Beginer Aid climbs in Zion

I'm going to be in Zion for a week later this month due to a wedding. I have been researching long moderate (<11) routes and haven't found a whole lot. Unless I find some free candidates other that Iron Messiah it seems like a good opportunity to start learning clean aid. We've climbed long trad routes at Red Rocks and I've done my research on aid climbing. I'd like to maybe take a shot at Moonlight or Spaceshot if we can get some practice and confidence early in the week. To that end, does anyone have some suggestions for some good (maybe short?) aid routes to practice the mechanics? Any other suggestions for a one week self taught crash course in clean aid in Zion?

Thanks!

I don't know much about aid but the newest Rock & Ice (Issue 186) has a feature on some cool moderate free lines in Kolob Canyon. 10's and 11's, mostly bolted, 4-800 feet. Check it out.

There is a .11 finger crack near the base of touchstone that is a good single pitch practice aid route. Interceptor is the name.

Organasm is a good first zion aid route. The climbing is identical to the long routes but it is short. However, i would read a bit about cleaning a roof pitch beforehand.

Another good option is touchstone wall. The first 300ft is easy aid (mostly C1) with only one or two awkward placements. After that everything is free at reasonable .10. You can climb the aid one day, fix two ropes, and then fire the route free the next day.

Probably the better idea however, is to climb whatever wall is free of other parties, this will make your learning experience much more enjoyable.

Have fun!

I think the touchstone wall is a great suggestion. I hadn't considered just working (fixing) the first few pitches of a longer route to get familiar with the process and coming back the next day to climb the whole route. I guess I had some kind of subconscious resistance to the idea of intentionally leaving a rope on the wall.

Touchstone will be brutally hot until november, it gets sun almost all day. The standard warm-weather beginner route is Prodigal Sun. I'd also suggest not learning how to aid in sandstone, you'll likely be impacting the resource far more than when you get dialed, harder rock is more resistant to certain beginner practices.

There are LOTS of long moderate free routes in the park, take a look at Bryan Bird's new guidebook.

Please don't "run laps" on the first few pitches of Touchstone. That piece of stone is so worked over already.

Buy Byrd's new guidebook...it's full of moderate free climbes that will blow your socks off. If you must practice aid climbing, pick something off the beaten path please. Organasm is an OK choice, Plan B would be a good route for that also.

Tico - Thanks! I have the book but the long free routes don't really jump out of it. But, I went to the website and then used a sortable list and all the sudden I see tons and tons of long free routes! Appreciate the suggestion!

Pete