Aid climbing

I moved to boulder about a month ago from LA. I  do climbing photography so I know all about climbing a rope with ascenders/ladders. Does anyone know if there is aid climbing around boulder CO? I would like to learn everything about it and practice big wall techniques. 

Pardon my ignorance, but can’t you essentially aid any route that you would lead on trad? And in sport areas, you could use the bolts in conjunction with cams/nuts, beaks, hooks, etc.?

Find an steep crack that doesn’t see much traffic and aid it. A sport climb is not a good idea because there’s often long sections between bolts that must be free climbed. You need to be able to place gear every 4 feet or so to aid climb. And as a beginner you want it to be cams and nuts, not hooks (which are more difficult to use) which would be used on a face you would normally free climb.  Not to mention you don’t want to damage features used for free climbing. A steep crack followed by a traverse would be great because following and cleaning a traverse takes some practice. 

If you already do photography, you are probably awesome at ascending/descending, so just fix a line and practice on TRS. Aid what you can with your rack and just jug past anything that you need more than nuts, tricams, and cams for or can't figure out. Since its a fixed line, you can place gear on a traverse on you way down to practice cleaning it and if there are occasional bolts doing lower outs. Back clean every piece after stepping up and you'll never need more than your free rack while on TRS.

I'm not a wall guy by any means, but up in Wisconsin we would just aid devils lake in the winter for something to do. Its great practice you can do by yourself all winter while everyone else is out busy on ice.

Here you go:  LMMPTFY

Xam has you covered. 

The st.vrain is your best bet for a nail up (a rather than c)

Thank you everyone for the replies! I’ll definitely check out the aid route routes around. 

"Aid roof" at Castlerock in Boulder Canyon. Also several other trad routes that can go on aid. 

China Doll is 6 pitches and an aid route. Do it clean, no hammering. First pitches go free.

Take a hammer for the upper pitches of China doll and a beak and a couple LAs. Those aren’t free pitches and there has to be routes to learn to nail on. It’s where I learned. Also I put up a single pitch nail up on dream dome so if your taking a nailing rack down to dream canyon also do the second ascent of that! I called it disillusioned reality, cool knife blade roof splitter A2+

Nip and Tuck crag in Boulder Canyon has a 5.9 finger crack that's perfect to aid.  That's where I first practiced.  Get on Country Club Crack when you're ready to multipitch.  Really, any continuous crack will do.  There are plenty in Boulder Canyon.  To answer Emilio, no, you can't just aid any trad route.  Climb for a day in Eldo and you'll realize that. 

Most routes won't get listed as aid routes if they've been freed but if it's a continuous crack you're good to go.  At the very least, a route with a long stretch of continuous crack could work, if you can free climb the rest of it.  Also, you can find plenty of discussions on Boulder area aid routes in the forums.

Regular route at Practice Wall and Mile High Comic Crack probably both go at C1! Might be a tiny bit of free climbing at the top of MHCC.

I would stay off popular climbs.

many years ago it was common to aid the aid roof and "Country Club Crack" at Castle Rock. I know people who got yelled at back in the 90's for taking to long on "CCC" while aiding because others wanted to climb. It was suggested they climb it using aid during cold days, climb at night or late afternoon. 

I would echo recommendation of South Saint Vrain. Scout Rock (4 miles up canyon) has good short top rope / fixed line aid routes right off the road. I used to climb these on fixed lines when I was unable to find willing partners or just a quick fix after work.  If you are pounding pins, heads, then just find some "Choss Pile" or road cut (AKA: something a regular climber isn't going to climb) I used to even climb the rock right at the parking for the dome and elephant buttresses. If you swing a hammer and place a piton, someone will probably be asking what you are doing? as Fixed anchors aren't allowed! Oh the looks I got when I said I wasn't leaving it fixed!

Jack Servedio wrote:

If you already do photography, you are probably awesome at ascending/descending, so just fix a line and practice on TRS. Aid what you can with your rack and just jug past anything that you need more than nuts, tricams, and cams for or can't figure out. Since its a fixed line, you can place gear on a traverse on you way down to practice cleaning it and if there are occasional bolts doing lower outs. Back clean every piece after stepping up and you'll never need more than your free rack while on TRS.

I'm not a wall guy by any means, but up in Wisconsin we would just aid devils lake in the winter for something to do. Its great practice you can do by yourself all winter while everyone else is out busy on ice.

Jumas are not designed to take a fall on. There are lots of threads on top rope soloing gear (ie., microtrax). Traversing and cleaning traverses can get tricky.