Info on aid gear

MP community, I'm looking for material/books for reading up on more involved aid. Specifically, techniques for pieces that may require a hammer, LAs, KBs etc. You get the picture. What did you use? Any recommendations?

Goal is Zodiac, Mescalito, or similar next season.

Andy Kirpatrick's Driven is a pretty cool book about placing pegs. He also has some other aid specific books, all available as e-books. Lots of good articles on his page as well, some dealing with aid. Then there is all of Dr. Piton's articles as well.

post on supertopo, many more hammer swingers over there

Ok, I know this happens a lot on MP, you ask one question and someone takes it in a completely different direction, but well, I'm gonna be that guy today.

Why do you need to place pins? The SuperTopo guidebook lists both climbs as going clean. Its been 46 years since Royal Robins first spoke out against the damage that pitons cause, 42 years since Doug Robinson's Clean Climbing Essay. By now shouldn't it have sunken in to our collective understanding that there's only one El Cap, only one Zodiac, only one Mescalito. Every pin we place in these routes causes a little more wear and tear to these precious resources.

Full disclosure: I place pins sometimes when I have to, where nothing else will work, in crap rock choked with ice. I know that my climbing sometimes damages rock, but I make every effort to minimize that damage, especially on popular routes.

^^+1 - get some ball-nuts and use all the other pin scars.

Ball nuts in pin scars? To each their own I guess.

Zodiac does NOT need pins. Period. I climbed it clean with a partner this June with no need for any normal aid trickery. I was saddened to hear the teams below us nailing well before any of the pitches where it MIGHT be justified. Same thing happened when I was on New Dawn and Tribal Rite a month ago where I could hear the parties nailing over on Zodiac.

Three sets of words:
Offset cams, handplaced peckers, and camhooks. Get them, get used to then, THEN get on the wall. Future parties and the rock will thank you and you'll feel an S-ton better about yourself afterwards.

Back on topic.
If you plan on going off the beaten track then nailing will be necessary (I was on Afroman on Washington Column in September and you'll be nailing on almost every pitch on that route) then Andy Kirkpatrick's Driven is a good source as is The Black Art of Pitoncraft (found here: rescuedynamics.ca/articles/…)

No matter what, practice nailing on a crap choss heap that no one climbs on or boulders that no one boulders on or even on any concrete walls you can find where you won't be arrested (I've done all three) BEFORE you get on the wall.

Practice placing pins and more importantly, practice removing pins because most of the damage done to the rock happens when a gumby wails away at removing the pin more than is needed to. Get a funkness device.

Finally, learn to place heads but only use then as a last resort. Climbing in Yosemite on trade routes will make you hate all the cowards that came before you and placed pointless heads all over the route in perfect clean placements and next to bomber hook placements. To paraphrase Mark Hudon, heads are the first resort of a coward and the last resort of an experienced nailer.

Finally finally. Learn how to use camhooks. They are the absolute best way to avoid placing pins in angle scars and arrow placements. Plus, once you're used to them, they feel as bomber as a pin once they go into a good placement.

Finally finally finally. Head over to bigwall.com forum to get real advice from people that actually climb walls. Supertopo is a better place to get 10% advice and 90% old dads and cubicle pukes making fun of you for no good reason

This is good: andy-kirkpatrick.com/writin…

Hey guys,

Thanks for all the info. I couldn't agree more with some of the sentiments made here on keeping things as clean as possible. Hooks, camhooks and ballnuts are already comfortable and a standard on the rack. With the tech we have these days, we should try to avoid creating pitches that look like Serenity-Sons. Just looking to diversify.

Again, thanks for the info. Any recommendations on hammers/gear that you have been really happy with?

dude, go climb zodiac clean, then worry about getting the "right" gear. Placing pins is really simple, whack with a hammer until the pitch stops increasing and get on it. Handplaced or love tapped beaks are the ticket most of the time. sawed angles are good too. Offset cams are far and away the most used piece on my rack. Get 2 or 3 sets if you're serious about walls.

thanks but spray is anything but useful...

Given a choice, get totem cams over offsets. They work just as well as offsets in pin scars and have the added bonus of being body-weight loadable on only two lobes.

As others have mentioned, those routes should go clean. We did mescalito hammerless over a decade ago, and it had some pretty sketch cam hook placements (think upside down, at weird angles) but by that point had done other trade routes clean (Zodiac, NA Wall, Muir, etc) so knew the "near limit" of the leepers.

I'm a huge fan of offset aliens on these types of routes. The cruxes of the muir were shanky 2 cam blue and black aliens which pulled out on the cleaner. I haven't used totems so I can't say if they are better.

Learn to topstep like a champ and become a better free climber. I have freed many sections at 5.9 or 10 that would have been fairly heinous to aid, like flaring slots (read old A2 if you know much about aid climbing). Have also belayed people free climbing A4 pitches at 5.12+ and it sure chops off a lot of time when you can chalk up and free. Todd Skinners (RIP) quote "aid climbing ain't climbing" always comes to mind.

If I could go back, I'd probably try to learn to hand place and take a good selection of sawed off angles and "off brand" pins like SMC. Have had to do some finger wrecker pin scar moves free where a sawed off could have made things much easier (and quicker, fwiw...) but I didn't have anything that could work

I won't tell you not to bring a hammer, but it sure seems to up the commitment level in my experience...there's a few times I would have used one...but ultimately didn't need to given time and enough tinkering...and maybe even a fall(!) YMMV.