Share Your Improbable Aid Placement Photos

I'm sure you've all had the experience of trying an improbable aid placement, then being pleasantly surprised when it held.  Or maybe you found some super-unique feature that took protection in an interesting way.  I've started taking pictures of these placements.

Share yours with a brief description!

Milagrosa Canyon, Tucson.  Very downward and outward flaring, smooth except for a barely-palpable indented line for the point to rest in, fractured rock.  Held all the bouncing I could throw at it then cleaned super easy.

I was taking a photo of a pretty cool Pecker placement on Iron Hawk when the damn thing pulled! Sorry, no photo. 

Skot sews these slings to the tops of our Peckers, mainly for racking, but they are strong enough to hold a fall in this kind of situation.

Max! Nice! 

This was on the route "More Balls than Brains" in Yosemite Valley, doing some fun toprope aiding and messing around with funky placements.  I found that the very tip of this cam hook could find good purchase and hold, even though most of the hook wasn't touching anything in this flaring pin scar.  These cam hooks are way more versatile than I initially thought.

Bomber, too.

Love these things.

In the tricam photo you can see the stone being turned into sand as I weighted it (Arches NP).

The other photo is from Zion NP.

Damn, Mark! That tricam placement is next level!   

Strong work, everyone, keep em coming!

How do y’all aid with such big heavy testicles? (Or comparable lady parts) Some of these pictures I truly hope to never see with my own eyes. Good for you guys, glad someone is doing it.. and that I’m not that person!

Can't provide a photo I'm afraid - the last thing on my mind at the time - but I recall a placement with which I was particularly pleased and which I'll attempt to describe.

The route in question followed a right-facing, right-leaning dihedral with a narrowing left wall which curled over to form an overlap below which one traversed for a few feet before pulling over into a short scoop/dihedral. The associated crack thus switched from angling in leftwards, in the dihedral, to running upwards behind the overlap - widening as one progressed and flaring downwards. I think I'd just used our biggest bong - a four-incher - and was trying to make something stick in the next placement. I had smaller bongs, which nonetheless were six-inchers when used endwise - but that was too big. A familiar quandary in the pre-large-cam era! We had tube-chocks - although, placed and slung normally, these simply pulled straight out of the flaring crack. [For the benefit of the less-than-very-old membership of this site I should perhaps explain that Tubes ran in five sizes from 4" to 6" in half-inch increments, and consisted of slung lengths of 2.5" diameter aluminum tubing with tapered ends.] I found, though, that by locating one end on some slight dish or protuberance with the other end set at a higher level on the opposite side of the crack, and with a clip-in overhand tied in the sling close up to the higher end, one could effectively load just the higher end of the tube and produce a camming action that held it in place. Bingo! I was as surprised as anybody that it actually worked.

Took a 10’er on this green alien on a solo of the west face of monkey face at smith Rock. Nice!  

I used to have improbable placements but totem cams have turned all improbable placements into just regular old boring placements. 

Kevin Mokracek wrote:

I used to have improbable placements but totem cams have turned all improbable placements into just regular old boring placements. 

Yup; that's progress!

Previously there was two rurps equalized here.  I fell on it, one blew, and the cable snapped on the second.  I didn’t have anything to tie it off, but I did have this random tiny river hanger that fit through the eye.

Ryan7crew wrote:

Previously there was two rurps equalized here.  I fell on it, one blew, and the cable snapped on the second.  I didn’t have anything to tie it off, but I did have this random tiny river hanger that fit through the eye.

Now that's aid climbing 

Has anyone ever effectively used a shoelace to aid? As in using the shoe lace on a placement and clipping into it.

Ryan7crew wrote:

Previously there was two rurps equalized here.  I fell on it, one blew, and the cable snapped on the second.  I didn’t have anything to tie it off, but I did have this random tiny river hanger that fit through the eye.

Oh jeez! That’s creative! Good thinking!

Ryan7crew wrote:

Previously there was two rurps equalized here.  I fell on it, one blew, and the cable snapped on the second.  I didn’t have anything to tie it off, but I did have this random tiny river hanger that fit through the eye.

Why aren't you clipped to that bomber head?

*edit Ah, in the second pic you've clipped it.

Ps 3/4 of most of the fun on most trade route aid climbs is the creative use of mank and tat. ;)