I've recently started playing around with aid, leading a few pitches etc. Good for when the crappy Irish winter rain stops play for a few months. i really like it but have come across some problems.

I was out at some scrappy limestone crag at the weekend, leading a crack. All went well up the crack, was my first time leading steep ground and was lots of fun. The problem was at the top the crack ran out, with slightly flakey rock which I didn't fancy putting a skyhook in. So I decided to try and free it. I've never really done the transition from aid to free on anything other than really easy ground before, and I know what I did was stupid but bear with me I'm trying to learn.
I unhooked my fifi and got into my top top steps with my hands on some jugs above, then stepped out of my aiders. I think what I planned to do next was to reach back down and unclip the aiders and daisy and clip in my rope (how I planned to do that on quite strenuous ground I don't know) but anyway at that moment all the rock I was holding came away in a nice shower and I took a fall straight onto my daisy at full extension.

Which is obviously the wrong way to go about switching from aid to free, so I was wondering what's the not dumb way to do it?

Cheers,
Jane

Others might give fresher advice, but when I used to make that transition, I'd make sure (1) the rope was clipped through the biner and (2) I was unclipped from the daisy. It caught your fall, but had you forgotten it? Was it poised to yank you short while you were trying to move up?

Finally, the reason I'm posting is this: it's often helpful to clip a sling into your top piece to stand in. That way you can unclip and gather your aiders from a secure loop-stance instead of clutching tenuous free holds. Then just climb on and it's no big deal whether you retrieve a single runner.

I try not to switch back and forth. Maybe, in my gumbiness, I'm just slow and scared, but I find that it is quite time consuming and strenuous. Unless I'm looking at a significant portion of free, I'd stay in aid mode.

It's an interesting question about whether its best to free poor quality rock or aide it. Somebody should chime in.

How'd the daisy fall treat you? Was it a pocket daisy? Was it spectra?

A screamer daisy would prevent shock loading your back with a factor 2 fall onto the daisy.

As far as freeing yourself from the aiders, you could extend your daisy to full length and have a sling to step into that you can clip the rope to for pro (all that happening prior to extending the daisy). Then once your ready step in the sling, find a good hold for your hand and unclip your aider with your other hand and let it hang out of the way from your daisy. sounds good in theory, I've not had to do that in an overhang.

On steeper terrain, I usually create two etriers with slings; a two-footer and a one-footer work well. I stay clipped in with my adjustable daisy and add the two slings (having the two-footer helps in steeper terrain). Then I step into the longer sling and weight it. Next I loosen and unclip my daisy. Then I step into the shorter (one-footer) sling and weight it; you're now free to begin free climbing.

On lower angle terrain, I can usually just add one short sling to the top piece and heave-ho a foot into it, then put my weight on it; preferably with the help of a hand-hold or two.

--Marc

P.S. I've still got your nut tool..

Cool, thanks everyone, that helps loads.
What I was kinda doing was pulling the lip, the overhang ended at a horizontal break/wee ledge which I'd just got my feet onto when I fell.
I'm grand, surprisingly since I went a full 2m onto my spectra daisy, just a wee bruise where my harness caught me.
I've currently got the 4 aider setup, with my daisys on the same biners as the aiders, the sling idea sounds great though. Should I put the daisys on separate biners?
Btw, this is what I was trying to aid, total choss, I fell from rocking up onto the ledge to where I am in the photo:

Jane,

If I'm using four aiders, (two pairs) I like to click the daisies to into a separate light trango locker that goes into the top loop of the aider. It allows me to disconnect quickly if it gets into a tangle and also works as a cheap screamer.

By the way, since you are just learning I would recommend starting with two aiders to keep things really simple. If you find you need to have extra aiders later it is easy to add them as required. It is much harder to go from 2 pr to 2 aiders. It's like relearning how to aid.

Keep your systems really simple and you're be flying up things in no time.

Cheers

john