Buckaroo

Depends if it was a fixed pig head or a removable pig head. Also points for if it was a free range pig head with no hormones or antibiotics.

Have you considered the synthetics with GoreTex lining also, the tech has come a long way, they are lighter than leather and in many cases will keep drier, on the flip side though some of them don't last as long. Also your feet are smaller in the morning and get larger as the day goes by if you are on them all day. Something to consider when fitting.

Black Diamond still sells the (triple) Talon Hook, made for holes, but it's spendy. Talon Hook

I've actually soloed the Tooth when it's like this. The mounties, boealps, mazamas, are objective hazards that train you for the rigors of the big alpine. You def want to be wearing a helmet though.

I don't know Bill, I could be wrong, it's just my personal experience. Just think sliders are worth a try. I've only tried the Metolius, don't know the Yates, someone else mentioned them. It was also mentioned the pros say they don't work very well on a traverse.

I was agreeing with you on your previous post. And I'm putting tri-cams in the beaks hooks category because to properly place them they are tricky. And I'm talking specifically only about Liberty Crack because it was mentioned by the OP.

Prodigal Sun..... 5.8 C2 There's a reason I said "maybe" and "probably" because there's always someone that swears by them. But you don't need them for Liberty,

Sounds like a normal weekend day at the Tooth.

Typical conservatard, cheating on his wife and badmouthing Clinton for doing it at the same time. Is this some new kinky kind of sex with skis on? Is Ruth her real name or is that just for the internet?

Individual guide is going to be bank. No matter how good the conditions are, soloing the glaciers is somewhat sketchy. For the ascent record you are probably going to want to be acclimatized. Pretty sure anyone that holds it or has come close was climbing it right before or staying at Paradise or Muir for a couple days at least. IOW, they weren't climbing from sea level the day before.

I don't know what it is but for some subtle reason this image seems to be photoshopped. Maybe not but it's just a feeling.

Yes, and although they didn't test the Guide ATC someone else in the comment section did.

There was a gear study where someone compared all the passive auto-lockers, in particular how easy the rope pulled through when belaying the follower. Can't remember where but someone on here probably knows. I have several of these and the action on them varies in particular depending on the rope you are using. I like the original Reverso (no longer available new). But I think the BD guide ATC won out in the comparison test. The Gri-Gri 1 is heavier than the 2 but it's easier to use and not as glitchy. Like the passive devices the Gri-Gris also act differently depending on the rope. A slick (new) rope works better.

Maybe tri-cams are in the beaks and hooks category. I've carried them on things like the Salathe and never used them. They are def in the C2 category. Sure you could use them on C1 but if there's a placement where that's the only thing that works you are probably climbing C2. Liberty is C1, maybe you want some offset nuts but pins, beaks, hooks, camhooks, tri-cams are not necessary.

Then why is your libtard el presidente so pissed off about the delay? Obama is no liberal, he's a corporate fascist. He's to the right of Reagan. Then why did you vote for him, conspiratard? I mean, like, we can't all be as smart as 9/11 truth, eh? Voted for him the first time because thought that maybe like Kennedy he would go left after being elected, instead he went right. Didn't vote for him the 2nd time.

Is this another one that Snopes will say is false?

Then why is your libtard el presidente so pissed off about the delay? Obama is no liberal, he's a corporate fascist. He's to the right of Reagan. You really need to stop falling for that Faux News shtick.

You could get ready for Liberty Crack by climbing single aid pitches. If you can do a couple moves of 5.11a french free (the rest of the pitch is 10a) the first pitch of Liberty goes that way, then you have 2 pitches of easy C1 after that. The roof (Lithuanian Lip) is C1 but you have to practice aiding and cleaning a roof beforehand, it's a little tricky until you learn. Aid gear (team) for Liberty crack would be one set of aiders (2 single ladders if using step aiders), 1 set jumars. The follower jumars with regular slings that are used conventionally on the rest of the climb. Then when you get past the aid each climber carries one jumar and one aider. There's really no other aid specific gear on Liberty. On the typical C1 pitch try to get your time under 1 hour, that's led and cleaned (followed), either solo or a team. That's the time you need to hit to get Liberty done in a day. The biggest piece of beta on Liberty is take only one 60M rope. You can rappel with that from anywhere on the route, the fixed belays are all <30M apart. 1. Other than aiders and jumars the only mandatory gear for C1 would probably be a 2nd set of nuts. And on a pitch like City Park you want triples of the smaller nuts. If you have a bunch of worn gear that you replaced with new, that's the best for aid, because aiding is really hard on gear. Typically if possible you usually want to carry and use more nuts than cams, an aid rack is heavy because you are placing gear every body length and nuts are lighter than cams. You may find yourself bounce testing placements and getting nuts jammed. You may want to carry a small hammer, like a little tack hammer to hammer on your cleaning tool. With experience you will be able to trust a good nut without bounce testing. You may find also that different brands of nuts stick differently when aiding. I have some that always clean easy and some that usually stick. 2. At Index, after City Park there's Stern Farmer and Narrow Arrow Direct. A really fun multi-pitch is Town Crier on the upper wall, it has a couple C2 moves. Then to get ready for something like the Nose or Salathe (if you climb 10b to 11a) you could do Green DragOn, lots of C2. Rope solo with a clove hitch or GriGri is good for C1. The typical motion is, after stepping high on your existing piece, with the piece at waist or lower, rope taut, place next piece as high as possible. Before stepping higher extend rope and clip upper piece. Step up to upper piece, now the rope will have enough slack to get to the next piece above that and then again the rope will be taut. So placing and stepping up two pieces for every time you fiddle with extending the rope. A really fast way to clean nuts is to jug right through them, ripping them upward to clean them. you can jug through about 5 nut placements then stop and re-rack them all at once. This is pretty hard on the cables, you will have to straighten them at the end of the day, but it's really fast. My best aid climb was a rope solo of Town Crier. Did it on the summer solstice and summited right at sundown. At the time the upper bolt ladder was the original Becky stuff. It had these homemade aluminum hangers with rusted 3/16" bolts, not kidding. It was like clip, pray, don't breathe, step up. Then the last pitch there's some mandatory free right at the top where you're most exposed. Sections of mandatory free in an aid pitch can be one of the harder mental aspects of aid climbing.

Any youtube link? Sure.

What's the hardness rating of the material? Can you jamb it into cracks?

agree with the solo. if you ever tried sliders you wouldn't go back. Aid is somewhat tedious, anything that makes it quicker...

sorry Brian, I shouldn't have trolled a newcomer. No offense please. Welcome to CC.

No offense to anyone. Step aiders work okay and if that's what you know really well and you're not that worried about optimum performance then that's fine. Slider aiders. Remain secured to your foot thus are less likely to become tangled if compared to ladder aiders secured with a daisy at your waist. To secure ladder aiders to the same level you need one daisy on each. So now you have the rope, 2 daisies and a possible fifi at your tie in point. This can lead to a cluster. Are infinitely adjustable to any situation, unlike ladder aiders which have fixed step distances. This means on any particular placement you can step as high as physically possible. With ladder aiders you run into the problem of the 2nd step being too low and the top step being too high. Subsequently you don't always step as high as possible. This not only applies to the top step but to all steps. Moving up each step can be the optimum step up instead of stepping a fixed distance. An example would be, say you are at the bottom step with 4 step ladder aiders, it's 4 steps to the top. But with the right terrain and wall angle you can do it in 3 steps with slider aiders. With the cinch around your foot there's no problem when it's windy. With ladder aiders the loops are blowing off to the side and you fiddle around trying to get your foot in the step, then you have to lean down and grab the step by hand to hold it still so you can get your foot in it. Fit to different height climbers. Here again ladder aiders are fixed. If the step distance isn't optimum for your step distance you are stuck with what you have. Sliders can be fine tuned to anyone's ultimate step distance. Comfort. Slider aiders typically have a wider piece of webbing running under your foot so the force is spread over a larger area. For ladder aiders all the steps would have to be wider and this would adversely affect the weight. Also with the cinch foot strap it can be positioned for the best comfort and it will stay there, unlike ladder aiders which may be hard to always hit the optimum comfort zone. Jugging with sliders. Here again sliders are the best. There's no fiddling around to try to get the right height for the terrain. You just quickly set your optimum step distance and go. And you can fine tune the step distance mid pitch if the wall angle changes. Again with ladder aiders you are limited, if the best step for the jug is not just the right distance it's problematic to adjust. You may end up having to add a draw or sling, so then you have to take it on and off between leading and jugging, and the same if the wall angle changes mid pitch. The proof is in the performance. When I climbed with ladder aiders it took me 20 placements to climb City Park, when I switched to sliders that went down to 18 placements. That's an 8 to 12 ft. gain in 30M. And that's with custom made ladder aiders that I built to fit my height and step distance.

Yes, all ladder aiders are obsolete. Tell me why specifically ladder aiders are the best.