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No 186, June 15, 1999
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Rock Craft | Big Walls | Destinations | Training
Recommended Reading | Gear | Higher Education | Ratings

The big show

Bucking up for the ride of your life

By Pete Takeda

My first feeble attempts to climb a big wall fizzled just off the ground. Three times my partner and I humped our gear to the base and strung a couple of fixed ropes, but when the moment came to commit to a week on the airy stone, we were suddenly grounded by distant inclement weather or mysterious gut ailments. The truth was, though we were keen on the idea of banging pins, teetering around on hooks, and giving our best Warren Harding scowls, the reality of being on a big wall gripped our throats like the cold hand of Death himself.

I was lucky. I had years to waste groping around Yosemite Valley until I bumped into the right combination of psyche, partner, and experience. When I pulled over the summit of El Capitan after the harrowing nightmare of my first Grade VI nail-up, I was so jacked that I gave up most everything to stoke my big-wall fire.

Most of you, however, don't have years to squander waiting for the magic moment to arrive. If getting up a technical big wall is one of your life's goals, read on.

What is big-wall climbing? For our purposes a big wall takes the average climbing team, one that is solid on 5.9 multi-pitch trad routes, two or more days using specialized aid gear such as aiders, pitons, and hooks. The Zodiac is a good example of a big-wall climb, being a two- to three-day Grade VI A2 aid route. The Zodiac also typifies most big walls in that to climb it you must use a pulley and ascenders to haul your bags, the belays are mostly hanging, and bivies may or may not have ledges, thus requiring that you take portaledges. The Nose on El Capitan also qualifies as a big-wall route, though because of its large sections of free climbing and fixed aid, it barely makes the cut.

What does it take to safely climb a big wall? You need a strong background in traditional multi-pitch rock climbing including intimacy with placing and removing cams and nuts. Efficient rope work, smooth belay setups and changeovers, and route-finding skills should also be second nature if you hope to tackle a big route. To prepare, put in long days of rock climbing hauling the baggage you'll take on the real thing. Clean aid everything, even the easy sections, to iron out your aider and daisy-chain work. Outings such as these will help you develop the necessary mental and physical stamina, and acquire fortitude and tenacity. Patiently manage whatever epics you might encounter on the small stuff. These will pale in comparison to the hateful snafus and mind benders that are integral parts of the big-wall experience.

Gear
The trad climber's rack is also the backbone of the big-wall rack. You likely already have a set of nuts and two sets of cams. Your partner probably has an equal rack. This combined quiver should meet the bulk of your hardware needs. Extra gear will depend on the climb. For a moderate (A2) nail-up you will probably need 25 to 50 pitons, 30 tie-offs, two hooks, a dozen copperheads, a half-dozen rivet/keyhole hangers
(figure 1 image), and at least 100 carabiners. You will also need big-wall-specific gear including a beefy lead rope and a haul rope, a pair of ascenders, a hauling pulley, aiders, daisy chains, a hammer, two haul bags, and possibly a portaledge. If you have to purchase everything except the trad rack, plan on spending at least $1000, and add $500 to that for a portaledge.

Pins. The type and number of pitons and copperheads your route requires depends on its current complement of fixed gear. The pin list can change daily, depending on whether the team ahead of you left the fixed gear, added more to it, or stripped everything. The safe bet is to have enough gear to make every placement. The recommended rack sidebar on page 145 is a good start. Consult those who have climbed the route recently to get a better handle on what you'll need.

Before you stagger down to your local mountain shop and hand over a month's wages, familiarize yourself with the various types of pins and related gear (figure 2 image). RURPs, beaks, and Peckers are micro pitons used in the wee-est of hairline cracks. RURPs, made by Black Diamond, are flat and hatchet shaped, while beaks such as the Black Diamond Pecker and Pika Auk Seam Hook have a blade shaped more like a ship's anchor, which gives them a small degree of hooking and camming action.

Knifeblades are the next step up in pin size; their flat, kitchen-knife-like blades fit into dime-width and smaller cracks. Thicker versions of the knifeblade are called Bugaboos. Arrows are similar to Bugaboos, only thicker still for wider cracks. Angle pitons look like folded tent stakes and are designed for cracks a half-inch wide and larger. Large (2-inch and up) angles are called "bongs" for the bonging sound they make when you hammer on them. In the United States, Black Diamond Angles, Knifeblades, Bugaboos, and Lost Arrows are the most prolific, though Camp, Charlet Moser, Grivel, Kong, Lucky, Pika, and Stubai all make similar products.

Z-pitons are folded like angles, but the Z shape lets you stack angles down each of its channels, increasing the Z's holding power in shallow and blown-out pin placements. Z pins were invented and originally produced by Ed Leeper, who discontinued production years ago. Similar Z pins are manufactured today by Pika and Grivel.

Hooks. The basic hook is the Black Diamond "Cliffhanger" (Lucky, Petzl, and Stubai make similar hooks) (figure 3 image). This is essentially a flat, steel hook that's curved and about the size of your bent index finger. A hook of this sort works on most edges from nickel- to one-inch wide. More specialized hooks, the ones that you'll use on almost any wall A3 and harder, include the Leeper Wide Logan Hook, a short-radius hook that puts less leverage on edges than the Cliffhanger, suiting it for expanding or loose flakes; the Leeper Narrow Logan Hook, which has a pointed tip that fits nicely into drilled "bathook" holes; and hand-sized hooks such as the Fish Hook, Fish Captain Hook, Pika Ibis and Pika Spoonbill (figure 3 image).

Copperheads. These are essentially copper or aluminum nuts that, using a hammer and chisel, you punch into shallow grooves. Copperheads, like regular nuts, come in multiple sizes, the smallest being as big around as a lollipop stem; the largest are about the size of a child's finger (figure 4 image). You can buy copperheads commercially, but you'll get the best price on the ones handmade by some Camp 4 wall skank. To find your copperhead connection, visit the bulletin board next to the campground's kiosk.

Slings. As on trad routes, you can never have enough slings on a big wall. Double what you think you'll need and you'll still come up short. At a minimum you will need a dozen 9/16-inch over-the-shoulder runners, tied with a water knot, and an equal number of slings half this length. To tie off pins that don't drive to the eye you will need "tie-offs," two-foot lengths of 1/2- or 9/16-tubular webbing tied in a loop with a water knot. Tie-offs tend to get cut up, so you'll need lots. Fifty for a 15-pitch route isn't too many.

Aside from slings, you'll also need two cordelettes for stringing together and equalizing the belay and bivy anchors (see Belaying, page 126 for tying and using the cordelette).

Harness and daisy chains. Almost any fully padded harness will do, provided it has a runner-strength haul loop and a belay/rappel loop. Beyond those essentials you'll need to customize your rig by adding a fi-fi hook and two daisy chain. You'll use the fi-fi hook to speedily attach yourself to waist-level placements. Use a short length of tie-off webbing and the water knot to tie the hook to your harness's leg loops and waist belt.

The daisy chains serve as tentacles that attach you to the piece you're on and the one you're placing. You need two daisy chains, at least three feet long. Girth hitch the daisy chains through your harness belay/rappel loop (figure 5 image).

Aiders. These webbing ladders are your primary weapon. Aiders come in four- and five-step versions. Get the sewn five-steppers with a top "grab" loop and reinforced rungs that stay open. You'll need two to four aiders, depending on the amount of aid on your route. For routes that are predominately aid, four aiders clipped in pairs are the ticket, allowing you an aider for each foot for the piece you're on, and then another pair for the piece you'll move onto. Two single aiders, on the other hand, cause you to constantly struggle — hardly ideal for gingerly moving from one dicey placement to the next. Two aiders are, however, lighter than four, suiting them to routes such as the Salathe or Nose, where you'll spend more time out of your aiders than in them, and keeping the rack light and simple takes priority.

Ropes. If wall climbing can thrash bullet-proof haulbags think what it can do to your ropes. Burly is the word here. A beefy 10.5- or 11mm, 60-meter dry-coated dynamic rope is the ideal lead cord. Tough and long, a rope of this sort will last under the rigors of leading, rappelling, and jumaring, and get you from belay to belay with slack to spare. For the easiest hauling get a 9mm, 60-meter static rope. You can, however, substitute a 10mm or thinner single dynamic rope for the static haul line, giving you a back-up lead rope in case your main one gets the chop.

Carabiners. The best wall carabiners are your basic ovals (figure 6 image). These rack the most gear and don't "shift" around when you're hanging from them. Bent-gate carabiners tend to open when you don't want them to. Unless you're short on 'biners, leave the bent-gates on the ground. For belaying and rappelling any large, locking carabiner will suffice. A half-dozen similar lockers are useful for attaching the haul bags to the haul line and rigging the belays.

Ascenders. Any pair of handled ascenders will do the job, though certain models are superior to others. Your check list for ascender selection
includes ease of one-handed operation, grip comfort, and cam-tooth design — the more aggressive the cam teeth the better they will grip a frozen or icy rope (and the more it will abrade your rope), a consideration for alpine or winter walls.

Hauling pulley. A good pulley will reduce the work of hauling. Since you only need one pulley it makes sense to get the best, one with bearings for smooth operation, a wide frame that will protect the workings from grating against the rock, and a clip hole that will take two carabiners. For simplicity, consider a pulley with an integrated holding cam such as the Petzl Wall Hauler or the Ushba Hauler.

Hammer. People have done hard nail-ups using a carpenter's hammer rigged with a sling. You can, too, but an actual wall hammer will have several advantages, including a carabiner hole through the head that will let you attach a "funkness device," a short swaged cable that the second uses to yank out stubborn pieces, a beveled pick that's useful for setting copperheads, and steel tangs that protect the handle from misguided blows. For durability, steel-handled hammers are superior to wooden ones, while the vibration-absorbing capabilities of wood are superior to those of steel. Most serious wall climbers use wooden-handled wall hammers.

Haul bags. You can skimp on a haul bag by using your old packs or canvas duffels rigged with haul straps and reinforced with duct tape —and risk having the whole works disintegrate halfway up the wall, spilling all your goodies. Proper haul bags are made from ultra abrasion-resistant fabric, like the stuff that's used to make truck tarps and bullet-proof vests, and have shoulder straps and a waist belt that you can remove at the base, giving the bag a sleek, snag-free profile. Most wall climbers will want two medium-size (5000- to 7000-cubic-inch capacity) haul bags. Using two medium bags instead of one giant one lets you organize and access your gear more easily, and split the loads between you and your partner for the approach and descent.

Portaledge. Perhaps the single greatest advance in big-wall climbing was the invention of the portaledge, essentially a folding cot with a tent-like rainfly. Besides taking the misery out of hanging bivies, a portaledge is far more storm proof than a hammock, and gives you the psychological advantage of knowing that you can set up a comfortable camp almost anywhere, anytime.

What do you look for in a good portaledge? Primarily, your portaledge must be easy to assemble and disassemble. If you can't figure it out in a couple of minutes in a shop, forget about it on a wall, in the dark, in a sleet storm. Equally important is bomber construction. Nix any design that seems flimsy or has suspect stitching. Other considerations include a suspension that you can adjust while it's weighted and bed tensioners that let you fine tune the bed's tautness. If weight is an issue, as it is on alpine or remote walls, consider a two-person portaledge, which will save you a couple of pounds over two single portaledges.

Technique
Navigating the wide open spaces of big-wall country might seem a monumental task. Skills like placing exotic aid gear, hauling huge loads, and following can seem baffling. What to do? Practice. And not on the big wall. Learn the essential techniques at your local crag. How-to guides such as this one are helpful, but there's no substitute for experience. Read, practice, then practice some more.

Leading. Leading an aid pitch is much like leading a traditional free pitch. You look ahead to scout the terrain, develop a strategy for placing protection, clear your throat, then go. When things don't come together as planned, you improvise.

The key to leading an aid pitch is efficiency. The key to efficiency is developing a system for everything. For example, rack your gear the same way every time and you'll minimize fumbling. Pack the haul bags exactly the same every time and you'll be able to reach right for your headlamp or that topo. Become a robot and you will become a wall genius; you'll also minimize the chances of a foul up, so you'll become a safer climber, too.

Using runners. Aid pitches typically zig-zag up the wall. Rope drag will be a real problem unless you runner nearly every piece. Avoid using a two-carabiner chain, which can come unclipped. Instead, clip placements with either your medium or over-the-shoulder slings. The tie-off on tied-off pins will usually suffice as a runner extension, just be sure to double-up the tie-off on key pieces; a single loop of tie-off webbing may not be strong enough by itself. When you run out of runners you can instead use wired or slung nuts with the nut slid to the middle of the cord or wire; even the short slings on your cams will make do in a pinch. Finally, liberally use runners to redirect the rope away from sharp edges and loose blocks and flakes.

Moving. One of the biggest time (and energy) wasters is clipping and moving your aiders, so spend some time practicing this seemingly rote maneuver.

Though many permutations exist, the preferred system for aider work is as follows:

  1. Reach up and place a piece of gear. Clip this with a pair of aiders.
  2. Clip a daisy chain to one of the aider's grab loops.
  3. Step into one aider's lowest rung, and gradually ease your weight onto the piece. If the placement holds this gentle test, bounce in the aider, building force until you're slamming up and down on the piece. Keep as low as you can while testing, and don't look at the piece — if it blows it will come zipping at you like a bullet. Safety goggles and a helmet are a good idea. Throughout the testing process make sure that there's no slack in your lead rope; no need to fall any further than required.
  4. If the piece holds, walk up in both aiders until the placement is at waist level and then clip it with your fi-fi hook. Sit in your harness, clip in the lead rope, relax, and reach down and retrieve your aiders and daisy chain from the piece you just left. Place the next piece and repeat the process.

Nailing. Driving pins might evoke nostalgia of big-walling's halcyon days. The actual process, sans sentiment, is straightforward and brutish. The basic procedure follows: From your stance in the aiders, examine and feel the chosen section of crack. Select a piton that corresponds with the cracks width. You'll develop a feel for which pins fit which size cracks, so don't fret if on your first wall your first pin selection is often wrong. The pin should freely slide about halfway in its prospective location. Hold the pin in place, and set it with a few light taps of the hammer. Next, drive the piton home with accurate and heavy blows. The pin should ring like a heavy chime and sink to the eye. This is as good as it gets.

Most of the time the pin will not drive its full length and you'll be left with an inch or more of it sticking out of the crack. If the pin only sticks out an inch or so and seems bomber you can probably clip the eye and call it good. Clip a less than solid pin that sticks out, though, and you'll likely lever it out of the crack, which is where tie-offs come into play. Cinch the exposed pin with a tie off, using either a clove hitch, girth hitch, or slip knot. Slide the tie-off so it is next to the rock, where it will place the least leverage on the pin. Clip your aiders to the tie off instead of the pin itself. To prevent losing the pin should it pull out, thread its eye with a longer tie-off (or two girth-hitched together) and clip this "keeper sling" to the tie-off.

Greenhorns and wall salts alike will find that the greatest nailing challenge is the dreaded expanding flake. Safely nailing this tricky terrain requires patience and strategy. If possible avoid nailing expanding flakes altogether. Nut them instead with sliders, micro cams, or nuts. You might even find that hooking around a flake is easier and safer than nailing it. Tapping nuts behind expando flakes "Stopperhead" style is another tactic.

The above options failing, break out the pins. Your first trick is to over-expand the flake by driving a pin that is much too large for the first placement. The idea here is to take most of the expansion out of the flake, making your subsequent placements easier. Be careful — don't expand the flake so much that it detaches. Treat the remaining placements much like regular ones with one exception: Clip one of your daisy chains taut to the piece you are driving. Now, if the flake expands as you beat on the pin, pulling out the one you're on, you'll merely swing onto the new pin (figure 7 image).

Shallow and beat-out cracks are also problematic, as it's tough to get a pin to stick by its tip. Increase a shallow pin's holding power by "stacking" it against another pin. Z-style pins are particularly effective stackers, as they allow you to drive an angle pin down each of its channels (figure 8 image).

Cleaning pins. In most cases cleaning pins is as easy as bashing the eye back and forth until the thing loosens enough to pluck out with your fingers. Expanding pins, which will drive back and forth but never loosen enough to lift out, and hard-to-hit pins are best cleaned with stiff yanks from a "funkness device," a short length of cable with a loop on either end. Clip one end of the cable to your hammer head, the other to the stubborn piece, and swing out. The piece will either come out or break (figure 9 image).

Heading. To place copperheads, clean out the prospective groove with a piton or chisel. Select the size copperhead that seems to fit best. Shape the "head" to fit the placement by hammering and molding it against the rock. Tap the copperhead in place with the pick of your hammer. If the copperhead is smaller than your hammer pick, use an arrow piton or blunt chisel. Next, use a crosshatching action to really paste the head into the placement (figure 10 image). Last, tap the top and bottom of the head. If it shifts loose in the placement, go back to crosshatching. Practice copperheading on the local bunk rock before trying it on the sharp end.

Hooking. Hooking will thrill the most steel-nerved. Practice near the ground on chossy boulders or crags — watch that you don't take a pinging hook in the eye or mouth. Wear a helmet and safety goggles. Most hooking on most routes is dead easy, a simple matter of dropping your hook over a nice fat, upturned edge. If the edge is solid, consider duct-taping the hook in place and leaving it for protection. On less than lunker edges your goal is to minimize outward pull. Stay low in your aiders and try not to skate around with your feet (real rock shoes help). Gingerly — no bouncing — test all hooks before committing to them, and be sure to clip each one with a daisy chain (figure 11 image).

Belaying. Standard belay techniques work fine on a wall. The only difference is you will be feeding out rope in two-foot increments and a single pitch can take all day. Stay alert and, if convenient, belay from your portaledge. For hands-off chores like sending up gear or taking a leak, tie a figure-eight-on-a-bight knot on the slack side of your belay plate and clip the knot to your harness' belay/rappel loop. Better yet, use a Petzl Grigri with the back-up knot. Minimize belay tangles by keeping the ropes separated and flaked over slings on the portaledge, or in rope bags.

Hauling. Think blue-collar labor. Hauling is the price you pay for summit dreams. The standard procedure is as follows: At the belay, equalize bomber anchors with a sling or cordelette and attach the pulley. Arrange two ascenders and the rope as shown in figure 12. Haul by either pulling on the haul side of the rope (for very light bags only), or clip the hauling ascender to your harness and use your body as a counterweight. It helps to have your partner jumar next to the bags, kicking them free as they get stuck under overhangs, in corners, and so forth.

Following
Cleaning an aid pitch presents two challenges that can stump the novice waller. One: Rigging your ascenders so you can climb a rope with minimal effort. Two: Lowering across traversing sections.

Jumaring. Rig your ascenders on the rope so the one for your dominant hand (ascenders are right and left handed) is on top. Now, push this ascender up the rope almost as far as you can. You should be able to reach this ascender comfortably, without stretching. Take one of the daisy chains from your harness and clip it (either use a locking carabiner or two nonlockers with gates reversed and opposed) to this ascender. Some climbers also clip one or a pair of aiders to the top ascender, but this really isn't necessary.

Put the bottom ascender on the rope just below the top ascender. Likewise clip it with the other daisy chain, at a comfortable arm's extension. Clip a pair of aiders to this ascender.

To use this system, push the top ascender up the rope until its daisy goes taut, then sit in your harness. Relax your legs so the aiders on the bottom ascender are unweighted, and push up the bottom ascender until it nearly clacks into the top one. With one or both feet (best for overhanging rock) in the aiders, stand and simultaneously use your abs to crunch up. On a vertical wall your feet will usually be in the aider's second to the top step. On overhanging rock you will probably stand in the third step. On extremely low-angle stone you will do best by taking your feet out of the aiders and walking up the rock.

The trick to jumaring or "jugging" is to let your legs and back do the work. You should appear to inch worm up the ropes. Your arms should only push the ascenders along and hold you in balance.

Ascenders can and do pop off ropes on their own, and several climbers have been killed because of this. To save you from this ghastly fate, always stay tied into the end of the lead rope, and after every 30 to 50 feet of jumaring, tie a figure-eight-on-a-bight in the lead rope just below your bottom ascender and clip this to your harness. If your ascenders pop off now, the most you'll fall is 60 to 100 feet — better than to the ground.

Following traverses. Aid pitches get tricky to follow when you are confronted by a pendulum point, which leaves the lead rope running sideways, with a long span between the pendulum point and the next piece of gear to clean. Lowering out is the solution. Do this by threading a sling through the pendulum point. Thread a bight of rope from your waist through the sling. Clip this bight to a locking carabiner on your harness belay/rappel loop. Pull the slack up tight so your weight transfers onto the bight. Unclip the lead rope from the pendulum point and strip the anchor's carabiners. Lower yourself out by hand until you come back into the plumb line and your weight is back on your ascenders. Unclip the bight of rope from your harness and pull it through the pendulum point. (figure 13a-13d.)

Contributing editor Pete "Big Wall" Takeda will be brushing up on his wall skills this spring when he attempts the Buckskin Pillar in Alaska's Ruth Gorge and the Shark's Fin on Meru in the Himalaya.

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