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dindolino32
Apr 23, 2011, 3:52 PM
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OK, I live in the forsaken flat land of Nebraska. I'm stuck here until my wife finishes med school. I have climbed trad since I started climbing so I am familiar with placements. I however, have aided very little (only when i couldn't send a section of a route/ french free). I want to learn more but am limited geographically, nearest rock 7.5 hours away. SO, I am mostly a gym climber. Have you ever aided in a gym/home and if so, did u make the holds or just destroy the old ones. I was thinking of making some small hardwood footchips to hook however the hooks would just bite into the wood and wouldn't be the same. I could weld some steel pieces to hook. Or just drill some rock (takes forever). Any suggestions. Also, what would be some things techniques that I should work on other than Hauling? Any relevant input would be appreciated.
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sungam
Apr 23, 2011, 6:03 PM
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dindolino32 wrote: OK, I live in the forsaken flat land of Nebraska. I'm stuck here until my wife finishes med school. I have climbed trad since I started climbing so I am familiar with placements. I however, have aided very little (only when i couldn't send a section of a route/ french free). I want to learn more but am limited geographically, nearest rock 7.5 hours away. SO, I am mostly a gym climber. Have you ever aided in a gym/home and if so, did u make the holds or just destroy the old ones. I was thinking of making some small hardwood footchips to hook however the hooks would just bite into the wood and wouldn't be the same. I could weld some steel pieces to hook. Or just drill some rock (takes forever). Any suggestions. Also, what would be some things techniques that I should work on other than Hauling? Any relevant input would be appreciated.
I've surely never hooked on gym holds but I've dry tooled on them, and it seems like that would work.
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sungam
Apr 23, 2011, 6:08 PM
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By "get used to moving quickly (heh) while in aiders." I meant just moving bolt to bolt and getting used to high stepping, screwing with your daisies, clipping order so you're not going to shock load a daisy etc.
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AntinJ
Apr 28, 2011, 4:29 PM
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Don't forget about trees for practicing jugging, hauling, systems mgmt, etc...
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georgeblakeman
Apr 28, 2011, 4:39 PM
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Hooking on holds is fine. Just take care with the softer ones and try not to jostle the hook around a bunch.
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sungam
Apr 29, 2011, 2:07 PM
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georgeblakeman wrote: Hooking on holds is fine. Just take care with the softer ones and try not to jostle the hook around a bunch.
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petsfed
Apr 29, 2011, 2:31 PM
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dindolino32 wrote: OK, I live in the forsaken flat land of Nebraska. I'm stuck here until my wife finishes med school. I have climbed trad since I started climbing so I am familiar with placements. I however, have aided very little (only when i couldn't send a section of a route/ french free). I want to learn more but am limited geographically, nearest rock 7.5 hours away. SO, I am mostly a gym climber. Have you ever aided in a gym/home and if so, did u make the holds or just destroy the old ones. I was thinking of making some small hardwood footchips to hook however the hooks would just bite into the wood and wouldn't be the same. I could weld some steel pieces to hook. Or just drill some rock (takes forever). Any suggestions. Also, what would be some things techniques that I should work on other than Hauling? Any relevant input would be appreciated.
Do you live in Omaha? Vedauwoo should only be about 6 and a half hours away. Not much, I know, but still.
Its true though, the most important part is dialing the aid sequence, and you can do that in a gym. Then, when you want to start hooking, find some real rock and practice on a top rope. It'd be worthwhile to learn toprope soloing just so you can practice hooking without boring your partner to death.
Also, ask your gym operator before you start hooking on their holds; its as bad as dry-tooling in terms of hold damage.
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altelis
Apr 29, 2011, 2:53 PM
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dindolino32 wrote: OK, I live in the forsaken flat land of Nebraska. I'm stuck here until my wife finishes med school. I have climbed trad since I started climbing so I am familiar with placements. I however, have aided very little (only when i couldn't send a section of a route/ french free). I want to learn more but am limited geographically, nearest rock 7.5 hours away. SO, I am mostly a gym climber. Have you ever aided in a gym/home and if so, did u make the holds or just destroy the old ones. I was thinking of making some small hardwood footchips to hook however the hooks would just bite into the wood and wouldn't be the same. I could weld some steel pieces to hook. Or just drill some rock (takes forever). Any suggestions. Also, what would be some things techniques that I should work on other than Hauling? Any relevant input would be appreciated.
There are really only a few things that you can really get dialed off the rock that will translate almost exactly to actually aiding on rock.
1) The sequence of progressing while aiding
2) Jugging.
SO, it actually really doesn't matter where you are practicing, especially since you can use trad gear.
Anywhere you can set up a top rope and have intermediate pieces that can hold body-weight is golden. One thing that works really well is a tree. If you climb up the tree you can sling some branches to make a top anchor to a fix a rope to. If you aren't comfortable free soloing the tree, you can always use a grigri and lead-solo, slinging roots of large branches as pro.
Using webbing, you can essentially girth-hitch or clove-hitch around the tree, and use these as places to clip your aiders to to practice your progression, using the fixed line as a belay.
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dindolino32
Apr 29, 2011, 5:04 PM
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its about 7.5 hours. Not a short trip to practice aiding. Vedauwoo is awesome though. Love climbing there when we can actually take weekend trips.
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moose_droppings
Apr 29, 2011, 5:35 PM
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I've used an older brick building for practicing hooking on in the past and it worked well. The joints were struck at about 3/8ths so even the vertical joints were good for cam hooks. Also, if there are any tall rock retainer walls that someone wouldn't mind you using may work too. Real rock is still going to be your best bet.
As stated above, learning and getting comfortable with the sequence of leading up a wall in your aiders is very beneficial.
http://www.youtube.com/...FLaldKgbXt0&NR=1
You can also learn a lot from reading through Chris's "How To Big Walls Book".
http://www.supertopo.com/....php?topic_id=692927
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styndall
Apr 29, 2011, 6:26 PM
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petsfed wrote: dindolino32 wrote: OK, I live in the forsaken flat land of Nebraska. I'm stuck here until my wife finishes med school. I have climbed trad since I started climbing so I am familiar with placements. I however, have aided very little (only when i couldn't send a section of a route/ french free). I want to learn more but am limited geographically, nearest rock 7.5 hours away. SO, I am mostly a gym climber. Have you ever aided in a gym/home and if so, did u make the holds or just destroy the old ones. I was thinking of making some small hardwood footchips to hook however the hooks would just bite into the wood and wouldn't be the same. I could weld some steel pieces to hook. Or just drill some rock (takes forever). Any suggestions. Also, what would be some things techniques that I should work on other than Hauling? Any relevant input would be appreciated. Do you live in Omaha? Vedauwoo should only be about 6 and a half hours away. Not much, I know, but still. Its true though, the most important part is dialing the aid sequence, and you can do that in a gym. Then, when you want to start hooking, find some real rock and practice on a top rope. It'd be worthwhile to learn toprope soloing just so you can practice hooking without boring your partner to death. Also, ask your gym operator before you start hooking on their holds; its as bad as dry-tooling in terms of hold damage.
It might go easier if you just use loops of webbing to aid up juggier routes. I'd personally be annoyed to see someone using hooks on holds in a gym.
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dindolino32
Feb 18, 2012, 7:10 PM
Post #12 of 14
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ok petsfed, I practiced leading and jumaring. Any recommendations for aid in Vedauwoo? Something that requires all techniques but not terribly dangerous aid?
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petsfed
Feb 19, 2012, 8:15 PM
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Without pounding pins, you've got:
For top roping:
Flare Thee Well - this might actually be a good lead too once you're really solid on your placements because its thin and flared. Could be A2/A3 although I've only ever got on it for free climbing. You can walk to the top to rig the anchor on bolts.
Remote Control - hard thin fingers, but with bolted anchors you can walk to.
Sugar Crack - good free climb, but its an awkward position. Bonus, there's some edges down low you could practice your hooking on.
Le Petit Arbre - you'll have to free the first pitch to set-up the toprope (on bolts), but its 5.6, and classic.
For leading:
Friday the 13th - continuous crack, good for learning the leading process, BUT its incredibly popular, so get on it on a rainy weekday. Its under a roof, so the rain won't be an issue.
Ghost Dance, New Mutant - both hard, flared finger cracks. I'm told Ghost Dance opens in the back, so be careful.
June Bride - starts super thin, gradually widens to fingers on a slab.
Edward Humid Hands - once you get the rope up, you can try to free it on top rope. Hard to find.
Arch Stanton - Sure its freed only on bolts, but at 11+, and the bolts are too far apart to simply aid between. Was considered A4 when it was freed in the 1980s. This thing is a solar oven, so go on a cold, cloudy day. Also, a cheat-stick may be useful for the final bolt ladder. The bolts (and modern camming devices) definitely bring this thing down to a safer, easier grade.
There are loads more, those are just the ones that I've looked at/aided/attempted to aid that spring immediately to mind.
(This post was edited by petsfed on Feb 19, 2012, 8:20 PM)
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cobbledik
Feb 21, 2012, 1:02 AM
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THings to practice that people normally forget to practice until it's too late is:
1. Transferring the haul bag from the haul rope to the anchor and then off of the hauling device (make sure your bag is at full weight for this. If you're ever manhandling the bag, stop, reset, and try again.
2. While you've got the bag up there, work on lowering out the haul bag by short tying the hail line via butterfly knot and using the excess tail.
3. Practice horizontal cleaning. Practice lots of horizontal cleaning. If you're soloing, practice some more. If you've got a partner make them practice some more. This is where I've had partners freeze up and quit on me, the systems can get a bit confusing once you're on the wall with people not thinking about where their weight is and so forth. Easier to work it out in the gym so you're right there to say "you can't unclip that aider because you're still standing on it."
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