Single pitch aid climbing in Yosemite

Its that time of the year to hit up the Nose again. So that means some warm up aid pitches to get back in the game. Can I get some recommendations for C1 - C2 single pitch aid climbs? It doesn't really need to be much harder than the Changing Corners pitch, just need to get back in the rhythm again. And if it has piton scars that accept offset gear that would be nice so I can get use to placing offset pieces again.

Also, does anyone know what Aid Route, 5.11b, at the Swan Slabs would be rated if climbed on clean aid?

Church bowl tree worked for me. Just try to go when no one else would climb it (crack of dawn and/or super cold day). Otherwise it would be kind of uncool to tie up a sweet free climb like this.

Stigma at Cookie Cliff is a perfect pinscarred clean aid crack, to rap anchors with short approach and straight up climbing. Easier for the second to clean if you're only looking to get back into the groove. Church Bowl tree is a good suggestion as well.
There's a 11-12 clean crack around the right side of the buttress (can't miss it) of Pat and Jack as well.

El Cap tree is C2 and 4 pitches maybe?, i've never done it tho.
I practiced on P1 of pacific ocean wall.

20 kN wrote: does anyone know what Aid Route, 5.11b, at the Swan Slabs would be rated if climbed on clean aid?

C1

There is some route at the Cookie Cliffs, extremely thin, probably 5.13, maybe 50 - 70 feet tall. It looked like it would be aidable at maybe C2 or so, anyone know what it is?

Stigma goes at C1. Don't believe the hype.

Hook move ='s C2. (unless there's a placement that is being bypassed by said hook move. I've hooked past a few good placements because I didn't want to backclean down to get the piece in that size that I'd placed earlier. So i guess it should read as "Required Hook Move ='s C2")

You may want to check out Kat Pinnacle, though I don't know if it goes clean. You could also just find an out of the way .11 finger crack and do that too. Nothing says you have to practice aid at the base of the Captain.

Also, while offsets are great, you don't need them to climb aid in the Valley. Just about everything has been climbed on regular old cams and TCUs. If you're looking to practice climbing pin scars, work on getting comfortable with cam hooks.

Fat Dad wrote:You may want to check out Kat Pinnacle, though I don't know if it goes clean. You could also just find an out of the way .11 finger crack and do that too. Nothing says you have to practice aid at the base of the Captain. Also, while offsets are great, you don't need them to climb aid in the Valley. Just about everything has been climbed on regular old cams and TCUs. If you're looking to practice climbing pin scars, work on getting comfortable with cam hooks.

Its true that you dont "need" offsets but not having the correct gear will add to the difficulty and danger of the route C1 becomes C2, C2 becomes C3, ect. There use to be pitches lower down on the Nose that were A3, now with modern gear its easier, but without said modern gear you could find yourself in a harry situation. The Glowering Spot on the Nose for example would be C1 with offsets, but considering just about every placement on that pitch is crazy flaring pinscars, trying to lead that with a set of standard curve nuts would be scary as hell, at least for me anyway, and it certainly wouldent be C1. Being that I am still working on my aid status I like to stack the odds in my favor with having the correct gear for the climb. Than maybe if I get really proficient, sometime down the road, I can try placing 000 C3s with two lobes retracted in a flaring placement. :)

kevin deweese wrote:Stigma goes at C1. Don't believe the hype. Hook move ='s C2. (unless there's a placement that is being bypassed by said hook move. I've hooked past a few good placements because I didn't want to backclean down to get the piece in that size that I'd placed earlier. So i guess it should read as "Required Hook Move ='s C2")

While its true that I wouldent consider any route with mandatory hook moves to be C1, I wouldent say that a route without hooking moves cannot be anything but C1. The Changing Corners pitch on the Nose for example is rated C2 as there are placements on that pitch that likely would not hold a fall, if you fell at the crux you could very well possibly pull a piece or two or more. But there are no mandatory hook moves on that pitch.

So going to a more extreme, but still possible example, if you had a thin seam that was completely continuous for 100 feet, but offered nothing but micro offset RP placements rated for body weight only the whole way, but dident require any hooking, would you call that C1? I think most would consider something like that at least C3. Its just my opinion, but I am not sure that saying routes that dont require hooking moves couldn't possibly be anything but C1.

My statement about hooks and C-rating was not supposed to be all encompassing tot he rating, just specific to how hooking can change the C-rating.

C2 can def exist without hooking since part of the distinction is in the difficulty of the placement as well as the bomberness of the placement. (I don't think that's a real word)
You can create bomber opposing nut placements that might be considered C2 because of their more-than-run-of-the-mill placement knowledge. More often than not, it seems to relate to the length of continuos bodywieght vs bomber placements. (such as your changing corners example)

My comment on Hooks was specifically in response to caughtinside's post about hooking on Swan Slab being C1 or higher.

That's why I separated the two lines of thought.

Stigma is C1 imo because all placements are bomber and relatively straight forward. Hooking has nothing to do with it
(although cam hooking as well as hand placed angles are easily used/practiced on Stigma, and using them would create a body weight placement, but the use of a body weight placement when there is a possible bomber placement does not a >C1 climb make.)

But in the end, it's all academic. Someone can C4 hook and place sketchy gear all the way to the top of a climb on purpose in order to practice/ build their lead head and the fact that the climb goes at C1 would be irrelevant to that specific ascent. No different from climbing a 5.9 crack as a 5.11 lieback.
If you're out to practice, you make the climb exactly what you want to practice.

+1 to Fat Dad's Cam Hook practice advice.

Coffin Nail A3, seam left of HARRD at the cookie.

Thin with some beaking, heading and hooking.

That would surely get you into a good head space.

Dude, it's the Nose. Euros with tinker toys climb it every year. Some good advice on this thread thus far. Don't overthink it.