When first learning to climb I remember being admonished to not hang on the pro or the rope. Only use your hands and feet on natural rock features, no trees or bushes. The rope was only for safety to catch a fall. Well, in Aid climbing, all those rules are out. The objective is to climb up using any ingenious means and gear you can think of. In fact, a lot of specialized gear was devised just to hang on the rock to assist you in making upward progress.

When telling two purist friends a few years ago that I would really like to get into aid climbing, they replied, "You might be able to get over it, recover, and be OK," or "Why would you want to do a dumb thing like that?" I have thought a lot about the question "Why" since then. Here are three reasons.

First, some classic routes include aid sections. The first ascents were done with aid. Some examples are Royal Arches, 16 pitches, 5.7, with one C0F pendulum (or 5.10b free). I have done this great climb 3 times. It's one of Roper and Steck's "Fifty Classic Climbs of North America". The East Buttress of Middle Cathedral Rocks, another great, is about 11 pitches mostly 5.7 with one 5.9 section and a 8 bolt ladder placed on Warren Harding's first ascent in 1954, C0F (or 5.10c). Lost Arrow Spire Tip, 2 pitches, 5.7 C2 (or 5.12b) is another classic. We have done it twice and praise the same superlatives. At Smith Rock, Monkey Face 5.7, C0F, is also classic. Many aid routes have later gone free but many at a very high level. I haven't lost sleep over using aid on routes done in the same manner as the first ascents.

Second, and here the ground gets shaky. My free climbing will continue to improve, but to a limit. I will probably never invest enough to lead 5.12 routes. A beginning aid climber can aid very hard free routes that they may never be able to climb free. Aid has enabled me to climb Toxic Shock (5.11b), Tang (5.11b/c), and City Park (5.13c) at Index. These routes have been used for the 2-day Aid Seminars. They were great fun and practice. However, even someone who has lost his purity to aid climbing has some limits. The Regular route on Fairview Dome in Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite, is another "50 Classic... " It's 12 pitches (5.9). However the two 5.9 pitches and 1 of two 5.8 pitches can be aided. I would have had great trouble sleeping if I had aided this climb. It's so awesome, sure glad we didn't.

Kind of in this same second category is what is called "French free", hanging on or using your pro. It can happen on a hard section of a free climb or when having a bad day, instead of giving it everything and succeeding or falling if failing.

The third and final reason is to climb Big Walls. A climber can't spend a day in Zion, El Capitan Meadows, or looking at the NW Face of Half Dome with high-powered binoculars without contemplation.

A number of Mountaineers have gone on to do big walls. Last year the Mescalito route on El Capitan was done by a recent Intermediate grad (26 pitches, VI 5.8 A3, The first ascent in 1973 took 10 days and 70 bolts). This last summer The Nose, again on El Capitan, was done by a current Intermediate student (31 pitches, VI, 5.8 C2, or 5.9, C1, or 5.13+). The first ascent in 1957- 58 took 45 days over 18 months and required 125 hand-drilled bolts). Those Mountaineers that have gone on to do big walls have done it on their own initiative as we have not had any structured aid activity past a 2-day introduction.

Yosemite and walls seem to come up a lot when the conversation turns to aid climbing. Europe and Europeans dominated climbing and mountaineering for centuries. The Matterhorn was first climbed in July 1865, Mont Blanc in August 1786. I am not sure we had even found the mountains yet. When organized climbing was starting here in the 1930's and 40's, the techniques and latest gear all came from Europe.

That all changed in Yosemite Valley, or simply "The Valley", in the 1950's and early 60's. El Capitan, "The Capitan", or just "El Cap" reigned. New routes on El Cap put the US in the international climbing spotlight. Climbers living at Camp 4 were inventing new gear, building it in their car trunks, to do first ascents that extended the state-of-the art. Salathe with his steel pitons, Yvon Chouinard, later to found Patagonia, were just a few. Many first ascents of routes that have become classics used some aid or were mostly aided. Today you only need to spend an hour walking around Camp 4 or on routes in "The Valley" and count the number of languages you hear to believe it is still recognized as an international climbing destination. A book we would highly recommend reading before or shortly after a first trip to Yosemite is Steve Roper's Camp 4. [Even though the NPS changed the name to Sunnyside Camp years ago it remains Camp 4 with climbers.]

After Yosemite was getting well mined, the aid and big wall frontier moved to other places. Just thumb through back issues of Climbing Magazine. One of the better known Cascade aid routes is Liberty Crack (12 pitches, V 5.9 A2) on Liberty Bell. Squamish also has some Big Wall aid routes.

Rating Systems.
Ok, after Basic Rock 2 we've got 5.4, 5.5, etc. figured out, now about the V, VI, C, A, etc. Grade indicates overall commitment. Grade V is a short big wall. Fast parties may do them in a day, but most take 2 or 3 days. Grade VI is a longer big wall and requires at least two days usually more. Recent one day speed records are exceptions and not a new rule. "C" denotes clean aid. It is highly unlikely a hammer would be required.

An "A" pitch generally requires a hammer to drive and remove pitons. A "F" after a "C" rating denotes a pitch that relies on fixed gear to go clean. A0 is pulling on a piece for progress or rest (without aiders). A1 or C1 is easy aid with little danger for falling. These pitches can generally be led in 1 to 2 hours. A2/C2 is moderate with 1 or 2 adjacent placements only holding body weight that could result in a 5' to 30' fall. Leading an A2/C2 pitch can take from 1 to 3 hours. A3/C3, hard aid, 3 Æ 5 body weight placements, 30' to 50' fall. Here a lead might take 2 to 3 hours. It continues on up to A5/C5 with 80' falls and more than 4 hour leads.

Patient belayers wanted. Belaying a new aid climber for 6 hours on their first lead pitch is not unusual. Patience rules. A Grigri and headphones with Books-on-Tape or music helps.

Gear.
Aid climbing and Big walls are gear-intensive, so if you start contemplating aid and walls, plan on mortgaging the house. If two climbers both have a standard free-climbing rack and decent camping/bivy gear, you may have about fifty percent of the total gear needed for a moderate nail-up, such as Mescalito.

Assume that you are starting with 2 to 3 sets of Camalots, 2 to 3 sets of wired stoppers, a bunch of runners and 40 carabiners. New stuff for clean aid might include: another bunch of runners, 2 to 3 sets of small brass-nuts, 40 more carabiners (lots of ovals), 4 hooks, and personal wall gear. Then there's the Aiders, Ascenders, Wall-Hauler, wall boots, kneepads, fingerless gloves, Haulbag, Portaledge, double gear sling, static rope, etc.

We gear junkies love all the funny new toys, like fifi hooks, rivets and rivet hangers, keyhole hangers, cheater sticks, rope buckets, bird beaks, buttbags, poop tubes, etc.

In the local climbing shops you see even more aid gear, like hammers, holsters, many types of pitons (knifeblades, horizontals, angles, bongs, bugaboos, Lost Arrows), RURPs (realized ultimate reality pitons), Copperheads, bashies, mashheads, and bolt kits. However, none of this gear is necessary if one commits to clean aid. Most established routes do go clean. Any hammering damages and forever alters a route from the first ascent. It is really bad form to use a hammer, pitons or bolts anywhere they are not absolutely required. Before investing here one needs to have a serious talk with their conscience to make sure it's not used just because you own it.