Aid practice for the Zig Zags

Partner and I are planning for the Regular Northwest Face. We don't have much (read: any) aid experience, but will be practicing for a few days in the Valley before we embark. I'd like to practice on some single pitches before we take on Washington Column and Half Dome. I'd appreciate any suggestions. Thanks!

You already know how to place gear. The zig zags are super straight forward aid placements with lots of fixed gear.

My recommendation would be to go to a sport climbing crag and practice aiding up bolts. The real trick with learning to aid isn't the placements but the process. Aiding up a sport route will help you dial in your aiding process really quickly. You don't need all of the extra gear to get in the way when you are first learning. In between bolts you can practice getting out of your aiders and freeing or french freeing short sections. This skill can really add up to some serious time savings especially on a big wall. You can always supplement bolted sections with gear placements or hooks. At a sport crag you can get in a lot of mileage and simulate a lot of different situations you'd find on a wall; traverses, lower outs, etc... It's also a really quick way to get the rope up to practice jugging.

Just my two cents... Has worked pretty well for me over the years.

I highly recommend reading McNamara's book:
How to Big Wall Climb

He focuses a lot on speed while aiding. Getting placements fast is one thing, but having a consistent process for placing gear, weighting it, and not tangling up your aiders and daisies will save you tons of time. I also benefited a lot from practicing jugging at a local crag. Get fast (and efficient) at jugging and lower-outs by experimenting with different daisy lengths. You don't want to find yourself winded from jugging.

RNWF was my first big wall climb. I did have to use a hook placement on the last bolt ladder.

There are a couple aid traverses on the RNWF. More important than learning how to lead an aid pitch efficiently is knowing how to follow a traverse while jugging. I think Chris Mac's books are decent..but look for the videos that explain how to do it efficiently. If you don't have this technique dialed, you'll certainly loose a lot of time trying to remember how to do it on the wall. This is the missing skillset that creates such a mess in the Stovelegs of the Nose.

Best single pitch to practice all skill sets in a way comparable to the RNWF is El Cap Tree

ROC wrote:The real trick with learning to aid isn't the placements but the process.

I disagree with this. There's a difference between placing a cam and climbing past it vs. clipped an aider to it, testing it, etc. I totally agree with your point about getting efficient in aiders, but I think getting comfortable with placing and trusting gear is more important.

I haven't done HD in a long time, but I got the Zig Zigs when I climbed it. It's pretty easy. Find a clean corner that takes small cams and go to work. I don't think El Cap Tree is your best choice. The first pitch is basically a bolt ladder and the second meanders alot. Practice on an obscure free climb somewhere, get your system dialed. Do the Column and the Zig Zags will be no problem.

Practice French free. That is essentially what most of the RNWF is. The ZZ are not hard aiding, the placements are straightforward, but the first pitch is awkward. Practice being fast and efficient aiding, that means find a continueous cracks system and get fast at aiding it. Also, the last pitch of aid has a tricky (I thought) sideways tension aid move on a slab. Also practice using cam hooks. Pitches like p12 and the ZZ go much faster if you are comfortable and quick with camhooks.

The 1st pitch of ECT is as hard or harder than the aid on RNWF. There is some C2 before and after the bolt ladder, and it is 5.9 climbing to get get to the start of the aid. I also thought WC was much easier than HD, mostly for the speed factor.

Just a note for the aid incompetent...like me. Because I did not have aid climbing dialed, it took us almost as long to get from Big Sandy to the top as it did to get up to Big Sandy. YMMV.

Thanks for the suggestions! Psyched to get started.