Beacon Aid time Free for Some

[rl23455]

Tried my hand at clean Aid yesterday at Beacon. Free for Some to the first anchor. Was wondering how long it takes an experienced aid climber to get to the first anchor? My belay partner waited patiently in the cold for 1.5 hours(or so he says). Any one else have a time taken?

thanks,

Tom

[ivan]

learn to solo aid and then you don't have to worry how long it takes to lead anything

 

your time doesn't sound so slow, though finishing the full pitch in a hour and a half is more reasonable

 

if you liked free for sum, i'd recommend you do as much of stephenwulf as you can next, probably the most enjoyable aid-climb out there?

http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=935755

[stevetimetravlr]

What Ivan said. Have your belay partner come with extra jackets and hat for belaying and maybe even a foam pad or insulated chair. Yesterday was downright tropical out there with no wind blowing. It was blowing 40+ the day before, but the beauty of aid climbing is you can do it in the rain or storm. Were you the guys that were later over on Winter Delight? If so, we said hi to you guys and then started on the corner, but couldn't catch Ivan who soloed it twice the rascal.

[rl23455]

yes, we had a time deadline and my belayer didn't think he could finish Free for Some in time, so he tried Winter Delight, but that turned out to be "unfriendly". He kind of gave me a dirty look when I told him I could lead it on trad. Then my partner led the first pitch of Southeast Corner. Thanks for the advice on Stephenwulf.

And yes, we had plenty of warm clothes. He forgot his sit pad. How does one rig solo-aid?

 

[kevbone]

Next time just try freeing it.

[ivan]

How does one rig solo-aid?

fix rope to a solid anchor capable of taking an upward pull - put rope through grigri or fancier, more expensive device on your harness - lead as normal (with the exception that you're not actually tied to the rope, unless you want to add a backup knot) - expect to curse a lot, as you will have to feed slack, often when you're least intersted in doing it

[ivan]

Next time just try freeing it.

tried freeing stephenwulf this summer - wow, let's just say that didn't go so well

[billcoe]

Tried my hand at clean Aid yesterday at Beacon. Free for Some to the first anchor. Was wondering how long it takes an experienced aid climber to get to the first anchor? My belay partner waited patiently in the cold for 1.5 hours(or so he says). Any one else have a time taken?

thanks, Tom

I've never tried to aid that pitch but I would think 1.5 hours is fairly respectable time in those conditions if you did the full first pitch. I've found that my time to aid something can go radically down in bad weather. For instance: I've did the first pitch of The West Face of Monkey in @25 min in good weather, and then come back 2 months later when it was butt assed cold (so wearing multiple layers and you are less able to move freely or quickly) with perhaps 25-30 MPH winds. Just trying to get your feet in the aiders each time was a major success as they were blowing sideways and you had to pull them under so your feet would get in the rungs, and in that environment I took 2-1/2 hours on the same pitch with the same gear. I was using hand tied aiders, and it caused me to get commercial aid ladders for both myself and Ujahn as the rungs are less likely to collapse.

 

It always impresses the hell out of me to see things like the 3 Russian chicks who just did a new line up Trango Tower. Damn:-0

 

Anyway, good on ya for getting out there and getting on it! Woot!

 

[JosephH]

I've solo aided it a few times and if you haven't done a lot of aid then 1.5 hours wouldn't be at all unreasonable to get it sorted out, particularly in cold weather.