Aid Soloing

[The Teth]

I have been thinking about experimenting with Aid Soloing (Clean aid of course). Not expecting to do anything above A1. Just figure it is a way of getting out on the rock when I don’t have a belay partner. Also thinking that it will improve my placements and rope management skills.

I was thinking I might do some experimenting on Dover at Boulderfest. Anyone coming to boulderfest have some aiders they could bring for me to try out? I want to experiment with this a bit before I decide whether it is worth spending any money on.

I may be up for some trad as well, if anyone wants to bring a harness. I will have my gear.

Teth

[The Mitt]

I would suggest that you try some aid with a partner first, get your sequences down and then look at doing some solo aid. There are a few people who have aid climbing down, unfortunately I am not one of them. Pretty easy to find yourself 20 feet up and stuck only having to rap down with one piece keeping you from the long dirt nap or a hospital.

just my $.02

Mitt

[Nate]

Hey teth,

I'd be into doing a bit of trad climbing during boulderfest. I find that route climbing and bouldering after makes for an awesome day. Some of those routes look pretty cool too. Do you want to bring your rope or your rack? You bring your rope and I'll bring my gear or vice versa, or I can just bring all of my stuff if you want.

As for Solo Aid climbing, sounds cool and yet pretty dangerous at the same time. Investing in the gear is probably the first thing to look at....

Nate

[The Teth]

I will be brining all my gear, including rope. I will likely do some trad in the morning while there is still shade on the cliff. I have done that in the past and find the afternoon still provides plenty of time to boulder.

Solo aid climbing is not that much more dangerous than aid climbing on belay from a technical standpoint. The danger is if you do not have someone else around to help if things go wrong, which should not be a problem at boulderfest. I am fairly confident in my ability to keep it safe (skills I have already from either trad or repelling), it will be the moving using aid which I do not have experience with. I think the biggest danger is that I may get stuck or just look ridiculous, but if that happens I can just repel off my last placement and then go back and clean my gear on repel from the top. Since I do not have aiders I will have to try to create something from webbing, which may or may not work, but should teach me a lot in the attempt.

Mitt, you do make some valid points. I will be trying to learn from others if possible, and I intend to stick to the easy stuff where I have lots of options to backup my placement if I get stuck and have to repel off.

Teth

[Fred]

why not get a silent partner and solo lead? That way you can free climb instead of aid climb.

[Nate]

Sounds good Teth,

I'll bring out my harness and a bit of gear. See ya there.

Nate

[Stevo]

All this talk of aid soloing prompted me to dig out some pictures I took while soloing Tangerine Trip on El Capitan



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[Stevo]

Ok I didn't find a convenient way to fit in the captions so from left to right:

1. Looking back down pitch 5 (A3) to the pig.
2. Hauling the pig up pitch 4
3. Lying in the hammock after a hard days nailing. Looking across to the Nose in the evening shadow. I spent 5 nights on the wall, all hammock bivis.
4. Looking right across the infamous "Diorite Band" to Zodiac. Two parties on this popular trade route.
5. Jugging on pitch 13, cleaning the rivet ladder on the road to nowhere

Steve

[The Teth]

Cool picks Stevo! I did not know that you had done El Cap.

The answer to Fred’s question is likely that I am lazy and out of shape and want to experience the mental challenge of ascending a wall without the physical effort. Or maybe it is just that I think I will learn something from trying something new, and having some aid experience might help me if I or someone with me gets into trouble in other climbing scenarios. Besides, I have only taken two minor falls while trad climbing, so standing and bouncing on my gear should give me some better experience with my gear placements. I just think aid would be a fun thing to try, and it will likely make me a better trad climber in the long-run.

I have rigged up a pair of Russian Aiders using webbing and some key gate carabiners. As with a webbing harness they tend to droop when walking around on the flat, but they seemed to work quite well in basement wall testing. It will be interesting to see how they work at the cliff. Anyone know any gear companies that sell Russian Aiders? I heard that Tango does not sell them any more.

Looking forward to climbing with you Nate.

Teth

[Fred]

I don't know much about aid climbing but I've been told the only way to go these days is with quick adjusting ladders instead of the classic multi loop ladders. I've used them for ascending rope and they work great.

[Stevo]

I have a pair of Troll "Easy-Risers" from way back. The original and by far the best adjustable aiders. Don't make those any more so they are precious to me. I was looking around for some replacements and noticed that Metolius now make adjustable aiders. They call them "revolutionary" - b.s., they just caught on to what the europeans have known for years!

Find adjustables, don't bother with the fixed loop variety, and best are those that have loops big enough to slide your leg in to just above the knee for easy roof climbing.

Steve

[The Teth]

I have decided not to bother with the traditional ladder type aiders as they seem cumbersome and easily tangled. I plan to go with Russian Aiders. This too is a new thing which is not new at all. This it the traditional method of aid climbing in the Eastern Block, and it makes a lot more sense to me. Here is a review of a set made by Trango, who unfortunately are not making them any more.

http://www.gearreview.com/russian_aid.asp

Apparently Fish is working on a design and will likely sell Russian Aiders in the near future, but so far they only sell the ring trees.

While looking for the above link I found this article by Dr. Piton, who apparently has become a recent fan of Russian Aiders. (See the last couple of paragraphs in the following link.)

http://www.rockandice.com/drpiton/dr%20piton.132.html

Wile experimenting in my basement I found it was easy to stand (hands free) in my homemade rig with my highest anchor point being at my knee. I was able to ascend a daisy chain easily in this manner. As I understand it this would be like high-stepping in regular aiders (you would have to be in the top step to have the anchor at your knee right?), accept this was quit easy and felt stable.

Teth

[Fred]

I'm no expert but I suspect you will have the same problem with Russion aiders as you would with traditional ladders. The beauty of the adjustables is you can get exactly to the height you want. This is gold for quick ascending. Give it a try and you'll see.

[The Teth]

I did a search on Adjustable Aiders on the RockClimbing.com forum and the consciences there was that they were too slow and required too many adjustments as well as not being versatile. Interestingly three people on the thread said it would be better to go with Russian Aiders, and a fourth said he had used adjustable aiders in combination with his Russian Aiders for doing some very high placements, but that it was a very slow and cumbersome process.

I think the Russian aiders allow you to squat a bit to adjust your height where as with the standard aiders (ladder style) it would be more difficult to do this. I think there is different muscle usage if you are attached at the knee and leveraging your foot against the wall rather than squatting with just your foot in a stirrup. For instance with the Russian aiders I can squat or stand without any other tie ins, where as with a standard aider you would likely fall over backwards if you did not also have a higher point of contact. However, I will likely be using a daisy and chest harness anyway, as they will be needed on overhanging terrain. (Not to mention the fact that it is still possible to fall over backwards in the Russians, say if your foot slipped for instance.) For this I would likely prefer to use adjustable daisies over the old style daisy with multiple loops.

Teth

[szymiec]

Hey,

No one has mentioned high stepping here. Unless ive missed it. Cant you just use your standard aiders w/ a daisy? This allows you to advance upwards and lead back while you get in the next piece.
C

[The Teth]

With the Russian Aiders you can hook directly into your piece so that it is just above your knee which is a lot like high stepping in a standard aider except it is way more comfortable. Might be a bit more tricky on overhanging terrain to stand without your upper body attached to anything, unless you have abs of steel. (You would probably use a chest attachment some of the time, particularly with overhanging terrain.) The drawback with the Russian Aiders is that you cannot get as high as you could by standing in the hero loops (those loops above the steps) of a standard aider, but unless you are climbing a slab you have to be a very good aid climber to be able to get up into the hero loops. So in summery, the Russian Aiders do not allow the same maximum possible reach as the standard aiders, but anything short of that is possible and easy in the Russian Aiders.

If anyone is interested in how my aid soloing went, I posted a trip report on Rockclimbing.com.
http://www.rockclimbing.com/topic/115333

Teth