I've done the hard aid thing. When Charles Cole first started aid climbing I was his regular partner. He built about 20 rurps in his dad's shop and I would set rurp lines. Of course I weighed about 115 at the time and Charles weighed about 205 and when he stood on the first piece they would just about all pull. He hated me for that!

Claude I think you mean West Face. West Butt definitely counts as an El Cap route: VI 5.9 A# or 5.13b.

I got suckered into getting on it once with a couple wankers, they recruited me to do some mandatory free pitches up there. After a couple days of them getting nowhere on some nailing gig I took my cords and flew the coop.

About 10 years ago I did Mescalito with Rob, the OP. Here's a shot I got of him on The Bismark ledge, high on the wall.


I really thoroughly enjoy aid climbing. There's an art there but you have to immerse yourself in it and commit to find it.

C'mon Jan, how about some hard hooking?

Well, since I've done it, I like to count the West Face as "route". I understand the reasons for including it in a separate category though. Still, when you stand at the bottom of the thing and look up and know you're going to climb it in a day, it seems like a big deal when you're on it. Totally different vibe than, say, the Shield or some other big aid route.

Personally, I'm too ADD (or is it now called ADHD) for hard aid. A guy I knew (who was pretty talented at aid climbing and a decent free climber) once asked if I wanted to do Scorched Earth. While it sounded interesting, I'm just too ADHD to spend 8+/- hours belaying/climbing a pitch. I'd rather use the time to work the moves out on a pitch to free it on a long hard route. bTotally respect the people with the talent, cajones and drive to do routes like that

phydeux wrote:. . . until you've been able to stay w-a-y beyond the 14 day camping limit in a national park/national monument that's a well-known rock climbing mecca without getting caught and kicked out. (me: 21 days in Joshua Tree Natl Monument back in 1992 ).

me: Stayed in Yosemite Camp 4 for 3 months in 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982.... Okay. Maybe I was also sleeping up in the talus field, or in my car.

You ain't shit until you've stayed in a climbing area so long that you start eating out of the garbage dumpsters....

You know what would help with the marathon 8 hour belays? Audio books on an iPod.