Learning to aid

Hello all, I am looking to get into aid this coming season and am looking for advice on we’re to go in big/little cottonwood canyon areas, any advice is appreciated!

Use the route guide section on this site and search for hard steep cracks. Often times the hard cracks originally were aid climbs. I would also suggest finding routes with a short approach, because an aid rack is often quite a bit heavier than a standard trad rack.

Good luck to you. Knowing how to aid climb is a great skill to have. 

Buy an alfifi from Skots Wall Gear. Good luck to ya!

Any clean cracks are good... Goodrows Wall, Green A, Bushwack Crack, Coffin or Bong Eater. Winter is a great time for this. A few less popular climbs might include Coyne Crack & Equipment Overhang. For a little more advanced, the Black Peeler Direct and the following 2 pitches of the regular route is perhaps the best of all. Stratosphere is also good. If you want to place pitons, please practice in some obscure area. Most non clean routes are pretty obscure anyway. It's great that you want to practice...hopefully a lot, as I've seen many aspiring wall climbers fail quickly because they didn't prepare.

bsmootwrote:

Any clean cracks are good... Goodrows Wall, Green A, Bushwack Crack, Coffin or Bong Eater. Winter is a great time for this. A few less popular climbs might include Coyne Crack & Equipment Overhang. For a little more advanced, the Black Peeler Direct and the following 2 pitches of the regular route is perhaps the best of all. Stratosphere is also good. If you want to place pitons, please practice in some obscure area. Most non clean routes are pretty obscure anyway. It's great that you want to practice...hopefully a lot, as I've seen many aspiring wall climbers fail quickly because they didn't prepare.

Thanks, super helpful, I am going to avoid the iron like the plague.

If you go aid gordon's hangover on the first nice spring saturday I will give you a purple c3 to remedy the trauma incurred

(p.s. the aid climbing clinic at the salt lake climbing festival is good albeit in august)

Black peeler wall has an assortment of harder aid pitches to mess around with when you're ready. C2ish cracks, some bolts (no hangers), roof cracks so a follower could practice cleaning.

Nick Battagliawrote:

Black peeler wall has an assortment of harder aid pitches to mess around with when you're ready. C2ish cracks, some bolts (no hangers), roof cracks so a follower could practice cleaning.

Thanks!

Finn, I still get out often enough, I’d be happy to go with you and see how much we can scare ourselves and/or practice a few things.   Shoot me a message and we’ll figure out some times.