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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

Picking up the pace

You've done a handful of trade nail-ups and want to up the ante. What do you need to get prepped for the A5 horrors of Sea of Dreams or Jolly Roger?

  • Get more gear, from pins to slings to carabiners to tie-offs. Extended hard-aid outings require more copperheading, thin nailing, expanding and loose terrain, and hooking. Double or triple the copperhead rack depending on the route. Triple the number of pitons. You might need four or even six times the number of beaks and blades listed on the first-time nailing rack.
  • Get specialized gear. Trick pieces such as slider (ball) nuts, funky curved micro nuts, and 00 micro cams are worth their weight in life insurance when the going gets weird.
  • Stay light. Pare down your lead rack so you only carry enough for 30 feet or so at a stretch. Leave the rest of the rack at the belay, and haul it up as needed.
  • Stay focused. Be patient. Hard aid is mostly mental. Freak out and you're more likely to make a costly mistake.
  • Treat every solid placement as your last one — double it up.
  • Use shock-absorbing runners such as the Yates Screamer on some of your less-than-bomber placements.
  • Don't worry about time or efficiency. Better to make many short placements and stay low in your aiders than overreach, lever out on a piece, and pop it.
  • Pay closer attention to bounce testing. Stay low and bounce
    test aggressively. If each placement in the chain gets tested to
    over bodyweight, you can securely string together long, dubious
    aid passages.


Getting guided

Schools for thought

Yosemite Mountaineering School
Yosemite National Park
Yosemite, CA 95389
209-379-1244

American Mountain Guides Association
710 Tenth St.
Golden, CO
303-271-0984
e-mail: news@amga.com

American Alpine Institute
1212 24th St.
Bellingham, WA 98225
206-671-1505

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Rock Craft | Big Walls | Destinations | Training
Recommended Reading | Gear | Higher Education | Ratings

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