What do you consider a "big wall?"
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What do you guys think makes a big wall a big wall? certain height, # of pitches, difficulty, having to bivy etc? |
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Not saying I'm an expert on big walling, but my definition would be that the average party would take more than one day to complete the ascent. |
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Maybe some aid, a bivouac, over a thousand foot, and it was not original climb in a modern fast a light single push style. |
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Taggart Cole wrote: Except there have been many modern big wall FA's done in that style, so that defining condition doesn't really exist. |
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Marc801 C wrote: Exactly my point. So maybe at least 1000 feet of climbing? Usually people associate big walls with hard grades and over 10 pitches. Would a 1000 ft 5.8 free climb be considered "big wall?" |
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Primarily aid routes over 8 pitches. |
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One that is big... |
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jon bernhard wrote: and wall like in nature. |
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Seeing as Wikipedia is always 100% correct "Big wall climbing is a type of rock climbing where a climber ascends a long multi-pitch route, normally requiring more than a single day to complete the climb. Big wall routes require the climbing team to live on the route often using portaledges and hauling equipment. It is practiced on tall or more vertical faces with few ledges and small cracks." There are many routes in Yosemite that are >1000ft, and easily go free. East Buttress' of both Middle Cathedral and El Cap are certainly not 'Big Walls.' The South Face of Washington Column is considered a big wall and is around same amount of pitches of those routes. The difference is that it requires primarily aid, and an optional ledge bivy. |
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Adam Hammershoi wrote: No, just a long free climb. It's not difficulty - The Nose is a big wall but can be done at 5.9 C1 - it's length, usually aid, and taking more than a day (for most parties) that defines a big wall. |
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One that goes border to border... |
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The lead only wall at the gym |
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Must have equation to define everything. X+y+z= big wall |
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Disclaimer: not a big wall climber. But I think the question should be is big wall a type of route or more so a style of climbing. |
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BITD, a “big wall” climb was defined as multi day and aid climbing. Once “wall routes” started to get climbed in a day and then free climbed, the definition became less clear cut. Two teams talking about doing the Nose might say, “We did it in a day”, the other might say “we did it wall style”. The wall style team would mean they hauled and had bivied. I’ve climbed El Cap a couple dozen times. I’ve climbed it in a day and in multiple days. I count all of them as a climb of a big wall. |
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Curious about this myself, I did a bit of searching to see if I could get a better sense of the modern definition of big wall climbing. I like the posts in this thread, but I figured I'd share definitions from a number of reputable climbing sources to supplement what was said. |
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Nick Kaiser wrote: A bit tautological if you ask me, since it is subjective what distinguishes Grade IV vs. Grade III :P But in general I agree that the "traditionally takes more than one day and is steep" is the best definition. |
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Are we talking about a big wall? Or a bigwall? |
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Short Fall Sean wrote: Are we talking about a big wall? Or a bigwall? Exactly. You can climb a big wall real fast but a bigwall is slow as fuck. |
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1) Over 1,00 Feet? |
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Jordan Moore wrote: Ooh, I gotta disagree there. If Honnold or I climb the Nose, it's a bigwall either way. But only one of us is doing it fast. But I think a bigwall probably initially went up with some aid, takes an average party more one day (and some aid) to do, and is steep (not like a mountain ridge or something). A big wall is just that - a large piece of rock. |