How to Big Wall Climb How to Big Wall Want to Climb The Nose of El Capitan? This is the first step-by-step aid climbing guide that takes you from your first step in an aider to the summit of El Capitan. Like anything worthwhile, big wall climbing requires hard work. That said, it’s not that difficult to get to the top of Yosemite’s El Capitan, the top prize of the world’s rock climbers. To scale El Cap you only have to free HOW TO climb 5.9 and know very basic aid climbing How to skills. The daunting challenge is to put those skills together efficiently, a trick most climbers never master. That is where this book comes in. It’s the first How To big wall book specifically BIG WALL organized and clearly designed to address the process of building big wall skills, step by step. Big Wall Climb Author Chris McNamara has climbed El Cap more than 70 times and has set several speed records there. He has climbed more than 100 CLIMB big walls, is a noted wingsuit BASE jumper and is the founder/CEO of SuperTopo, publisher of highly-regarded climbing guides for areas ranging from Alaska to Red Rocks with special attention to Yosemite. If you are a reasonably good climber psyched to do El Cap or a similar bad ass big wall, you probably can do it. Each week read a new chapter in this book and follow instructions. The objective The prize Climb The Nose of El Capitan (or similar bad ass Climbing El Cap and enjoying the process. Chris McNamara big wall). How to start Who can climb El Cap Read this book, borrow or buy the necessary big Anyone who can free climb 5.8 and master basic wall gear. aid skills. And who is psyched! Guidelines The cost Your instructions are simple: Every week, open The cost of this book and ingenuity to borrow the book to the next chapter and get ‘er done! Chris McNamara the gear you need. Time commitment Two to six months, depending on how badly you want to climb a big wall. ISBN 978-0-9833225-1-1 90000 > 9 780983 322511 CHAPTER TITLE Ammon McNeely makes the first move on one of the cleanest corners on El Capitan: Pitch 13 of Horse Chute Photo: Chris McNamara 2 FOR CURRENT GEAR INFORMATION, VISIT WWW.SUPERTOPO.COM How to Big Wall Climb by Chris McNamara Warning Climbing is an inherently dangerous sport in which severe injuries or death may occur. Relying on the information in this book may increase the danger. When climbing you can only rely on your skill, training, experience, and conditioning. If you have any doubts as to your ability to safely use any information in this book, do not try it. This book is neither a professional climbing instructor nor a substitute for one. It contains information that is nothing more than a compilation of opinions about climbing. These opinions are neither facts nor promises. Treat the information as opinions and nothing more. Do not substitute these opinions for your own common sense and experience. Assumption of Risk There may be errors in this book resulting from the mistakes of the author and/or the people with whom he consulted. The information was gathered from a variety of sources, which may not have been independently verified. Those who provided the information may have made mistakes in their descriptions. The author may have made mistakes in their conveyance of the information in this book. The author cannot, therefore, guarantee the correctness of any of the information contained in this book. The suggestions about equipment, technique, and other matters may be incorrect or misleading. You must keep in mind that the information in this book may be erroneous, so use your own judgement when using information described in this book. DO NOT USE THIS BOOK UNLESS YOU [AND YOUR ESTATE] PROMISE NEVER TO TRY TO SUE US IF YOU GET HURT OR KILLED. Disclaimer of Warranties THE AUTHOR AND PUBLISHER WARN THAT THIS BOOK CONTAINS ONLY THE AUTHOR’S OPINIONS ON THE SUBJECTS DISCUSSED. THEY MAKE NO OTHER WARRANTIES, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR PURPOSE, OR OTHERWISE, AND IN ANY EVENT, THEIR LIABILITY FOR BREACH OF ANY WARRANTY OR CONTRACT WITH RESPECT TO THE CONTENT OF THIS BOOK IS LIMITED TO THE PURCHASE PRICE OF THE BOOK. THEY FURTHER LIMIT TO SUCH PURCHASE PRICE THEIR LIABILITY ON ACCOUNT OF ANY KIND OF NEGLIGENT BEHAVIOR WHATSOEVER ON THEIR PART WITH RESPECT TO THE CONTENTS OF THIS BOOK. 4 FOR CURRENT GEAR INFORMATION, VISIT WWW.SUPERTOPO.COM Mark Melvin on the Rubber Band Man Pendulum, South Seas, during the first Girdle Traverse of El Capitan. Photo: Chris McNamara FOR CURRENT GEAR INFORMATION, VISIT WWW.SUPERTOPO.COM 5 Published by SuperTopo 2 Bradford Way Mill Valley, CA 94941 www.supertopo.com Copyright 2012 by SuperTopo All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any electronic mechanical or other means, without permission in writing from the publisher. Design and Layout by David Safanda Design Solutions, Inc. Editing by Steve McNamara Advice by: Steve McNamara, Tim Parr, and Randy Spurrier Cover Photography Chris McNamara on a 10:58 ascent of The Shield, El Capitan. Photo by Corey Rich Cover Design by David Safanda Sequence photos by Jerry Dodrill - www.jerrydodrill.com All uncredited photos by Chris McNamara. McNamara, Chris How To Big Wall Climb: SuperTopo ISBN- 978-0-9833225-1-1 Printed in China 6 FOR CURRENT GEAR INFORMATION, VISIT WWW.SUPERTOPO.COM Table of contents Introduction 9 My personal road to big wall climbing 19 Master checklist 27 Essential aid gear 35 Basic leading technique 47 Following – low angle 55 Leading steep terrain 61 Following steep terrain 67 Clean aid protection 71 Leading – placing protection 75 Following – cleaning gear 81 Building anchors 87 Leading traversing terrain 91 Following traversing terrain 95 Hauling and the belay 103 Bivy gear 115 Rappelling with the bag, surviving storms, and retreat 119 Wall Strategy: Crowds, passing, and teams of three and more 125 Ratings 131 Free climbing on big walls 132 Speed Climbing 134 Big wall gear checklist 139 11 Clean Aid Tricks 140 FOR CURRENT GEAR INFORMATION, VISIT WWW.SUPERTOPO.COM 7 Acknowledgements Steve McNamara, my dad gets the most kudos for this book. He kept pushing me to finish it over the last decade and helped get it done by editing all the chapters. Mark Melvin got me into wall climbing, let me borrow all his gear for my first year, and was my partner for many of my significant ascents. Many thanks also to Randy Spurrier, David Safanda, Tim Parr, Ammon McNeely, and Erik Sloan as well as well as… Dick Duane Jason “Singer” Smith Matt Gerdes Graeme Knight Jerry Dodrill David Dougan Kay McNamara Morgan McNamara Joe Puryear Eric Cotte Lita Collins All my big wall partners and all my friends Tom Evans Hans Florine Brian Poulsen Corey Rich Todd Offenbacher Wayne Willoughby SuperTopo Forum Members for all the helpful comments 8 FOR CURRENT GEAR INFORMATION, VISIT WWW.SUPERTOPO.COM Introduction INTRODUCTION wrote this book because big wall supertopo.com so we can all live through climbing has been the most rewarding them with you. sport in my life and I want to see more I people succeed at it. The first time you What is a big wall? climb El Cap can be the hardest and scariest event in your life. It can also be the most A big wall is a steep multi-pitch climb that adventurous, exciting, and memorable. takes most people more than a day to climb. Eighteen years later, I still clearly remember Big walls are all about vertical exposure; my first trip up The Captain. And it’s still climbing and sleeping with thousands of feet the single most memorable day of my life. I of air below you and thousands of feet of would give anything to relive that experience rock above you. There is nothing else like it. again with the same level of heightened Big wall climbing is not about summit glory anticipation and adventure. But you only or pulling a single hard move or savoring get one “first time.” So the next best thing the rush of adrenaline, although all three of for me is to help other people succeed and those things will happen. The experience is to hear their stories. I love meeting people much more complex and rich. You don’t flirt who dream of climbing El Cap and who briefly with gravity as you might while BASE exude that energy of half fear and half eager jumping or doing a hard single pitch climb. anticipation. You hear it in their voices. They You live with the pull of gravity and daunting know big wall climbing will step up their exposure 24 hours a day. mental and physical climbing game – and they are clearly excited about it. I hope this Plus there are side benefits, plenty of them. book becomes a starting point for your All big wall climbs are in stunning mountain own incredible adventure. And don’t forget settings. Usually you share the experience to email me your stories or post them on with a good friend. There is lots of time Mark Melvin on Pitch 3 of the Zodiac on the first El Cap Girdle Traverse. 10 FOR CURRENT GEAR INFORMATION, VISIT WWW.SUPERTOPO.COM INTRODUCTION to contemplate, even read, and generally Sixty percent of Nose climbers experience the slow life.