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artiesibs
Apr 10, 2004, 11:26 PM
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I know I may step on many toes but you do need to get bruised through out your life. Rope burn is my newest bruise (learning to lead). OK, to the topic. I was climbing the other day and was learning to use trad gear and saw a guy using I believe daisy chains. So that would be aid climbing. You are on a wall stepping on nylon, laying back on an anchor, and in tennis shoes ( biggest gusto for me).
So for the question: Other than that lure of getting vertical what is the thrill ( for a lack of a better word) to aid climb. To me you aren't climbing, the gear is. It is for me flying with the auto pilot engaged. Now on long flights when the flying is mundane I can see that. The translation to climbing is using a portaledge.
I do not see that lure that is all and I wanted to know for those aid climbers out there why you chose that style of getting up a wall.....tanx
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jimdavis
Apr 11, 2004, 12:18 AM
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There are plenty of threads on this in the Aid forum, where this should have been posted....
For many people, climbing is about making their palms sweat/ getting that rush. If you can hang on a Pointed Leaper 10 feet above you last micro-nut, and not have your palms sweat...I guess you've got more balls than us.
Aid is very technical and methodical; something which I appreciate. To many people it's cheating, but it takes a lot of skill and technique none the less.
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ricardol
Apr 11, 2004, 12:42 AM
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go to the aid forum -- look at the trip report sticky thread ... read a few trip reports ..
if after reading those reports you still dont understand what aid climbing is about .. then you may just never get it
-- ricardo
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simzboardr
Apr 30, 2004, 3:53 AM
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Aid climbing is a world of its own. Its all about being technical, its like an engineers dream world. It can be very strait forward or very unpredictable. When you get into the hard aid you have to get so creative with gear placements.
What its good for... gets you better at placing gear. Teaches you to be organized with ropes and everything. Gets your up routes that can't go free or are very dificult, and more then anything it lets you play with your gear a whole lot. Personally i love all climbing. I boulder to pump out some hard moves that ide be too scared to do a few hundred up a cliff. I sport climb to get those hard moves up the cliff a little higher with the safety of the bolts. I trad climb becuase thats the basis of all climbing, the most natural form of climbing with no limits on height. I aid climb becuase i love the gear, and it gets me up routes that have pitches that im not good enough to climb.
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bigwalling
Apr 30, 2004, 4:06 AM
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Beaks, hooks, heads, and blades are the coolest things ever!
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epic_ed
Apr 30, 2004, 4:10 AM
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It's certainly not for everybody, and it's one hell of a lot of work. Aid is about problem solving and climbing systems. If you enjoy playing chess while working on a freight dock with a loaded gun to your head you might like aid climbing. If not, then you might be better off sticking to other climbing disciplines. Not that I'm trying to discourage you, but most climbers just don't "get" aid climbing -- you're not alone. If curiosity gets the better of you at some point, then give it a whirl. You might think differently standing in the top steps of your aiders and learn something about aid climbing's allure that just can't quite be explained by telling you about it.
Ed
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boltdude
Apr 30, 2004, 4:10 AM
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Even without all the cool gadgetry, just think of the places you can get using a little aid climbing. Try the Pioneer Route on Monkey's Face at Smith - 5.5 to big overhung bolt ladder to WAY exposed 5.7 to the top. Just downright FUN!!!
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madyak
Apr 30, 2004, 4:17 AM
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When you're scared you're going to fall in bouldering, whoop dee doo, you've got a crash pad. When you're scared you're going to fall in aid, you're 300 feet off the deck and you've just hooked for twenty feet with your last piece of "pro" as a bashie. Now, that's a feeling you don't get in bouldering.
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jello
Apr 30, 2004, 4:24 AM
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I attended a slide show by Royal Robbins some years ago and he told a story of how he was trying to explain to his daughter the technicalities involved in climbing El Capitan and what it involved. When she started to understand on an extremely rudimentary level her response was, 'So you didn't really climb it?' :lol:
Needless to say that was not the response he was looking for. :roll:
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philbox
Moderator
Apr 30, 2004, 4:31 AM
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philbox moved this thread from Bouldering to Aid Climbing.
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the_dude
Apr 30, 2004, 5:24 AM
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Being high off the deck, being gripped of the the fall you'll take if the piece you're on rips, and drinking tall cans on your ledge crankin Public Enemy at the end of the day. Thats the fun of walls and aid climbing to me!
Cheers,
The Dude
Jello, Monkey wrench the new world order!
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bandycoot
Apr 30, 2004, 5:39 AM
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Then don't do it! :D
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euphoriagtrst
Apr 30, 2004, 5:46 AM
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If climbers are the fighter pilots of the athletic world then aid climbers are the astronauts....they go where no one else can.
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glockaroo
Apr 30, 2004, 2:12 PM
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There are 3 kinds of climbers in the world: those who "get" aid climbing, and those who don't.
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brutusofwyde
Apr 30, 2004, 11:02 PM
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For me it is not about the adrenaline rush. I try to avoid that. Me, I'm not an adrenaline junkie, and I tend to avoid those who are.
As another poster alluded, aid climbing allows you to access some of the wildest, most incredible places on the face of the planet. And all this without being a Huber Mutant. But don't kid yourself, either: The Hubers and the Skinners of this world do plenty of aiding as well. Probably more than the average big wall climber. The just do it to establish free climbs.
Bottom line is the same: access to, and enchantment with, the improbable.
Brutus
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sspssp
Apr 30, 2004, 11:22 PM
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I picked up aid climbing for the same reason I worked on climbing offwidths.
A lot of long Yosemite routes require it.
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psychoredneck
May 2, 2004, 1:43 AM
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Because a bullet to the head would be too quick???
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alpinerock
May 3, 2004, 3:17 AM
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aid climbing IMHO is one of the most extreme disicplines of climbing, soloing being the other extreme. In soloing you are completely trusting your abilitys as a climber, in aid your are completely trusting your gear. personally aid scares me more than soloing ever has.
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lambone
May 3, 2004, 4:07 PM
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Aid climbing may be "extereme" at times, but it is the easiest form of climbing to be good at.
Ice climbing being a close second.
For me the lure of Aid climbing was simply that it's a means to climb the biggest cliffs around. The first time I saw El Cap in person, and the climbers up on it, I knew I had to do it some day...after the first time I was hooked. if it wasn't for El Cap, and other bigger walls out there I probly wouldn't aid climb.
Same with ice, nothing much cooler to do in winter then climbing a frozen waterfall...
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