Index Aid Climbing!

[underworld]

you don't need to mod it, IMHO.

[Crack]

When I'm on a 'safe' route/crack which doesn't vary alot in size (like City Park), I find it more efficient to just leapfrog cams instead of placing (and backcleaning) nuts. I'll leave the cams attached to each of my aiders so that they are "ready" in French-free mode...also: cam hooks!!

[keenwesh]

I only had 1 blue alien, to leapfrog you'd need 2. in a couple spots I could get in a green but that was it. what's the aid like on green dragon? should I get a couple cam hooks and more small nuts/cams?

[fenderfour]

IMHO, the gear you should have/buy (in order):

 

nuts

set of cams, 00 TCU-#3

another set of cams, 00 TCU -#3

Alloy Offset nuts

Brass offset nuts

Offset Cams (alien blue/black-green yellow)

Hooks (BD set, with Moses Cam Hooks)

another set of alloy offset nuts

another set of brass offset nuts

another set of offset cams

Ball nutz 1-3 (the biggest two are not very useful)

another set of ballnutz 1-3

Beak set

piton assortment (based on route)

 

 

 

You don't NEED this stuff, but it will help. Once you have some offsets you will wonder why you even bothered climbing without them.

 

Hooks should be added when you want to climb a route with hooking. I don't think TC or GDO has any mandatory hooking.

 

Ballnutz make Lost Arrow size cracks go clean but they are tricky to use.

 

[ivan]

offset nuts ruled on city park, as i recall - i mighta used a cam once? i rarely carry non-offset nuts these days

 

get a fifi - makes topstepping easier for me - to get stabilty in your top step, reach under the etriers/fifi w/ once hand and lean back as you move your foot up and use your other hand to stabilize yourself against hte wall - topstepping becomes harder the steeper the wall gets of course

 

"borrow" a gri from a climbing wall - they'll never notice i've made no mods to mine and just use a normal 10.5 climbing line

[Crillz]

When solo aiding with the grigri, you'll still have potential to take a pretty good sized fall. You'll eventually get pissed and pull through large amounts of rope to speed things up. You'll see what I mean.

 

I would say top stepping would be key to speedy success! I thought it was scary to try and learn while soloing. Sometimes you can place cams or easy to remove nuts to help you high step. Also, get the jugging settup down.

[keenwesh]

yeah, I know how to solo aid, it really isn't all that hard. I can see why offsets rule. on CP I was sketched on a couple of placements because they nuts were just inside a flare, also, cams had only 2 cams well retracted.

 

mastercams? what sizes should I get? I'm thinking offsets in the small sizes up to around a #1 and then regular to #3. the bigger sizes I'll get C4's. waiting until I get (hopefully) a job at my local gear shop to save some dough.

[tomtom]

Two words: camhooks.

[keenwesh]

that's one word. and yeah. I'ma gonna get some of those things. 2 narrows or 1 narrow and a wide? whadya think?

[ThorDog]

Corduroy Man: There is some good advice here! Find a local crag and a route that is almost never climbed and practice, I have enjoyed years aid climbing and the simplest solo-system is the Clove Hitch, with a figure 8 back up! Yeah, the GriGri is slicker, but I have seen some big falls on the Clove Hitch, like 40+ feet and they hold! Trust me you will have plenty of time to pay out rope while aid climbing! Once you get this system down, then you can get a Solo Aid or GriGri. Also not a bad idea to have an experienced aid climber right there, at least the first time! Book: Climbing Big Walls, Bridwell, Grossman, Middendorf, et al. 1990.

 

Ivan: "i'm 6'7" and the fish ledge i've used is just fine - dood, you know the deal, when yer a freak you just gotta change yer expectations! my advice, only use single ledges (being also 250 lbs, i find i'm over the weight rating for X2 ledges if my partner is anything but a pixie)"

 

Cracks me up, I am 6'2" and 220 lbs, on Washington Column my partner weighed 140 lbs, I think we tested the BD double well!

 

Thor

 

P.S. You don't have to wait for the rain to stop to aid climb!

Edited April 8, 2010 by ThorDog

[dberdinka]

Some guy in California apparantly has climbed a few walls and has written a "How-To" guide on the internet.

 

HOW-TO-BIG-WALL-CLIMB

 

Lots and lots of good stuff in there. His advice of not using daisies while leading might seem counter-intuitive but on C1/C2 stuff it really does eliminate a major amount of clusterfuckage and you will climb (much) faster.

 

Here's another description EFFICENT AID RIGof a slightly more refined setup that will get you climbing faster, lighter and safer (as it eliminates the chance of daisy falls).

 

My advice for aid climbing is you need to treat it as a big engineering project. Break it into components then figure out an efficent process for each component that you can repeat over and over again.

 

For example don't just clip a pile of lockers and cordelletes to to back of your harness and then fumble around at every belay station. Instead figure out a system (try googling "Alpine Cock Ring") thats strong, redundant and quick to build, then put together a set of designated carabiners and cordage that are used for that singular purpose.

 

Also, create an ordered series of steps for building the anchor, tieing into it, organizing the ropes, hauling, reorganizing gear, etc. Then repeat in that order everytime. You can dramatically cut down the amount of time you spend at each belay.

 

So on and so forth.

 

Top Stepping is good to know but 95% of the time you'll move faster by not top stepping but just getting comfortably high.

 

Offset nuts are a must. Master Cams are every bit as good as Aliens (and narrower in the small sizes). Double set of nuts and cams is more than enough for the standard UTW routes. A cam hook is nice to have. Grappling hooks seem more useful than a Cliffhanger.

 

Don't waste to much time climbing City Park, as beautiful a line as it is, it's simply not reflective of 99.9% of aid pitches out there.

 

Woah! This got long.