing topics on the front page on ST right now what has become of this place a climbing forum :)

Agree Practice, Practice Practice. Also practicing with a friend even on your solo set up is a very good idea it provides more direct feedback and attach those aiders to your daisies man seen it happen more than once where people have dropped them on El Cap

Mark Hudon

Trad climber

Hood River, OR

Oct 23, 2010 - 11:59am PT

Prod,
Forget rubber bands and don't use Clove Hitches. Make yourself some two and a half foot slings with 5 mil cord and tie a Kleimheist knot onto the rope. Pull up the slack, tighten the knot and move on. I used two or three of these per pitch on my solo in the spring.
I'd bag the modded Grigri idea and go straight Grigri.

Slakkey

Big Wall climber

From Back to Big Wall Baby

Oct 23, 2010 - 12:05pm PT

Mark brings up something I also noticed in your set up the Modified Gri Gri and agree ditch the mod and go with a regular one.

Crimpergirl

Sport climber

Boulder, Colorado!

Oct 23, 2010 - 12:17pm PT

Why ditch the modified for the regular grigri? Curious as to advantages and disadvantages of each.

(I know nothing about aid climbing so sorry if this is a terribly stupid question)

Mark Hudon

Trad climber

Hood River, OR

Oct 23, 2010 - 12:28pm PT

Go here http://tinyurl.com/22skzqp to see how a modified Grigri is a bad idea.

cragnshag

Social climber

san joser

Oct 23, 2010 - 01:27pm PT

You are missing the most important piece of aid gear...

warm malt liquor!

Peter Haan

Trad climber

San Francisco, CA

Oct 23, 2010 - 02:06pm PT

Prod, I agree with Mark Hudon and Werner of course. The two Rock Exotica units are awesome by the way.

What might be something you are not ready for however, and something that you can't exactly prepare for, is how much effing plain old work soloing a big wall is and I mean something big, well beyond 15 pitches. It is one thing to get your favorite system concept working well, another much much larger thing to become capable of undergoing the many other trials you'll face and succeeding overall, the whole entire time, minute by minute.

Your hands take an incredible beating especially if there is actual nailing and hammer work. And since you normally will be going twice as slow as a competent party of two, you will still have the same amount of water and food as a team of two would be hauling---you still have the same amount of hardware, ropes and bivy gear and related. So on true-blue big walls, the pig(s) is/are just awesomely heavy. You don't climb half the wall as you do when swinging leads in a team, you climb the whole thing, rappel the whole thing, and haul the entire thing all by your bitty little self with your tiny hands. It is another order of slavery than what you might be familiar with say in a team or actually anywhere else in your entire life experience.

I know it seems blissful and romantic even, beforehand in the abstract. There you are, looking up at the route or gazing at a photo of it and then looking at yourself and imagining "owning" that 2000-3000 ft sucker or being "wondrously owned" by it, out there in Mother Nature. This would be true enough if you were up there unroped, galloping along. But it turns out rope soloing long and big walls may not be the experience you presumed. Much better to develop a totally awesome partnership with someone or a few someones. That is actually easier to achieve than grunting up all by your lonesome and then topping out on some monster.

If there are difficulties along the route which might make retreating extremely difficult and you proceed anyway into the no-return zone, you will put quite a bit of additional pressure on yourself every waking minute and will work the crap out of yourself out of grave concern to summit before the hourglass of food and water runs out. It is really intense. Hard deadly sections may produce infinite anxiety too; with someone else, such spots often are easier to undergo.

Being physically larger and stronger helps too, facing this much baghandling, hauling, constantly doing something absolutely every minute with your hands and fingers. And the normal self-comforting behaviors we all indulge in to make it through such challenges is for the most part just not on the agenda. There is no snoozing on belay even! If you get sick or injured; if you lose critical equipment; if you get overfaced by the route, you very likely have a terrible problem, whereas were you in a team, it is much more often the case the problems get solved easily. Also being alone for that long is not within the abilities of most people....

There are of course a few advantages. You won't have the problem of your partner's attitude and psyche, just your own. You don't have "rope drag" which at times is pretty wonderful, I do admit. And at small bivy spots, you don't have to share any space--- you get to hog what's available. And if you want to cheat and drink or eat more than scheduled, that is your decision alone and you only have to face the consequences of just your own actions. Soloing these big climbs is quite a different sort of test, passage, achievement than with partners, the emphases are in different "spots" and not so much on pure technical extremes as they are on your total personal power.

Kindredlion

Big Wall climber

4hrs too far from YNP

Oct 23, 2010 - 03:10pm PT

nice post Mr Haan

it seems that the romance can be a blinder at times..

a day in the field is worth more than a week in the books..

To Prod - keep experimenting - on home crags... or over pack and head up to the column or the tower - spend a few days getting dialed inching your way up.. by the time you figure most of it out.. you'll be on top ;) Or plan on a course in bailing - also part of your quiver of wall skills not to be overlooked..

way to have at it...

take air,
adam

My Name is Adam and I solo with a straight Gri Gri..

Rhodo-Router

Gym climber

wussing off the topout on Roadside Attraction

Oct 23, 2010 - 03:17pm PT

Try running just 2 ladders- 4 is a guaranteed cluster and really only necessary on the desperate stuff. Put a 3rd 'floater' on your butt just in case, but try not to use it.
[Oh yeah- it doesn't actually float, watch out for that one. mine is at the base somewhere, maybe you'll find it :) ]

With one ladder (the kind w/ a spreader) you just climb right up to the top of the thing and start getting another piece in, instead of dicking around holding the left aider out for your left foot, then holding your right ai- hold on, it's twisted-- er out for your right foot, etc fukking cetera. You just motor on up and get on with it.

Hooks,sideways, roofs- you probably want the floater.

Figuring the stuff out on your own will work, eventually. Practice is the key. I had never soloed more than one pitch before I launched onto my only multipitch solo, and I got worked, but it was also incredibly rewarding and memorable. A couple days' practice would have saved me some time and trauma for sure. Somewhere on this site is another solo thread with a long bit of advice I wrote shortly after, mostly pertaining to the unforeseen and nontechnical challenges of self-care up there which anyone would do well to read once it's decided to leave the ground. Piton Ron seemed to think it was good, anyhow, which made me feel better.

Remember, that's why you have kidneys. Go for it and have fun!