Aid climbing

s while ascending aid climbing route, The Shield (VI 5.7 A3), on El Capitan Aid climbing is a form of rock climbing that uses mechanical devices and equipment for upward momentum. Like traditional and sport climbing, aid climbing is typically done in pairs with a lead climber making the "placements" into which ladders (known as aiders) are clipped, thus enabling them to ascend. After the lead climber has reached the top, the second climber (or belayer) then removes the placements as they jumar up the rope. and has been advocated as useful training and building up of experience in the placing of traditional climbing protection. While the sport of aid climbing has waned as the free climbing movement has grown, elements of aid climbing are still a regular feature of many major big wall climbing and alpine climbing routes. These routes are long multi-pitch climbs where it is possible to find specific sections that are considerably above the difficulty level of the rest of the route. For such sections, aid climbing techniques are accepted even by free climbers. ==History==

resting on his aiders during the 3rd pitch of the FA of the Salathé Wall (VI 5.9 C2) Aid climbing traces its origins to the start of all climbing, with ladders used on historic ascents such as the 1492 ascent of Mont Aiguille, the 1786 ascent of Mont Blanc, or the 1893 ascent of Devils Tower, and with drilled bolts on historic ascents such as the 1875 first ascent of Half Dome. 1970 saw one of the most infamous events in big wall aid climbing with the creation of Cesare Maestri's Compressor Route on Cerro Torre. Messner's and Chouinard's essays marked the end of the excessive aid techniques. Many big wall aid climbs were freed, with the most notable being Lynn Hill's 1993 free climb of The Nose on El Capitan at 5.14a. ==Equipment==

Modern aid climbing typically uses most of the equipment used in traditional climbing and particularly the protection equipment of traditional climbing (e.g. nuts, hexcentrics and tricams, and spring-loaded camming devices) that are needed for clean aid climbing. A number of unique items of equipment are also used in aid climbing: Fixed placement equipment Before the introduction of clean aid climbing, placements were hammered in by the aid climber as they ascended, with metal pitons hammered into cracks being a common placement (and the various piton types including Lost Arrows, bongs, angles and knifeblades), but also including copperheads (or heads); aid climbers may also use bolt kits to place fixed bolts where there are no suitable cracks for pitons while ascending. Aiders and daisy chain systems The equipment used to ascend via the hammered in placements are dual sets of aiders, which are like ladders made of webbing material, and come in various styles including adjustable strap-aiders, and stirrup-style "etriers". These aiders are attached to the aid climber via a matching dual set of daisy chains (which can be loop-style or adjustable), and the aid climber will use fifi hooks to manage the effective length of the daisy chains. Hooks and hangers Various types of rock climbing use hooks as temporary placements, but they feature most commonly in aid climbing where on more difficult aid-climbing routes (e.g. grades above A2+), the aid climber is expected to be able to use placements that can handle only their static bodyweight but may otherwise fail in the case of a dynamic fall; the range of hook types used in aid climbing includes skyhooks, cam hooks and rivet hangers. Ascenders and fixed rope jumaring equipment Aid climbing, and particularly for the belayer following the lead aid climbing, usually employ fixed rope ascending equipment, with ascenders being the most common devices, to reduce the effort on long big wall aid climbs. ==Techniques==

Aid climbing, for both "clean" and "traditional", is a very different type of climbing to traditional climbing, relying almost exclusively on mechanical devices for upward momentum. A number of specific techniques are important in aid climbing, which include the following: Making placements Aid climbing relies on the climber making placements onto the rock into which they attach aiders and ascend. Traditional aid climbing involved hammering in fixed placements (e.g. pitons, bolts, copperheads), a practice that made traditional aid climbing routes easier over time as later teams could use the placements of earlier teams. On advanced aid routes (i.e. A-grade above A3+), the act of hammering in fixed placements can be enough to shake the climber off the existing tenuous placements and so care and skill are required. Clean aid climbing avoids using any hammers and so the placements are effectively those of a traditional climber although hooks are also used. Aid climbers generally try to make placements as high above their current position as possible to move efficiently. Using aiders Once a new placement is made, the aid climber will clip their daisy chain and an aider into the latest placement above their head and then bounce-test it; on passing that test, they then fully step into the aider attached to this new placement while clipping in the rope into the lower placement. Once completed, they release the lower daisy chain and its aider from the lower placement and climb up the new aider. These steps must be done in sequence to avoid a position in which the climber comes free of any placement or becomes temporarily dependent on a weak position. Bounce testing Free climbers will know if their protection placements can carry the weight of a fall only if it happens; some will pull on their placements as a simple test, but placing their body weight on the placement would be a form of aid. In contrast, aid climbers continuously "bounce test" their placements by loading their body weight onto them while using the lower placement as a backup in case the new placement fails. Excessive bounce-testing can make the extraction of the placements by the second climber difficult (i.e. the placements become really wedged into the cracks) and can result in longer timelines, damaged rock (where hammers are used to extract the placement), or having to leave placements on the route. Jumaring on fixed ropes The second climber in aid climbing usually jumars up on a fixed rope while taking out any removable placements on the way. Even the leader may also jumar back up the rope after having retrieved lower pieces of equipment that are needed again. That is in contrast to traditional climbing where the second (or belayer) will normally climb the route (albeit on a top rope). ==Grading==

Issues with aid grading on the first ascent of Exhibit A Eldarado Canyon; the route was then graded 5.9 A4 (original A-grade), but is now graded 5.8 C2+ R (post "new-wave" C-grade). The grading of aid climbs is regarded as being complex and in a state of flux. Aid grades can change materially over time due to improvements in aid equipment and the impact of repeated ascents that subsequent aid climbing teams make to a route. • A5. First 5 teams to ascend: The new route has very little installed or fixed in-situ equipment (e.g. copperheads, pitons, bolts), and the rock is weak and fragile in places. • A0: "Occasional aid moves are often done without aiders (etriers) or climbed on fixed gear; sometimes called French free". • A1: "All placements are solid and easy". • A2: "Good placements, but sometimes tricky to find". • A3: "Many difficult, insecure placements, but with little risk". • A4: "Many placements in a row that hold nothing more than body weight". • A5: "Enough body-weight placements in a row that one failure results in a fall of at least 20 metres". New wave A-grades ), on El Capitan In the 1990s, Yosemite aid climbers created the "new wave" aid grading system that expanded the range of the original system to A6, introduced an intermediate (+) grade from A2 onwards for specific strenuous sections, and gave detailed definitions for each level. As with the original system, the main focus is still on discerning the number of "bodyweight placements" on a route, and therefore the consequences of a fall. "New wave" grades are described by the American Alpine Club (republished in 2013) as: "Newer routes put-up by big-wall aficionados often are given a "New Wave" aid rating using the same symbols with new definitions": • A1: "Easy aid. No risk of a piece pulling out". • A2: "Moderate aid. Solid gear that's more difficult to place". • A2+: "10-metre fall potential from tenuous placements, but without danger". • A3: "Hard aid. Many tenuous placements in a row, 15-metre fall potential, could require several hours for a single pitch". • A3+: "A3 with dangerous fall potential". • A4: "Serious aid. 30-metre ledge-fall potential from continuously tenuous gear". • A4+:"Even more serious, with even greater fall potential, where each pitch could take many hours to lead". • A5: "Extreme aid. Nothing on the entire pitch can be trusted to hold a fall". • A6: "A5 climbing with belay anchors that won't hold a fall either". Clean C-grades When the original or the "new wave" aid climbs can be ascended without the use of a hammer (for pitons or copperheads) the "A" suffix is replaced by a "C" to denote "clean climbing". In Yosemite, an "F" suffix is placed after the "C" if fixed gear (e.g. bolts) is still required. ==Milestones==

The following are some of the most notable milestones in the development of aid climbing routes: High altitude and expedition in Pakistan has the world's longest 'vertical' rock climbing route, which is the aid climb called The Grand Voyage (1,340 metres, VII 5.10 A4+ WI3) It was freed only in 2024 at a grade of by Siebe Vanhee, , , and Drew Smith, who said conditions makes it feel like a 5.14. • 1992. John Middendorf and climb The Grand Voyage on the East Face of Great Trango Tower in 16-days with 33-pitches, VII 5.10 A4+ WI3; at over 1,340 metres in length, The Grand Voyage is the world's longest 'vertical' rock climbing route, and at a very high altitude. North America • 1957. Royal Robbins, Jerry Gallwas, and Mike Sherrick climb the Northwest Face of Half Dome in Yosemite in 5 days with 25-pitches, 5.7 A3, 275 pitons and 20 aid bolts. Birth of modern US big wall climbing; historians split the climbing history of Yosemite into: "before and after Half Dome". was the hardest big wall aid-climb in the world at the time, with its infamous "Hook or Book" pitch, the first "you fall, you die" pitch on El Capitan and even decades later is still A4+; considered Bridwell's greatest route. • 1995. Steve Gerberding, Lori Reddel, and Scott Stowe climb Reticent Wall on El Capitan in 21-pitches, VI 5.7 A5, considered at the time as one of the hardest aid climbing routes on El Capitan (and the world), and still remains an A5/4+-graded route. • 1998. Warren Hollinger and Grant Gardner climb Nightmare on California Street on El Capitan, with 17-pitches, VI 5.10 A5, often considered El Capitan's hardest aid climb (alongside the controversial 1982 route, Wings of Steel); still remains unrepeated (2023). ==In film==

A few notable films have been made focused on aid wall climbing including: • Assault on El Capitan, a 2013 documentary film of Ammon McNeely's 2011 repeat of the controversial 1982 route, Wings of Steel, on El Capitan. ==See also==