hi all climbers! :)

I only have basics in climbing and a level 1 certification. I'm wondering where I might be able to experience a portaledge climb within a short preparation from now till May? anywhere in the States. Thank you for your advice in advance. :)

However if you just want to sleep on a portaledge, go buy one, rappel down a route and set it up.

hey people!

thanks much man! all i needed was to know that i'm trying my best to try & get this awesome experience & not missing out anything. since this is the best i can get for now, i'd probably be back for it in a few year's time! :) have a good one! :)

Well portaledges are generally only used on grade V and above climbs (climbs that take two or more days to finish). Most grade V and above climbs that require the use of a portaledge are aid. Well aid is the extreme opposite of basic climbing. Generally one would progress from gym to outdoor top roping to sport to trad to clean aid and then to hammer aid. That transition generally takes many years, most never even climb aid. So that said, your task is utterly impossible. There is no way you can go from top roping to multi-day aid in a month.

However if you just want to sleep on a portaledge, go buy one, rappel down a route and set it up.

hi all climbers! :)

I only have basics in climbing and a level 1 certification. I'm wondering where I might be able to experience a portaledge climb within a short preparation from now till May? anywhere in the States. Thank you for your advice in advance. :)

I'm curious to know what a level 1 certification is.

It means that you have read FOTH twice and can set up topropes on climbs up to 5.9.

Could come from the British system too. Places like Hong Kong and Singapore love to have certified courses for climbers. A nice money maker, but ...

Even more interesting is this site. When someone says they are beginner, people tell them to take a class or learn from someone more experienced. When they say they took a course, people slam them for taking a course instead of going out and climbing.

This guy was very clear. I know the basics. I took a level one course, which he might think everyone knows and I want to sleep on a ledge.

I've seen people sleeping on a ledge hanging from the belay of a sport route just so they can get a feel for it before heading to a real wall.

They had a nice plan, they climbed sport route side by side all day. The routes that were to hard, they aided, at the end of the day, the set up a ledge and slept, the next morning they did a few more routes. Worked for them, they had fun.

I saw a guy sleeping on a potaledge on Okinawa's USA beach. He set it up near the top of a tall boulder problem and slept there. He had fun, who am I to judge.

Of course, I am sure a climber judge me for setting up a ledge on Lurking Fear instead of doing it in a day.

It means that you have read FOTH twice and can set up topropes on climbs up to 5.9.

Anyway, hopefully the original poster hasn't been scared off already.

I'm not sure what a "Level 1 Certification" is, but I'd venture to guess that it's something of a basic introductory course to climbing.

The problem is that climbing with a portaledge typically is big wall aid climbing, which is the more or less the most intensive sort of climbing in terms of gear and technical knowledge. Aid climbing takes a solid foundation in traditional leading just to begin to learn. In other words, it's pretty far removed from just learning to rock climb.

I'm not trying to discourage you. It's just that sleeping on a portaledge is something that only very few climbers ever do, and only under specific circumstances. The vast majority of climbing doesn't require it. Those climbs that do require it are very technically challenging.

Spend a night living on top of a park bench. Include a partner, canned food, headlamps, and cigarettes. Make sure you've got your harness on and that you're tied in. And don't get off in the morning until you've packed everything back up into your haul bag.

That will give you >90% of the experience.

That will give you >90% of the experience.

On a more interesting note. When i trained our boys in green, I taught them to aid climb first. They spent three weeks with me, by the end of day three, they were leading aid routes. They didn't do any free climbing until the ed of the second week minus some scrambling here and there.

When they finally learned free climbing, it was on lead, they didn't learn on top-rope. They knew how to place the gear, trusted the placement, and learn to fall during there first lead, which was also their first free climb.

The third week, they did their first wall with me watching, but not helping. Some advantages to training the military instead of civilians. (Insurance and liability being the big one.)

Point, I don;t think you need extensive trad climbing experience to learn to aid climb. You just need to learn to place the gear correctly.

This is a very good point, though a bit peripheral to this topic. I personally think that one of the best ways to learn trad climbing is to START aid climbing. Weighting every piece teaches you very quickly what works and what does not (as well as rope management and efficiency for multipitch free climbs). This gives you an insight into gear placements MUCH more than the traditional intro to trad approach, which emphasizes getting on really easy, low angle free climbs where you will rarely fall and almost never learn what gear works.