Comprehensive big wall how-to thread?

So I've been aid climbing for a couple years, but mostly on desert towers so nothing too enormous. I'm getting a ledge and have aspirations to hit Zion a bunch and eventually the valley.

I'm looking for resources on some of the fundamentals as well as any tips and tricks people have come up with. Endlessly searching threads that quickly turn into pissing contents is becoming frustrating, so I was hoping to get a little thread going on just helpful links and info without the meaningless debate.

Is the How to Big Wall Climb book the best starting place?

Thanks!

Perfect timing. Andy Kirkpatrick just released a very comprehensive big wall manual. $45.00. Seems like a good price for the amount information. 

• *Paging Mark Hudon**

Mark Hudon wrote: Hudonpanos.com

And search for my threads here. 

Thanks Mark! 

Search for. My thread here, 2:1 in your brain.

Finding information on the internet is great, wonderful and cool, but figuring it out for yourself will really ingrain it into your head.

Google Mark Hudon (^that guy) and pretty much everything that comes up will have at least one good tip.

How to big wall climb was good, but I feel like if you read Hudons PDFs and the watch the super toll free videos, you can save yourself the money.
​
Also if you add in ‘climbing tech tips’ videos/website, it makes how to bigwall climb an even worse investment. With that said, if you have the money, buy something from supertopo even if just to support ‘community’ business.

Andy Kirkpatrick’s Higher Education is on the way to my house as we speak/type. So I’ll have more to say about it in about two weeks (it’s has to ship from the UK, no US distribution yet) from the few little excerpts I’ve found online it looks like it will be exhaustive. 

Andy is a great guy and he knows his shit. Hell, he’s even smart enough to steal some of my stuff! 

Mark Hudon wrote: Andy is a great guy and he knows his shit. Hell, he’s even smart enough to steal some of my stuff! 

I saw that Andy attributed the invention of the lower out cord to you in his big wall book, but didn't mention your name when discussing 2:1 hauling. I know Chongo got the word out about 2:1 hauling back in the day, but I feel like you've pushed the evangelism of the 2:1 to new levels, specifically with your emphasis on increasing the efficiency of the system as a whole. I'm not trying to imply anything, just something I thought about while reading the book. Also, lower out cord is the tits.

How to Big Wall: There is no try, Padawan. There is do, or do not.

Its about a commitment and precisely why you want to do a Big Wall is to test your commitment.

Yeah, I didn’t invent it, I refined it and populized it.

I don’t care that I get credit for anything, to tell you the truth, I just want you all to go out there and have fun and be safe. 

I'll say this over and over until the people in the back hear it. Chris Macnamara's "How to BigWall Climb" book it a worthless waste of time. Horrible typos, incorrect information, crap copyediting, difficult to comprehend photos, and a focus towards the type of climber that wants to freeclimb long routes with a bit of aid rather than intensive bigwall techniques required of actual aid walls.

Bigwall texts I like in order:

1. I've got Andy Kirkpatrick's new book and it's a fantastic resource even at its massive size.
2. Ogden's bigwall book is also very good but a bit difficulty to get to the info you want if you're just starting out
3. http://multipitchclimbing.com/ though not specifically about bigwalls is an impressive resource for a lot of the techniques shared between free climbing multipitch and bigwalling
4. Long/Middendorf's BigWalls book is old but has good info in a very short amount of pages
5. Strassman's Climbing Bigwalls book is also old but has some things in there that you won't find anywhere else (such as setting up a waterproof bivy fly when you don't have an actual fly)
6. http://www.vdiffclimbing.com/bigwall/ is a bit simplistic but it's online and free
7. Then consult any drunk monkey at the el cap bridge
8. Then consult any drunk monkey at a zoo
9. Then consult any drunk
10. Then take Macnamara's bigwall book and use it to start a fire to scare away all those monkeys and drunks (the drunk monkeys from the bridge won't be scared off until the beer runs out)

trailridge wrote: Perfect timing. Andy Kirkpatrick just released a very comprehensive big wall manual. $45.00. Seems like a good price for the amount information. 

Where is it $45? I see it for Amazon at $55, just wanted to check

Kevin's list is great and funny, but my opinion differs (stongly!)  on Chris Macamara's stuff. I think his series of videos is awesome!!!

http://www.supertopo.com/a/How-To-Big-Wall-Climb-Table-of-Contents/a139n.html

The videos are in many of the links in the "Aid Climbing Skills" section

kevin deweese wrote: .....
Bigwall texts I like in order:.....

thanks kevin, rad list

JohnnyG wrote: Kevin's list is great and funny, but my opinion differs (stongly!)  on Chris Macamara's stuff. I think his series of videos is awesome!!!

You're right! I forgot to mention his bigwall videos! His video series also suck. 

I got Andy K’s higher education in the mail today and I’m about 120 pages in, holy sh!t it is in depth and detailed.

Skimming through it has scale diagrams of 8 different portaledges and their comparative dimensions and weights, and his opinions on each.

And thus far everything has had level of detail.

It’s hard to imagine any other resource being nearly as in depth.

I got Kirkpatrick's Higher Education today. This book has the answers to every question I've ever had and then some. It makes How to Big Wall climb look like a cheap pamphlet you'd find at a rec center climbing wall. Best resource I've found. Thank you all for your replies

this video series is awesome! everyone does things differently online so it can get confusing, i like how simple and easily expalined all this was when i was first getting into big wall climbing youtube.com/watch?v=689T-wW…

Mark Hudon wrote: Hudonpanos.com

And search for my threads here. 

I'm getting SSL cert errors when I try to connect.  Is this site still active?

Brett Holman wrote:

I'm getting SSL cert errors when I try to connect.  Is this site still active?

No I remember Mark saying how expensive it was to continue hosting that website.