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ninja_climber
Aug 15, 2006, 11:04 AM
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Registered: Apr 10, 2005
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It was raining to instead of going outside to climb we went the gym(When I say gym I mean friend with empty warehouse into which we turned into a homewall with 2 walls ,2 over hangs, and 2 ceilings on the actual ceiling). A group of us has the keys,so I went in and found some friends already climbing the over hang. The wern't climbing it free though,this intrigued me. The were climbing it with daisy chains...I started laughing and asked them what they were doing...after they explained I kind of laughed as I saw him struggle. They asked me if I wanted to try, so I said sure I'll try(Thinking this can't be harder than free)...Was I wrong.... The wall looks like this http://img146.imageshack.us/.../3879/aidcopyvz4.jpg I was supposed to climb this without touching the wall...I died...I got the fifth bolt and died...It killed me. I thought aid climbers were fat guys who couldn't free...Guess I was proved wrong.. Lol,just felt the need to post that. btw-the 2 guys who were aiding climb 5.13...
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desertdude420
Sep 21, 2006, 6:08 PM
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Registered: Sep 20, 2006
Posts: 294
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I have a bouldering cave built in my condo were the dining room used to be. I can train for aid leading on it. I've set up an aid line with 15 or so moves on it. I get fully geared up (complete with aiders, daiseys, and lead line) and clip a bolt line with hook moves in between. Hooking plastic is sketchy, but so is the real thing! I take about 20-30 minutes per "pitch" and it's good practice to refine my aid leading system.
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ewtotel
Sep 21, 2006, 7:03 PM
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Registered: Jul 30, 2006
Posts: 96
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Funny you should post this ... just last night my ten year old was thumbing through an old picture album and saw a picture of a friend of mine on some climb standing in his etriers years ago and grinning like a fool. My son said, "Well that's easy... he's using the rope." I took him to the basement, slung an old rope around a support beam, threw his harness on him, tied some etriers out of webbing, hooked them to some prusiks, and told him to have at it. Five minutes of hilarious thrashing and flopping around ensued... dog tired son, arms pumped to the max .... lesson learned.
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j_ung
Sep 21, 2006, 7:38 PM
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Registered: Nov 21, 2003
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^^ Wah ha! Nothing like a little experiential ed. :)
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epic_ed
Sep 22, 2006, 3:02 AM
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Registered: Jun 17, 2002
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Over hangs are serious business -- free or aid. The thing about aid is it's even worse for the follower. Who cleaned it? I'll bet that was a funny learning curve. Been there -- only we weren't in the gym. It was a couple of hundred feet up a route in Zion and we looked like monkeys fuckin a coconut. Ed
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epic_ed
Sep 22, 2006, 3:04 AM
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Registered: Jun 17, 2002
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Over hangs are serious business -- free or aid. The thing about aid is it's even worse for the follower. Who cleaned it? I'll bet that was a funny learning curve. Been there -- only we weren't in the gym. It was a couple of hundred feet up a route in Zion and we looked like monkeys fuckin a coconut. Ed
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teth
Sep 22, 2006, 1:09 PM
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Registered: Jun 22, 2006
Posts: 51
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It is not enough to just use the ropes, you have to know how to cheat efficiently. Watching free climbers try to aid without prior knowledge would probably be just about as entertaining as watching body builders try to free climb!
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coyoteblastin
Sep 22, 2006, 1:34 PM
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Registered: Feb 21, 2005
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I had a similar experience this weekend. I bought some BD aiders and went out to play with them never having any prior experience. My climbing buddies thought that was the funniest thing watching me try to aid this overhanging route. I got about 15-20 ft up and I was done. I always thought aid climbing was for people who couldn't free climb. I was way wrong, free climbing was a lot easier. lol I learned my lesson.
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tradmanclimbs
Sep 22, 2006, 1:55 PM
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Registered: Apr 24, 2003
Posts: 2599
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Cleaning overhaning terraine is brutal if you don't have a good system. I bolted a short severly overhanging 10meter 12a on lead solo. I figured that I would just jug it to clean my gear when I was done. I was still pretty jazzed from hand drilling 4 bolts but no excuses :roll: 45 min. later and totaly spent for at least a week I mannaged to clean 10 meters of upside down rock. Big lesson learned and I spent the rest of the summer working on jugging. I am still not an expert at it but at least I can clean an aid pitch now without turning into a complete slobbering mess :?
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