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What Is a Big Wall? Climb El Cap Can Be the Hardest and Scariest Event in Your Life

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What Is a Big Wall? Climb El Cap Can Be the Hardest and Scariest Event in Your Life INTRODUCTION wrote this book because big wall supertopo.com so we can all live through climbing has been the most rewarding them with you. I sport in my life and I want to see more people succeed at it. #e !rst 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 !rst trip up #e 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. #ere 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 “!rst 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. #e experience is to hear their stories. I love meeting people much more complex and rich. You don’t %irt who dream of climbing El Cap and who brie%y 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. #ey 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 bene!ts, 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. #ere is lots of time Mark Melvin on Pitch 3 of the Zodiac on the !rst El Cap Girdle Traverse. 10 FOR CURRENT GEAR INFORMATION, VISIT WWW.SUPERTOPO.C O M INTRODUCTION to contemplate, even read, and generally Sixty percent of Nose climbers experience the slow life. bail On a more philosophical level, a wall like El Capitan is just so much bigger than we are. It’s mysterious, massive, and unforgiving. From El Cap Meadow, photographer Tom While nothing is truly static, the surface of “Ansel” Evans of elcapreport.com has El Cap is about as unmoving as anything probably watched more El Capitan ascents can be. Because the rock changes so little and failures than anyone. He estimates that it becomes a mirror. Every fear, doubt, and about 60 percent of the climbers who start joy comes right back at you. Climbing big up #e Nose bail. Why? “Most climbers walls is very hard, and that is exactly what think #e Nose is Washington Column but engages the people who climb them. A big bigger. It’s not. El Capitan is way bigger wall makes you dig deep, both physically and than most people think,” says Evans. “#ey mentally. jump on #e Nose without practice, so when the !rst glitch arises – and one does But isn’t aid climbing not much on every wall – they just bail.” On a one- pitch climb or even on a 10-pitch climb like fun? Washington Column, you can make basic mistakes and still get your way up the wall. I have always loved the process of aid When you jump on a 30-pitch route, those climbing. But I am a little weird. Among little mistakes and ine&ciencies compound most of the climbers who have never and you have to bail. Anyone can climb climbed a big wall, aid climbing seems like #e Nose, but they need to master the aid cheating, or simply not fun. I’ve heard, “Aid climbing basics and train hard. climbing is like hitting your head with a hammer; it only feels good when you stop.” Two key points Unlike my case, for most people aid climbing is a means to an end. Few of them aid climb because they love the process. And even I Like anything worthwhile, big wall climbing concede that nobody goes “aid cragging” or requires hard work. However, unlike “aid bouldering” like they would free climb climbing 5.13 or bouldering V8, big wall a crag or a boulder. Nearly everybody aid climbing doesn’t take heroic strength. It just climbs for one basic reason: to get up big requires solid 5.9-5.10 multi-pitch skills and walls. Aid climbing is the tool for ascending making thousands of easy moves e&ciently. the most wild, massive, and inspiring faces #at is where this book comes in. It’s the !rst in the world. And once you are up there, aid How To Big Wall book speci!cally organized climbing through the wildly overhanging last and clearly designed to address the process pitch of #e Nose, you won’t judge yourself of building big wall skills, step by step. on whether it is stylish to aid climb. You I’ve climbed more than 100 big walls and will be too busy relishing one of the coolest have spent more than 400 days on El locations and experiences of your life. Capitan. During my time I’ve seen lots of people bail, myself included. In nearly all cases they missed the two main principles of this book: s +EEPITSIMPLE s -ASTERTHEAIDCLIMBINGBASICS 11 FOR CURRENT GEAR INFORMATION, VISIT WWW.SUPERTOPO.C O M 1 2 12 FOR CURRENT GEAR INFORMATION, VISIT WWW.SUPERTOPO.C O M 3 4 1 Leader leaves the belay. 2 Leader nears the top of the pitch. 3 Leader sets up the belay and hauls the bag while follower prepared to clean the pitch. 4. Bags are hauled, pitch cleaned, and leader starts out on the next pitch. Dawn Wall, El Capitan. Photos: Tom Evans www.elcap-pics.com 13 FOR CURRENT GEAR INFORMATION, VISIT WWW.SUPERTOPO.C O M INTRODUCTION I believe in reducing everything to the you do that, all the little aid climbing tricks essentials, so that’s all I include here. I o$er will fall e$ortlessly into place. the techniques that I have found helpful and omit the rest. Here’s a taste of the sort of Don’t be a vertical baggage climbing myths I want you to deal with: handler s $ONTDUCTTAPEWATERBOTTLES s $ONTUSEFOURAIDERSTWOWORKBEST Personally, I don’t just want to get to the top s $ONTUSEOVALCARABINERS of El Cap. I want to enjoy the climb and wall experience, spending as little time as possible s $ONTBOTHERWITH TO HAULINGSYSTEMS dealing with haul bags and gear clusters. My technique for hauling up huge loads of Maybe one day there will be a portable hot gear is this: don’t bring huge loads. Instead, air balloon for wall climbers. All the gear, climb light and e&ciently so you don’t water, beer, and !sh tacos you need will %oat have to bring big loads. I keep the vertical just a few feet away from you and e$ortlessly baggage handling to a minimum. I spend follow you up the wall. But until that day time climbing lightly and quickly over the arrives we must deal with a brutal fact: we rock and spend minimum time moving need a lot of water to stay alive and water is luggage. If every moment an aspiring wall heavy. Conservatively, we need a gallon per climber spent !guring how to set up a 3-to-1 person, per day when wall climbing and a system was instead spent mastering moving gallon of water weighs eight pounds. So on a in aiders e&ciently and learning to set up a !ve-day climb of El Cap: simple belay, they would not need a 3-to-1 in 8 lbs. x 2 people x 5 days = 80 lbs. the !rst place. And a lot more people would summit El Cap and enjoy the experience of Add another two pounds per person per getting there. day for food, 20 pounds in bivy supplies and your haul bag might tip 120 pounds at li(o$. Wall climbing is easy…sorta Can you say Su$erfest? Beyond suffering Technically speaking, big wall climbing is easy. Walking up a pair of aiders is not physically or technically demanding. Even beyond the su$ering issue of moving Jumaring is pretty straightforward once bags up a wall, there are other reasons to you get the hang of it. Hauling is not that climb e&ciently complex. Each component of big wall s #LIMBINGEFFICIENTLYKEEPSYOUSAFEFROM climbing is surprisingly easy. #e challenge BADWEATHER9OUWILLBEBETTERABLETO comes in two parts: hTURNONTHEGASvANDSUMMITBEFOREAN ONCOMINGSTORM ORATLEASTMAKEITTOA 1. Big walls require putting together a lot of MORESHELTEREDBIVYSPOT-OSTCLIMBERS unfamiliar skills and logistics. WHODIEON%L#APDOSOBECAUSETHEY GETCAUGHTINSTORMS OFTENJUSTAFEW 2. #ese skills must be put together PITCHESFROMTHETOP7EATHERFORECASTS extremely e&ciently and everything must WONTPROTECTYOUBECAUSEMOSTWEATHER stay organized. FORECASTSINMOUNTAINAREASAREONLYGOOD #ese two challenges can be overcome by FORAFEWDAYS2EAD*OHN$ILLSh3TAYING one simple principle: master the aid climbing !LIVEvATHTTPWWWSUPERTOPOCOMTOPOS YOSEMITESTAYALIVEPDF basics. #at is what this book is all about, a step-by-step guide to mastering the basics. If 14 FOR CURRENT GEAR INFORMATION, VISIT WWW.SUPERTOPO.C O M INTRODUCTION s #LIMBINGEFFICIENTLYISMOREFUN9OUGET First the Sufferfest Way, the TOSLEEPONTHELEDGEYOUWANTTO NOTTHE ONEFORCEDONYOUBYCIRCUMSTANCEAND surprisingly common way that VANISHINGSUNLIGHT/R WORSE HAVINGTO SPENDTHENIGHTSTANDINGINAIDERS it’s done s #LIMBINGEFFICIENTLYISTAKINGTHERIGHT Prep Day – Climb slowly to #e Sickle with AMOUNTOFWATERANDFOODnNOTWAYTOO a few parties nipping on your heels, trying MUCHORWAYTOOLITTLE to pass you.
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