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Chris McNamara
SuperTopo staff member
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Topic Author's Original Post - Oct 28, 2008 - 04:05pm PT
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NOTE: THIS IS AN OLD VERSION OF THIS ARTICLE - THE NEW UPDATED VERSION IS HERE: http://www.supertopo.com/a/How_To_Big_Wall_Climb_Leading_1_-_Low%20Angle_Terrain/a10536n.html
This is a draft chapter from my upcoming How to Big Wall Climb book. So far i don't have any photos or illustrations so i am inserting little movies to show the techniques. This is my first crack at the movies. Overtime ill improve the video, sound, and clarity... or abandon movies and move to photos and illustration
A NOTE ABOUT LINKS
The links go to outdoor retailers, and if you then buy something from that online retailer after clicking on one of those links, we get a little piece of the sale. If you are thinking about buying some of the gear mentioned in this article, we’d appreciate it if you’d click on one of the links before you buy; it won’t cost you anything extra, and it does help support this website. Thanks for keeping us in mind. Our affiliates are Altrec EMS Moosejaw Mountain Gear Mammoth Gear Backcountry Patagonia REI
I am not sponsored by any climbing companies nor do i receive any special compensation by recommending one product over another.
The movies were shot by my dad at the chossy little cliff i learned to climb on when i was 14 near San Francisco
The only movie i did not shoot is where I link to Erik Sloan's movie on lowering out on a traverse.
Here is a directory of all Forum posts related to How To Big Walls book:
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.html?topic_id=692927
Notes:
when I write “TK” it means a photo will eventually be inserted there
when you click on the quicktime movies, a quicktime logo will show up on your screen and then you have to wait a while. Another option is right click on the link and download the file to your desktop
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Basic Leading technique
This is the most important part of the book. Most big wall ascents fail not because the climbers don’t have a clue as to aid climbing basics, but because they never went beyond that level and took the time to master the techniques. There’s a huge difference between having a general idea of what to do, and being able to do it instinctively and quickly.
Even teams that do succeed would have more fun if they had the aid basics dialed. Having the basics dialed means moving up your aiders almost as fast as walking up a step-ladder 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. It means finishing with extra water on the summit, not rationing water and climbing light-headed on the last day.
One step at a time
As I mentioned in my aid climbing history chapter, not having ready access to a good cliff on which to practice was a blessing, not a hindrance, to my aid climbing progress. If you start at a challenging cliff, you will be tempted to learn too many parts of aid climbing at once instead of mastering one discipline at a time. You are likely to skip over the aid basics and move quickly to more sexy things like hooking, nailing, and hauling systems. This is a big mistake. I can’t count how many people I have seen invest a ton of time, money and gear on starting up El Cap only to bail low because they still hadn’t mastered moving up aiders efficiently.
Skills to learn:
• Aid like you are free climbing
• Float up the aiders.
• Only rest on the biner with fifi hook.
• Always move to second or top step and efficiently maximize your reach
• aider management
Good places to start aid climbing
The best wall to learn on is 30-50 feet tall and just less than vertical. An overhanging wall is hard to learn on. Some good places to start are:
• A bolt ladder in a climbing gym (avoid overhanging walls)
• A sport climb with bolts close enough to reach (you only need 4 to 6 bolts).
• A tree with long horizontal branches you can sling (this is how I started. Not recommended because hanging in space is tricky but I had to use what I had). (illustration of my tree that I started in and photo of the perfect aid wall)
Solo or partner?
Its always nice to have a belayer and partner. However, when you learn to aid climb, it will be slow. So it might be hard to find a partner with patience. It is possible to practice almost every aid technique with a self-belay either with a GriGri or Mini-traxion.
Gear you need to start
• 2 aiders, 4-6 free biners, quickdraws (1 per bolt or placement), fifi hook hook, helmet.
Its all about reach
Efficient aid climbing is all about reach from one placement to the next. When you have a big reach you have a larger area to choose the next best placement. More importantly, the bigger your reach, the fewer placements you need per pitch. Even when efficiently aid climbing, each placement will take 1-2 minutes to deal with. If you can make 25 placement on a pitch instead of 35, you save 10-20 minutes per pitch. Multiplied by 30 pitches, that is 5-10 hours.
Short people take heart: Reach is only partially a function of how tall you are. Its mainly a function of how high you are standing on your last piece. And that is all about technique. In aid climbing, a 5-foot-tall person who maximizes there reach can place the next piece higher than a 6-foot person who does not.
WATCH A SHORT VIDEO ON GETTING THE RIGHT fifi hook LENGTH AND TOP STEPPING
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAEIIHiOhWw
Aid like you are free climbing
Free climbing is much faster than aid climbing. When on a wall, you should free climb when it is well within your range. When you do need to aid climb, you should free climb as much as possible in the aiders.
What does this mean?
Imagine the aiders are just big foot holds. Use the top of the aider, face holds and crack with your hands to get as high as possible for the next placement. Never using the fifi hookhook. Later, you will see more examples of this in action. Wearing tight fitting approach shoes or loose-fitting climbing shoes makes it easy to have one foot and an aider and one foot on a foot hold to reach higher [image of one foot in aider one foot out]
The Basic Aid Climbing Sequence
TK Photo/illustration 1 - person facing camera. aiders, fifi hook, harness visible, rope tied in
- arrow highlightling main features:
- only one biner
 clean harness set up
2. Clip aider directly to 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 properly (if stepping with left foot, the step should be left of center)
TK- maybe an illustration of clipping directly to piece next to a photo of what not to do.
3. Without stopping, walk all the way until your waist is at the piece (or higher if you can). Use the biner attached to the aider or the aider grab loop for balance – whichever one is more comfortable.
4. If you need to do it for balance, fifi hook directly into the biner attached to your aider. NOTE: make sure your fifi hook is the correct length. For example, it a set of standard aider, when in the 3rd step i can just barely get the fifi hook on the biner. when i stand in the second step my waist is above the piece the fifi hook comes tight and helps full me into the wall. you want to adjust it so you get this fit –TK fifi hook into bolt – (super zoomed in, just waist fifi hook area)
5. Take your other aider and clip the next piece.
6. Step into the next aider at the highest step that is comfortable
7. Unclip your bottom aider and clip to the side of you harness.
8. Clip a quick draw to the bolt and clip the rope in.
9. Walk up the aider all the way until your waist is at the biner.
10. Repeat.
WATCH A SHORT VIDEO ON THE LEADING SEQUENCE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLaldKgbXt0
TK- clip the next bolt (zoom out)
step as high as necessary in aiders to
TK - clip the rope too the last bolt
- always clip at waste
- when you get to the anchor, lower to ground and pull your rope.
WATCH A SHORT VIDEO ON MOVING UP THE PIECE
low quality YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47XBkevYxo8
higher quality Quicktime - http://chrismcnamara.com/movies/5moving-up-the-piece.mov
Bad habit 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 yet 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.
WATCH A SHORT VIDEO ON USING JUST TWO aiders
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5OC7xc6lp4
When do you know if you are climbing efficiently? How many times should you practice this routine?
Time yourself from the time you leave the ground to the time you get back to the ground. Every time you do a lap, keep track of time. At first you should see big improvements in how fast you are moving. Over time the increments will get smaller and smaller. Once you are no longer getting any faster, you are probably going as fast as you can. If your little practice climb is 30 feet tall, I would try to do at least 100 laps.
A note to experienced aid climbers
If you are already set in your aid climbing ways, this chapter could be hard for you. You might say, “I’ve always used four aiders, my mentor used four aiders.” Sure, you can stick with that system. However, if you choose to leave your comfort zone and try things differently you’ll be happy with the payoff. There will be a short and painful withdrawal period. But push on. You will get through to happier and more efficient aid climbing times.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record… [not sure I need this section]
I can understand why a some people will 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 nail some pins and learn to hook!”
I understand their haste. I understand because 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 in fact I was stuck learning the basics in a tree, over and over again. I can say with certainty that you will never regret getting the basics of aid totally dialed. Don’t start aid climbing on gear and the other advanced stuff in the next chapters until you can move up aiders on a bolt ladder about as fast as you can free climb. You won’t regret it.
Leading—Placing Protection
Skills to learn:
• Efficient gear racking and organize, organize, organize
• Bounce test harder than you think
• Use daisy chains as little as possible
• More on 2 aider system (not four)
Good places to start aid climbing
A 30 to 60-foot crack climb at a 80-degree angle is ideal. However, you can learn on just about any climb. My first aid climb was a 30-foot sport climb where I could place tiny stoppers in a seam but still clip bolts to make sure I didn’t hit the deck if I fell.
Gear you need
• Nuts, daisy chains, cams, free biners, gear sling or shoulder-length runners, draws, slings, gloves, helmet
Racking gear
There are two ways to rack gear:
For a mostly free walls like The Nose or Salathe, I use a single gear sling. Each cam gets its own biner. Similar sized cams are clipped to eachother [image] Stoppers up front. I clip quickdraws in pairs to the harness. [image] Free biners are clipped in groups of five or seven [image] Light-weight shoulder length runners go over the opposite shoulder.
For aid mostly aid routes where you have a bigger rack, I use a double gear sling (I don’t like the multi loop single or double gear slings).
On the right side I clip all the cams with the smallest in the front. Each sized cam is on one biner clipped at the plastic coated loop (not the short sewn runner if it has one). Stoppers go to the front. All the biners and draws go on the left side. I clip the should length runners to the left side of the harness to one biner.
Always keep the rack organized. This may seem obvious but on a big wall there is so much gear and logistics that its easy to get sloppy and not keep things organized. Spend the extra time organizing. Every minute spent organizing saves many more minutes on lead. Its especially important to have an organized rack when free climbing so you can find the right piece right away and don’t hang out and lose strength. Also, if it’s a gear intensive pitch where you will need to ration gear, you want to look down and instantly know what gear you still have at hand.
Daisy Chains
In the first leading chapter I didn’t mention daisy chains because its important to first learn how to climb without them.
Daisy chains have their pros and cons:
Pros: useful for bounce testing
- come in handy in awkward corners and overhanging terrain
- help keep from dropping aiders
Cons: - they get twisted easily and cause more clutter
- they encourage bad habit of resting before you walk as high as possible in the aider
On a route like The Nose the cons outweight the pros and I lead with one daisy chain or no daisy chains. On a more aid-intensive route like Zodiac, the pros outweigh the cons
Attaching the daisy chains
The daisy chains are girth hitched to the harness on either side of the belay loop [image] and fifi hook hook. Its helpful to have two different colors of daisies.
You then clip the end of the daisy chain directly to a biner to the aider [image]
Bounce Testing
The goal in bounce testing is to generate enough force to mimick a small fall. Proper bounce testing is essential for safety, piece of mind and speed. If you don’t’t properly bounce test
you might be placing strings of barely bodyweight gear that will all zipper out in a fall
a marginal looking piece will feel like a time bomb. You’ll be terrified the piece might blow at any second
you can more confidently move up the piece and feel more confident about getting high in the aiders and/or top stepping.
Two types of bounce testing: aider and Daisy [two images side by side]
Aider bounce testing is where you put one foot in the piece you are testing while keeping the other foot on the previous piece. Another technique is to bounce on the piece using just the daisy chain. On most routes I am aider bounce testing 80 percent of the time and daisy 20 percent.
Pros to aider bounce testing
faster
less where on the daisy chain
the only way to test pieces to your side
best way to test hooks
Pros to daisy chain bounce testing
if piece you are testing pulls you, put the least amount on force on the previous piece
can generate a little more force than aider bounce testing
In general, the bounce of each piece has three stages: light, medium, heavy
light – gently move onto the piece you are testing. Be ready in case the piece blows right away.
medium – point your toe down a little lower than you heel and gently bounce a couple times. Look down. Don’t look at the piece or, if it pulls, it will hit you in the face. After a few bounces, stop bouncing, look at the piece to make sure it is not shifting into a bad position, and then look down again and continue bouncing.
hard – really bounce hard: harder than you think. Almost to the point you are jumping out of your aiders. You are really trying to get the piece to pull out. If pulls now, you will just transfer your weight to the previous piece. If it pull once you have committed to it, you are taking a fall of unknown size or outcome.
At first, vigorous bounce testing feels counter-intuitive and scary. After all, you are aiming to get a piece to fail – something you hope won’t happen if you actually fall on lead. One mental trick I use is to convince myself I am really trying to get the piece to pull out. If I am in A4 or A5 terrain and really scared I will occassionaly resort to yelling at the piece to “get out.” If after screaming at the piece and hard bounce testing it is still in place, I will feel confident I can move up on it.
WATCH A SHORT VIDEO ON BOUNCE TESTING
low quality YouTube – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0ao8ahB7FM
higher quality Quicktime - http://chrismcnamara.com/movies/7bounce-testing.mov
When not to bounce test really hard
There are a few instances when I only use the light and medium stages of bounce testing:
on bomber C1 terrain. If it’s obviously a bomber cam, I just give it real quick light bounce and maybe a medium bounce.
sketchy fixed gear – if there is a tiny copperhead or fraying fixed stopper, you just want to give it the light and medium stages of bounce testing. Vigorous bounce testing is more likely to just weaken the already fraying cable.
hooks and cam hooks
I will point my toe down low [TK image] and bounce gently a couple times. By pointing the toe down, you are creating a little lever which allows you to apply a force greater than you body weight without actually have to bounce up and down too hard and potentially cause the hook or cam hook to fall off.
Leading technique in this section
• Placing the piece
• Testing the piece
• Moving from aid to free
• Sidebar on backcleaning
Place the first piece in the highest but most secure spot possible. Close to the ground always choose the most secure placement. Once you’re a way off the deck you’ll be striving for the highest, acceptably secure placement.
1. Clip to the piece directly (not to a biner or draw). Step test the piece, keeping your head down. Aggressive testing ensures that the piece will hold if the next piece comes out and you take a short fall onto it.
2. Walk up piece/secure your hips. Tom Frost says “Don’t even look at the crack until you are at the highest step in the aiders.”. TK Sidebar text about how important it is to walk up each piece as quickly as possible.
KEY POINT: Probably the biggest time waster in aid climbing is pausing or stopping before your waist . Before even thinking about the next aid placement, get your waist even with the top of the biner or go higher.
3. Step higher, focusing on the next placement [TK these photos zoom in on second stepping and fifi hook length importance]. If the fifi hook is too long or too short it will be completely ineffective for second stepping. [ TK thumbnail of hips showing them being held in tight by piece]
4. Place piece. [ TK Photo pulls back. Upper body relaxed, fifi hook tension helping to keep weight on feet.]
5. Head first step testing – TK try to keep hand in hero loop
6. Remove last piece or clip the rope to the last piece. Make sure rope is not between legs. [TK show both clipping rope then taking off aider then talk about option of clipping an aider then taking off rope]
7. Clip bottom aiders to harness.
8. Place next piece.
Top Stepping
Since reach is so important, I top step whenever it is convenient. I top-step 50% of the time when I can get a good handhold or jam (like most pitches on The Nose) but only 5% of the time on vertical or over-hanging terrain where there is not much to hang onto and it takes more effort.
Top stepping is easy on low-angle terrain because you can easily balance either by just leaning against the rock or using a hold or jam. On steeper terrain, you need to maintain tension from your waist to keep balance.
Here is the basic technique:
start standing in your aiders with you waist level with the piece. Clip a quickdraw to your belay loop and then to the
When not to top-step: On steep terrain, it takes so much extra effort to get in the top steps it is sometimes not worth it. Also, on tricky aid, it is hard to bounce test after top stepping.
More on Why to Not Use Just Two aiders – not four aiders
Why do some climbers use four aiders? Usually it’s 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. Its 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 every single leading motion involving 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 just two aiders, the pioneers in 50’s and 60’s in Yosemite only used two aiders. Legendary Yosemite climber Tom Frost used a system of only two aiders and no daisy’s. In the late 90’s 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 will occasionally use three aiders: two regular aiders and a third aider that just has three steps. [TK image] 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% of the time. If after days and days of practive, you really find two aiders uncomfortable, then a third one is OK to occasionally introduce into the system. But make an honest effort to just use two.
After reading this book some people will continue to use for aiders. They are either set in their ways or just like the comfort of four aiders. You can climb a wall with four aiders, its just going to take longer and involve unnecessary clusters. The whole point of this book is to show you how much more fun and safe it is to climb walls efficiently – and using four aiders is one of the main hindrances to climbing efficiently.
Backcleaning
Backcleaning is when after using a piece you remove it instead of leaving it for protection. There are a few reasons why you do this:
you usually don’t have enough gear to leave every single piece on an aid pitch that is over 100 feet long
sometimes, you climb a crack that is the same size for a long time so you need to conserve gear to reuse higher
it is faster to backclean clean clip every piece for protection
On most pitches, if you are a conservative leader, you will only backclean 5-10%. If you are trying to climb real fast, you might back clean more like 25% of the time.
I generally backclean when it is safe to. You don’t back clean if you are setting yourself up for a fall onto a ledge.
When doing a traverse, you either need to leave every piece so that the follower can clean the pitch or backclean a lot between lower points. For example, on the Great Roof on The Nose, the leader needs to either leave every single piece or strategically leave pieces to the follower can lower-out off the fixed pieces.
Leapfrogging
Leapfrogging is when you backclean and reuse the same piece immediately. This is not only the fastest way to aid climb, it is often necessary to make your rack last over an entire pitch. For example, on the last 8 pitches of the Nose, there are a bunch of pitches with 20-30-foot sections of the same sized crack. With a little leapfroggin, you are find with 2-3 sets of cams. If you wanted to leave every piece, you would have to bring 3-4 sets of cams.
Pendulums
There are two keys
don’t go too low. Don’t really have to worry about this because everyone’s natura instincts are to go too high.
protect your partner – when you partner reaches the pendulum point, he is usually in a vulnerable situation. The rope usually is running sideways so if the pendulum piece pulls, he takes a heinous sideways fall (which is the most dangerous kind because you are likely to take the impact in the side, not the legs.) Therefor, very important to protect the follower.
TK more details on pendulums
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GDavis
Trad climber
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Oct 28, 2008 - 04:47pm PT
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Lookin good, I'll let you know more when I get home from work and have time to really check it out.
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WBraun
climber
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Oct 28, 2008 - 04:52pm PT
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On hard A5 who spends only a minute on each placement?
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GDavis
Trad climber
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Oct 28, 2008 - 10:21pm PT
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You definitely seem to want to push the 2 aider system!
The videos were a bit big, but thats OK. I would also recommend filming the video silent and doing a voiceover. Its easier in instructional to narrate because you can control the volume, i.e. you aren't facing away from the camera, facing towards, stopping to take a breath because you just climbed up some aiders, etc etc.
That is what I would call a chosspile! Reminds me of my local spots.
I love that you mentioned that Tom Frost climbed 4 el cap routes in the 90's. I didnt know that! Holy crud! Also, mentioning that climbers did more with less brings up an important ideal, and reaffirms climbers that, although it can seem that way, its not about the gear!
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Andrew Barnes
Ice climber
Albany, NY
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Oct 28, 2008 - 11:44pm PT
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Werner: "On hard A5 who spends only a minute on each placement?"
But maybe this is a key to the kingdom of efficient climbing.
I am slow, I am scared, the climbing looks hard, perhaps the
climbing is genuinely hard. But it does not help to spend more
time lounging in my aiders. Once the proper bounce test is done,
I gain nothing by lounging around.
Now the reality: I am slow, I am scared, the move looks hard,
the pitch looks long. I climb up one step, fiddle around (usually
I have plenty of unnecessary cluster to fiddle around with -
extra aiders being one of them), then think about the next piece
and eyeball the potential placement. Think a little bit about
what the next piece should be, and where it should be. Should
it be this nice bomber placement nearby or should it be this
less bomber thing that I can't see clearly, slightly higher.
Okay, maybe I need to take another step and "check out the
placement". But first, I need to sh*t my pants a bit. Finally
I decide to take a step up. Shorten the daisy "to get a bit
comfortable" before taking the step. Then engage in a three
step process to take one step: (1) step up with one leg in one
of the aiders, (2) immediately shorten the daisy and hang from
it (3) step up with the other leg in the other aider. Futz
around with the daisy chain. Check my pants to see if they are
soiled. ... etc.
I'm thinking that Chris' advice here is really cutting to the
heart of the matter. He is ostensibly teaching the mechanics of
climbing efficiently, but at the core of it he is probably
trying to teach a MENTAL game: somehow catharsizing the fear
into action (rather than sloth), somehow transcending the
mental barriers. And Chris is very well qualified to give this
kind of instruction; when a master of the craft talks, I will
certainly pay attention.
Andrew Barnes.
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Andrew Barnes
Ice climber
Albany, NY
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Oct 29, 2008 - 12:13am PT
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Chris,
This is awesome stuff. You are really advancing aid climbing
instruction in ways that nobody else has done. Nobody spills
the "secrets" so well. I have 3 books on aid/wall climbing,
and none of these get to the heart of the matter like this.
The videos are fantastic, and will propel your book (or
whatever combination of book/video the final product becomes)
to the top of the list.
So if writing this book seems hard, I want to provide moral
support and encouragement. It is always hard to do something
that is leaps and bounds better than anything else around,
and to really make a big jump forward. This book will be a
MAJOR ADVANCEMENT for its intended climbing audience, the
preview material is simply fantastic.
Andrew Barnes.
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raymond phule
climber
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Oct 29, 2008 - 10:11am PT
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Nice explanations but here is a comment.
"2. Clip aider directly to piece. Never clip the biner attached to the piece because this shortens your reach to the next piece)."
I wouldn't say this necessary shortens the reach because the reach depend more on which step you use. What am trying to say, it is possibly to use a biner and get equally high if the steps on the aider is 2-3 inches higher up. Did I make any sense?
The reach also depends more on where you connect your fifi or biner compared to where you connect the ladder.
It makes a difference in top stepping though but the distance of an extra biner is still much less than the distance between the steps.
"7. Unclip your bottom aider and clip to the side of you harness.
8. Clip a quick draw to the bolt and clip the rope in."
The problem here is that you have a short time when you are not connected to the lower piece at all. Maybe not a big deal but could result in a long fall if you are unlucky.
Do you really lose something if you first connect a biner to the piece, attach the ladder to the biner and connect the rope earlier (when it is natural to do it)?
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johngo
Trad climber
the beautiful Pacific NW
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Chris,
This will be a superb book! Thanks for your efforts.
I especially encourage you to keep it up with the videos.
Reading about a technique, then seeing a short video clip of it, can be a very beneficial learning method. Some learn better from reading, some from watching.
Maybe make the vid section it's own website, with a few free ones as teasers, then offer a cheap subscription where you could see them all if you paid a little.
I'd love to see a video clip of you climbing a bolt ladder as fast as possible. I understand your ideas on doing it, and it'd be exciting to see you really smoking up some bolts.
Thanks again!
mill valley johngo
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Patrick Sawyer
climber
Originally California now Ireland
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Aid climbing can be such a pain, and I am glad that I have not had to do much, but that said, I do aspire to do more big walls to add to the meagre (overstatement or understatement?) I have done, so stuff like this is helpful.
I just wish I was good enough of free climber to dispense with the aid on most routes on my tick list.
Sigh.
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TBone
Boulder climber
santa barbara, ca
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Does Andrew Barnes know who Werner Braun is? jesus
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Andrew Barnes
Ice climber
Albany, NY
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Yes I do.
Werner is awesome.
Werner is a saviour of souls -- this is absolutely true, everyone
knows it, what higher encomium can I bestow?
Werner is able to free solo a route with a boombox in one
hand and a beer in the other (is that right - really miss
Ouch! now)
Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
Andrew Barnes.
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TBone
Boulder climber
santa barbara, ca
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hehe well i was a bit confused with the
"Should it be this nice bomber placement nearby or should it be this less bomber thing that I can't see clearly, slightly higher."
statement in regard to Werner's A5 comment.
I have never done A5. But I have done A3 fine litttle line called Mescalito. Bomber is not the word that comes to mind on the hard parts. And i remember one part high up on the headwall where the last piece i had clipped to my rope was a 1/4 inch buttonhead that Porter himself had likely placed about 40 feet below. I hadn't clipped any of the intermediary pieces because they were either hooks or bad rivets that simply would not have held a fall and I didn't want to rip the line. For one, I certainly was spending far longer than a minute on each piece and for two, i wouldn't have bounce tested those pieces to save my life. Maybe I don't know much about aid, but my approach was as gentle and smooth and slow as a sloth. Call me timid, but in big head space, with room for big air, I am not a fan of the aggressive bounce test and quick movements.
But if Andrew Barnes or anyone else wants to tell me I should try the aggressive bounce test on the last three intact wires of a an old blown out rurp when I'm looking at a big fall and the wind is rippin on the upper part of the captain, then I respectfully admit that you are a bigger man than me.
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Double D
climber
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Nice work Chris. You've really hit the pin on the head...so to speak. Can't say that I totally agree with you on the 2 aider thing...but then again on well-traveled routes with lots of straghtforward placements I totally agree that it's faster. Proly your best advice is the bounce testing sequence. Critical. If you don't know that a peice can hold a jolt then you're tread'n on thin ice...blind! I've only had one pitch ever that I stopped bounce testing on... "don't skate mate" and hence the name. Saw a 1/2 skid mark from a high-stepped, blindly placed hook about to rip over the edge, so I desperately found the next best placement possible. Unfortunately it was also a top-stepped blind hook and it did the same thing. This went on for about 1/2 the pitch and I vowed to never get in that situation without testing. You've got to know where you're at with each placement.
Besides, it's totally Biblical..."Test all things, and hold fast to what is good!" (1st Thess 5:21)
Good luck with the book, hopefully it will inspire and save some behinds in the process!
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rockpunk
Trad climber
here to there, in no time
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Yo, T-Bone,
"But if Andrew Barnes or anyone else wants to tell me I should try the aggressive bounce test on the last three intact wires of a an old blown out rurp when I'm looking at a big fall and the wind is rippin on the upper part of the captain, then I respectfully admit that you are a bigger man than me."
Chris has an 'exceptions' clause in the draft if you read close enough. I'm sure it will be more apparent in the final draft that he isn't advocating the aggro bounce in the above situation.
CMac, keep up the good work! I really enjoyed the first drafts of text / vids, (though they're still in need of some editing.) As a lowly free climber with no aid experience, I find your practical explanations and advice _exactly_ what I need. It's like I'm actually climbing with someone who knows what they're talking about, rather than reading the same crusty basics in different texts. Honestly, I've read the 'basic aid sequence' in several different texts, but they all say the same thing and result in me simply saying to myself, "sh#t...that's easy." without really going into specifics that one needs when they actually go out and practice (and subsequently realize how involved it actually is).
Anyway, thanks, and keep it up!
-rp
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