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ubotch
Aug 3, 2002, 2:09 AM
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Registered: Jul 19, 2002
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Okay, this is a stupid question but I don't have any experience with aid climbing. I have seen different places that talk about a very difficult aid climb. I am just wondering what makes one more difficult than another. I was under the impression that the climber placed a piece and then attached a ladder to it and cllimbed it. Am I way off? I don't understand why that is hard. Don't get me wrong I am sure it is, I just don't know enough about it to know why.
Please excuse my ignorance and don't mistake it for arrogance. The pictures I see of you guys aiding up those walls scare me to death, I respect it but don't understand it.
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jhwnewengland
Aug 3, 2002, 2:50 AM
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I'm not an aid expert either, but I think I can help answer your question. Many others here will be more qualified to do it, but they haven't yet.
On hard aid, gear placements are few, far between, and hard to make. Imagine placing a tiny little RP (mini nut), standing on it (in your aider, or "ladder") without testing its strength because you don't want it to blow, and hoping it doesn't pull out and cause you to fall, ripping out at least a few of your tiny little pieces you've been placing for the last 50 feet. Then imagine needing to get into the top step of your "ladder" on that tiny little piece just to even think about reaching that next terrible placement.
Now realize that RPs are actually a pretty good placement in hard aid, and often you're relying on a malleable metal "head" that you hammered into a little divot, or a hook that is just balancing on the top of a tiny flake, and you'll realize that there's a huge difference between aiding an easy hand crack and aiding a near-blank wall.
Hope that helped.
Jan
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krustyklimber
Aug 3, 2002, 3:50 AM
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Jan,
Very well done!
I don't know what to add, that y'all would understand, so I am gonna leave it at that!
Jeff
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apollodorus
Aug 3, 2002, 7:42 PM
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Easy aid means that each piece of the "ladder" is easy to put in, and is bomber. Hard aid means that it is difficult to get pieces to stick to the rock. Hard aid also means that each, or most of the pieces in the ladder are weak and may not hold even a short fall. So, if you blow the piece you're standing on, you'll pop the one below, and the one below, and the one below, and . . . until you either hit a bomber piece or wind up hanging below your belayer (assuming you don't crater onto a ledge first).
For what it's worth, a typical RP placement is considered bomber in the world of aid climbing. A bad placement is a copperhead molded and smashed into a shallow groove with a hammer and chisel. Or maybe a birdbeak with 1/4" of the tip tapped into a rotten seam that crumbles everywhere except a short section that you use. Or a hook on a tiny edge, optimistically reinforced by duct-taping it in place. Or a sling over a loose flake that dribbles BBs and sand when you apply your weight to it.
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bigwalling
Aug 3, 2002, 9:12 PM
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Copperheads can be very good. They can even hold falls. I haven't had the luck of falling on one though.
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passthepitonspete
Aug 3, 2002, 9:50 PM
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Registered: Oct 10, 2001
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I used to dreeeeeeeeam about placements as solid as Tom describes.....
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