Beta on Practicing Aide and Hauling?

I recently started getting into trad and now long for long multiple pitches. However, I live in Utah and these are not entirely abundant by any means. I would like to get some beta on big wall things, especially aide climbing and hauling, so that I can practice them close to home, before venturing off into the beautiful abyss. Any suggestions?

My suggestions:

1. Spend time going through old posts in the Big Wall/Aid forums here on Mountain Project and Rockclimbing.com.

2. Do the same at John Middendorf's Bigwalls.com website (an aid climbing-specific site which, while not posted on as often as the other climbing sites, has a shit-ton of useful information from guys who actually do a lot of aid/bigwall climbing).

3. Pick up the following books:

-Climbing Big Walls by Mike Strassman
-Big Walls by John Long and John Middendorf
-Big Wall Climbing: Elite Technique by Jared Ogden

4. Find an experienced aid climber in your area and see if s/he will take you under their wing and show you the ropes (pun intended). Payment in the form of beer, hauling loads, beer, belay slavery and/or beer will probably get you pretty far. ;-)

I've done #1 through #3 and have figured out a ton of stuff (that I now need to go practice ad infinitum at my local crag). Still working on #4, though... ;-)

Another good resource:
supertopo.com/a/How-To-Big-…

McNamara does an excellent job here. It is very important to master the low angle and easy aid before attempting to progress.

Have Fun!!

Is the Internet cool, or what?

I second Jason's comment. Also google Mark Hudon, he is a big wall magician and has some great write ups online.

Thanks,

El Cap Route Panoramas and Big Wall Tips

Mark Hudon wrote:Thanks, El Cap Route Panoramas and Big Wall Tips

Thanks guys, I greatly appreciate the help, it is much needed! Cheers!

A shameless plug for my newly updated index, where you can find almost everything you never wanted to know about aid climbing and big walls:

rockclimbing.com/cgi-bin/fo…;