Aid Climbing Big Walls - How to Lead

Man oh Man What happened dude Definitely was looking at that piece. That was a shit piece Definitely should have bounced tested and definitely looked away Definitely look away How not to lead climb it with a team That's hilarious This is going to show you the motion of going up the route We've already showed you what gear we're gonna use and we showed you how to place the gear and now we're gonna show you the motion of him going up and then myself going up and One of the things that we want to iterate in this course is to not look at the piece while you bounce at it Yep Because if it does blow it's gonna hit you in the face and you're gonna actually look like this But it won't be catch-up. That was actually that was really good That's an attention grabber they call it that's how we get you welcome to the video at the How not to big wall course where we're gonna show you how to lead This is the reason you're watching and the reason we're making this video This is the fun part now that you've checked the weather and prepared all your stuff we are gonna try to give you as much holistic information as possible and Jeremiah is wearing all of his stuff and we set up an entire belay put ropes and rope bags Imagining that we're starting pitch to yes We're already like hanging somewhere and he's about to lead and this context is I led up to here I hauled and I made this anchor the way I like it. And so I'm gonna be sitting at this anchor while he leads probably for hours because it's a bolt ladder. He's slow. Yeah Yeah so keep in mind that we're just gonna be showing a bolt ladder here just to make things easy so we can talk through our Steps on how we progress and kind of the thought process of what you're thinking So I'm gonna be trying to speak whatever is coming and coming through my head and how I'm thinking because there's kind of a lot of steps to this that and Problem solving you have to think about and so he's gonna share his then we're gonna switch and then I'm going to lead up this wall here at Brent Roth's house who we did the canyon course with and this has been just a great wall to demo a lot Of the stuff in a controlled environment and some of these videos will be on real rock You can look for those by hitting the subscribe button and this warning. This could be a long video We're always gonna timestamp this stuff below you can skip around what you want But this is also just a small part of what is a bigger project of the big wall Bible Yeah Whereas I'm hoping other people will grab a friend and film with their phone and film them Repeating almost essentially this episode and we can add that Directly into the big wall Bible if you submit it in an easy to add way Which if you go to the big wall Bible, you'll see how to do that Once the camera turns off, I'm a one-man show. So as long as it's easy we can imagine getting 50 different people showing a 20-minute version of this how prepared you would be if you've never gone up a wall. Yep He obviously demo this where we turned on the camera to make sure we're dialed and I'm gonna show you my way because I've It works for me, but I'm already gonna change how I do it based on this all Fifi thing that I'm watching. It's nice Yeah, yeah, it literally is like the next big thing. So thank you Scott Richard for coming up with the idea and Continue making home gear. I think the world of a climbing is still by innovators. So if you've got great ideas for aid climbing That's a great way to add it to the bolting Bible The big old Bible might be a great place to if it a lot of people start referencing it a great place to Share new stuff coming up now I do want to do a special shout out for rocky talkie because they actually did sponsor this video Actually this whole course to help make it free for you guys, and this is an awesome rocky talkie What's it is a rocky talkie? It's an awesome walkie. Talkie. That's durable it'll last for days if you don't turn it off at night like you should and 10% if you click rocky talkie comm slash how not to when you buy them which can help you out They're supporting what we're trying to do here because free content isn't free to make and I really appreciate these guys but if you're Start up selling something that only a hundred people are ever gonna buy. Maybe we can add that to the big wall Bible That's the kind of community we're trying to do here at how not to so now we're going to transition To Jeremiah's gonna film me so you understand the context, but this videos built around His motion from leaving the anchor up to the next anchor anchor building is gonna be its own video. Yep, and but And docking bags all that stuff. We're just gonna focus on the motion of kind of moving up. We've already covered What gear he's bringing how to place it in a crack so we're assuming you know how to do that up to this point We're also debating whether or not You have to have good solid trad climbing experience as a prerequisite for big walling put in the comments down below whether you believe Being an aid climber is better first or being a trad climber is better first if you've done a big wall Which one is better chicken or the egg? Can I leave a comment right now? Yeah, okay So I'm teaching Andrea my girlfriend to try to climb She's done like a little bit, but she's not comfortable with cams So we went to index and we had her aid of 513 So she can learn to trust at least her body weight cams how to place them and then clean it herself So she understands like how they're looking at the end. I Think that's really helpful but you're saying that people should be like a solid 5-9 trad climber to do a big wall for the problem solving the Experience of what is already a bomber piece on which ones you want to leave behind to save for a fall Not necessarily always bodyweight placement, but I always Suggest to people when you're learning trad What should you do first practice low on the ground on bodyweight placements see what actually holds weight So it is already a form of aid climbing. I think that it'd be great debate But I think that they're one in the same I never really got to be a confident 5-9 Yosemite climber before doing my walls I was like a confident 5-7 climber The thing is I knew my systems and I could get through any of those 5-6 5-7 mandatory sections I was able to understand the rock climbing systems But if you're watching this course, you're watching all the stuff in the big wall Bible. You're reading Pete Zabrock's book You're looking at Chris Mack's book. You're looking at Andy Kirkpatrick But Andy Kirkpatrick if you're doing your homework and you jump straight on to like which is gutsy I think that is three. I think we should mention really quick though Pete Zabrock's book is hooking up. Andy Kirkpatrick's book is higher education and Chris Mack's book is how to climb a big wall I'm focusing around the nose and V diff is a Video big wall series like this. So if you've consumed all of that and you're gonna jump on some like C2 Maybe some a3 overhanging stuff as your first wall and there's no free moves required and you've done all the homework to understand Ropes. Mm-hmm how to self-rescue Practicing every day keeps Yosar away. Yep, then like you don't have to know how to Ring lock. Yeah, it sure helps though, but put in the comments if you think that is a prerequisite I think a prerequisite would be click the like button. Yes for sure. Okay and subscribe Oh, yeah, probably you have another thought one more Don't be afraid to pause this video and actually maybe sit and look at what you're looking at And don't be afraid to pause Rewind all that stuff. Don't have to watch this in a linear progression Yeah, you can skip around you can watch the same stuff or you can go straight to the big wall Bible and everything About leaving the anchor is gonna be in one spot. We hope this is a really helpful resource for you It's kind of fun to film. Let's go climb. Yep. I'm gonna keep this simple This is not comprehensive because this is not about the anchor, but it's relevant to when Jeremiah leaves You don't want to crisscross your applesauce when you're going up because if the haul line is under the first piece But then not the rest and it's too far for me to access The haul bag if it has to swing out, it's gonna suck. The haul bag is gonna be hauled To the right so I want it to be on my right now in order to keep my ropes organized They are in rope bags, and I like to use cloth grocery bags for that and I always clip One carabiner to the other carabiner so I can open it up at any time and keep it organized so I'm going to just do that for now and This haul line goes from the haul bag Into the bag after I backed it up and it's gonna go to Jeremiah. Now if I check It's coming out Jeremiah is here and when he's done climbing Nothing's stopping the bag from going up and we are going to be mindful of where that is after he clips the first piece is you want to turn around and just Visualize any future clusters as far as the climbing rope goes. We have our Jesus draw here So if he were to blow it right here, he doesn't rip me But I get pulled up but let's just be mindful of that while I film Jeremiah leaving this anchor and Checking to make sure that he's not going to be tangled is my turn to now lead this next pitch Ryan just got done leading his block a block in Big walling is a set period of time that you're climbing You do not change over every other pitch like you would on a multi pitch instead You might say I'm gonna cover the next four pitches or I'm gonna cover the next four hours You can decide that time frame However, you want to do your changeovers? But it kind of gives the belayer more time to relax and get energized and get food in their system before taking on their next shift So I we're imagining that Ryan just got done with his block and I'm starting mine So a couple things that I have on me I always need to make sure that I have the whole bag kit with me or a way way the tag it up later So my whole kit is attached to my tiny little string I feel like we are ready to go and I'm gonna start climbing my pitch So the big things that always kind of keep in mind is that you want to avoid getting as entangled as possible with your Personal anchor system and your ladders. It's very easy to get twisted around So take the time to try to go slow and smooth because smooth is fast So I'm gonna take my ladder off of my Chest harness. I'm gonna move on to my first piece of protection and this is gonna be an all bolt ladder But I'm gonna still treat it like it is pro So I'm gonna do a small bounce test just to check whether or not I would trust it So here's my first piece. So I'm gonna go ahead and clip into it Once it's in there. I know that this piece is good. I trusted it earlier So now I'm gonna try to shift my weight over to it So I need to find a step that I can really step into and test it now I do not want to immediately put all of my weight on this piece I need to do some bounce testing on it slowly dropping my heel will add a lot of good pressure to that bolt or Whatever that piece is drop my heel Once I feel like it can hold most of my weight I might give it a really good bounce test But you don't have to do that so much for bolts. You do need to want to do that for any gear bolts It's not necessary to necessarily bounce test them, but they're plenty strong super good enough So I really trust that I like that so the next thing I'm gonna do is I'm gonna take my all Fifi which is my Adjustable Fifi and I'm gonna attach it to the bolt. Well, I'm running out of space up here I can attach it to anywhere, but I always wanted to get as high as possible. So I'm just gonna attach it to the ring I'm not too worried about it right now. I'm gonna pull myself in once I trust that piece I can go ahead and clean my previous ladder and now I want to make sure that I'd get all my tangles out and Then I attach it back up high on my harness my chest harness Once I've looked at this piece, I'm noticing that this is a ring This is gonna be an indicator maybe for me that I need to think differently as the leader Because my pitch is going to the side It's gonna be really hard for my cleaner to jug sideways. You can only jug up. You can't jug sideways My follower will need to be doing what's called a lower out So I need to make sure to add a piece of pro to this like a sling to this piece So then when he arrives to it he can lower himself off of this ring I Cleaning my draw and lowering him back vertically underneath the next piece because the next piece is to the right and it might be hard for him to Clean gear if you didn't do a lower out, so I'm gonna move forward So I'm not gonna put a sling on it yet. I'm gonna go to my next piece. My next piece is here I'm gonna go over I'm going to drop my heel do it quick. Yep. I trust it. I like it You might have to vigorously bounce test it. I don't need to since it's a bolt grab my LPP shift over take it and deal with tangles Bolt pull myself in Relax on it Sorry to kill the flow a little bit Scott Richards who makes the LPP sent me this text message and said no don't do this What happens is if you put it in a hanger and there's not room to lift it up because it's kind of a tall hook Then it bends it this way and it's not strong in that direction It's strong in the hook direction keeping it thin allows it to fit in more things And so he's gonna do a whole write-up and add it to the big wall Bible and even one option is to not use personal Anchors at all. He said that's what the rope is for and just to use the LPP He also has a new design coming out and we'll have all that updated included in the big wall Bible now What Jeremiah is doing in this context is working because there is enough room in that hanger But I just wanted to make sure you know how to properly use that and they go to the big wall Bible All right. So now I'm gonna go back Clean my ladder up from underneath here Dealing with tangles and now I'm gonna go back and actually add my draw to the previous piece So I'm gonna now reach back over Clip the bolt Clip my rope Into the draw making sure it is not back clipped Yeah, so before I'm get too far away and I can't get back to my follower to assess any tangles I'm gonna look at my haul line and I'm gonna determine whether or not is it in a good position And do I need to deal with any tangles or does he need to deal with any tangles at the anchor? So, how does it look right now for you? So right now? To me it looks it does look fine for me right now. Yeah, I think it I think this looks good This is a clear obvious bad scenario, right that the haul line is really tangled in the lead line So if you try to lower out the haul line Lower out the bag. It's gonna be caught in the rope here on that first piece. Absolutely horrible scenario And yeah before you get too far along just make sure that everything looks great cool, okay, um Sometimes I'll clip this up here Just because I don't want the weight of this to start pulling it out of the bag, but that's more of an anchor thing Okay, it's next boss. All right. So now I'm gonna start working my way up So now I'm not gonna do this piece and clip this one for protection And said that's the one I'm gonna be focused on because it's gonna be easier for him to lower out since it's a little bit More vertical than directly sideways. So but it also prevents rope drag for you, correct? Exactly. So While I'm climbing I am constantly thinking about what's gonna happen to my follower though you want to back clean and that's one thing you have to accept as a follower on big walling is You will be putting yourself in higher risk scenarios by back cleaning But it makes the wall as a Following for on a big wall much smoother. So assess your own risk And if you do need to leave pro Leave pro but keep in mind that you might have to leave it on a wall for somebody else to booty So I could go to this bolt right now, right? Notice that I'm kind of far from this wall. Notice that my step right now is on the third step I have quite a bit more distance that I could be covering you right now Rather than just reaching up to the closest bolt Instead I want to do what's called a top step. Now if you look from this distance from this bolt skipping this bolt to the next one seems like a very far away, but in a fee fee allows you to Top step a lot easier and get as high as possible. So instead of this one, I'm going to get higher So I'm going to pull myself in nice and close Work as high as possible To step as high into my ladders as I can There I'm as high as I need to be. Can I reach it? I sure can it's gonna be just out of reach Let's see. Ah, I can get into that that saves me a lot more time because I don't have to stop and do every bolt Release my off beefy Move it up And I'm gonna clean and you're not placing anything there. I am NOT gonna place anything on that bolt I'm not gonna even place anything on this bolt because I can I'm already up here So I might as well use that guy all right, so Resuming from what we said is because I had noticed that this is a really good bolt and I trust it fully with everything right Now I am deciding to actually skip two bolts Again, always assess your own risk If you don't want to skip bolts clip them all and if you want to skip them all let's give them all no gear No fall So again, I'm gonna kind of get up as high as I can and then I'm imagining that this is not the top of the Anchor, but it just continues on But there is not another piece of pro for a long time. So I am gonna clip it in with my ladder You're not gonna clip a quick draw to that. I'm gonna clip it to this after after. Yep So I always do it after I move up I get into it Clean my ladder Dealing with tangles and then add my draw So if I look down for a second I can see that this is gonna be a lot easier for my follower to clean Because I try to keep this line much more vertical for him to be able to clean rather than a sharp 90-degree corner So I'm gonna keep on climbing Is that your bivvy spot that's my ledge for the night And this this ledge look at the size of this ledge this on L cap would be considered a good two-person bivvy So I'm gonna start At the same point Jeremiah did but I'm gonna treat this a little bit differently I'm gonna treat this as if it's like a hard a3 to where I'm not super secure on each piece There's every context kind of changes your perspective and I like my system for the harder aid stuff The haul line, it's always nice to kind of clip ready to go in the way of the leader So the leader doesn't leave without it So I'm gonna clip this to the little string in the back that's attached to my haul line in case for some reason the bag came undocked and this line got loaded and Doesn't jerk me off the wall doesn't jerk me off while I'm on the wall. Yeah, whatever That's terrible. So since I'm going to be leading to the right Jeremiah would be on the left the bag is also on the right of Jeremiah because that's the direction is going to be going so first thing I want to do is in my case, I like to clip my Personal anchor to the next piece first. Now. This is just a system I refined over many years of doing this and I like how it works, but After watching Jeremiah's way if I'm more secure on the gear I'd probably go a lot more with his methods with the all Fifi I've never used an all Fifi before so it's kind of intriguing for me to see so I'm going to get on this piece and Because my ladders are separately on their own carabiners. I can go like this and I'm gonna bounce test with my foot and That's what it would look like if it came off so I'm still not at risk of like a dangerous fall It doesn't even really hurt just scares the shit out of you really so you get on on on more more and more and then I stick my fingers and there and I might do that on a traverse Whenever I open my daisy I open it all the way to the end I never want to have to redo it to reach my next piece Now I'm in the habit of checking to make sure I'm not tangled and I'm in the habit of throwing it over my shoulder I don't have a chest harness. So My lead line, I feel safe ish and My whole line is not tangled. I Feel good about this. I don't want to leave unless I've checked that I don't want to clip my next piece until I feel good about this now my foot still on the anchor So I'm gonna clip that and I'm going sideways. So I don't want to step high and what I like about the two Eater system is that I can spread my legs because that's always good before you get jerked off the wall. Oh god I feel really balanced right now, and I like that and I'm gonna use my Carabiner Fifi later. I don't need it to reach this next piece. I'm not gonna be able to reach that further bolt I'm gonna take this moment to explain that if you can step just even one inch higher than you think you can and get your gear into the next pod of hole in the rock or something and You're placing I don't know 500 placements on El Capitan Like you can literally shave off an entire day because you can only climb eight Hours a day the rest of its all the changeovers and the hauling and the stuff, right? You you can literally if you can shave that off. You don't now have to set up your bed again You don't have to haul as much water It becomes a what's it called when a rocket can't lift its own fuel because it's so heavy diminishing returns You just like unless you're Pete Zabrock, you can't bring 14 days of water because you're slow But somehow he has really good methods of doing that. I guess Pete spends his days getting his stuff up Five does he do five separate hauls? Is that like a five to one or a one to five? My cam hooks are in my next spot. Hopefully Brent doesn't watch all these videos. It's a really thin micro crack Here we go So I start with my daisy and because I want to bounce test this it may not hold me I'm gonna want to scoot over a little and go like this and if you can grab a hold Great, if you can get your fingers in something to get yourself a little higher great. Otherwise You just cinch that up a little we're gonna test this It's a nice wall. I'm not gonna do that to Brent with these personal anchors. They can get pretty twisted So sometimes if I'm on a safe piece, and I'm not scared out of my mind Then I put this on the spine side. So when I open my gate, I don't lose it and then I Already have it fully extended Now this is a piece I place. This is not a bolt so we're going to treat it a little bit more carefully than if it was bomber and Bolts can be pretty rusty and thin looking and still be super good enough And if they're gonna blow just give them a tug and move on with your life just And it's your time to go what's cool about having these aiders loose is I can keep from tangling Wow, they're tangled what the hell Tangled on my ropes You're at risk of dropping it I've never dropped it. So I'm pretty happy with my setup So I'm going to foot bounce That piece and I'm gonna make sure that I stay pretty close to this I don't want a factor to fall or I don't even want to factor one fall I want to keep these factors pretty small Falling on this if I'm scared, I guess this is I can't use my Fifi yet. I'm going sideways Once I've tested this a little then what I could do is give a little slack here and tension it up here and then feel good look good safety third ah Do you see what I'm doing here? If I go over my personal anchor, I'm not stepping in that now If I go over my personal anchor, I'm gonna have to feed it through I can stay organized by just coming through here Clipping that putting my foot in and I'm balanced now by just rotating my hips. I take the slack off this guy Pop it open Open it all the way to the end So when I take it off, I can throw it over my shoulder and it's ready to go for the next piece Now again about lowering out and protecting the follower if I put a double length sling on this next piece up here after I pass it These going to have to swing all the way out to be a full extension of that sling before he stops Rotating this way and so now he's super far away from this even though that bolt is still within reaching distance but I don't want to pose myself and And put a quick draw on there and have rope drag where the ropes just going like this Especially if the last 10 feet of this is a is a free climb And so that's usually the worst when you have to like pull up a bunch of ropes slowly So they don't think you're rope tugging for off belay And now you have 30 feet of slack that you have to hold because if it drops back down They're gonna be super confused and pull it back through their Grigri Don't have rope friction if you don't need it I'm gonna choose not to put a quick draw on this because from the anchor I want to back clean as much as I can from the anchor It's so much easier for the climber For the follower to lower out from the anchor then once he's here because then you got to transfer weight run ropes through and stuff Like that. So because I'm still close. I'm gonna clean clean clean clean And once I get into that vertical section, I'm gonna go up maybe one or two moves then clip my first thing there I technically have a Jesus draw now another point of view is I could clip this Because he can reach it so he can back clean it before he even puts his ascenders on which puts me at More safety puts him at safety. So I don't like fall on him and Then he would clean this then start ascending So keep all of that in mind how they're going to fall and when you watch us follow in Another video you're gonna see a little bit more why we do that We're gonna try to simulate that on this wall now I get to go up and I don't want to pull this tight every time I want to go up I just want to climb and then get up there and I know that's not going to come off Even if I give it slack, so if I give it slack, I'm not worried about it coming off So I can be pretty aggressive in what I'm doing and what's cool. Is this length here? Allows me to stand up much higher, which I'll show you in a minute Now if this was quite overhanging I could take this carabiner in one of my belay loops and clip it in there And I'm even closer now. I'm as close as you can get and Then I can step up really tall when it's overhanging. You can't do that If there's more distance here, you can't lean back that far your top heavy that's very important to use a camp photon carabiner because the nose is so narrow and That after you have another carabiner here or even like fixed gear or any pieces you're placing anything like that Most oftentimes you can get this nose Inside of it you can see how here the wood hood wire makes this fatter even though it's a skinny carabiner This is fatter. So now I'm gonna step up as high as possible with my setup here and my personal anchor is Definitely not something I'd want to fall on Because it's static and it's not rated for that I am connected to a climbing rope. So if everything were to blow I'm still safe The overall thing that keeps you safe is the climbing rope. These are just the means of going up Now if I have a thing to grab on to I will but this but I can stand up pretty high in this especially if I can hang on to something to reach the next thing and That's what's kind of cool. If you have like something that's not a 515 and it's like 511 and you just don't want to free It you can stick your fingers in the pot and get up here and then you can Dig around and you can reach for your next piece So right now I can't go higher and it feels like it's impossible. That's because my Carabiner, so what I might do If I'm comfortable enough is unclip it and go and step in even my plastic handle That's not my plastic handle. But there we go Now what's stopping me is my personal anchor so if I really want to Step up higher I could do this and I can get Right here now, which is even better Because if you can do that you save a lot of time now, I don't want to fall on that so If I were to clip something pretty sketchy Sometimes what I'll do is this and my feet are balanced, right? I'm kind of in an awkward position this is the nice part about the two ladders below me is I'll come back down just a hair and I might even clip like this and then Bounce test it you want to be in a safe ish position, especially if you're worried about it if it's a like a number one cam in a c1 crack like Just get on it Okay, like this feels good. What I might do is pull it up a little I don't want to hose myself tensioning myself on this thing and I'll put my toe there and I'm sitting freely and What I like about that is I can get off the last piece and I can Take both ladders at the same time Clip it and I can get on if I want. I don't need to get on yet Because I have to decide If I'm going to clip this piece with a quick draw a sling or a double link sling notice that we're never doing that Before we pass it there's actually more of a fall factor if you lift the rope up To top rope lead where you're clipping above your head and that piece blows you get like a lot more rope out So just be okay with falling It's one of the safest forms of climbing because if you are higher up You have more distance between you and the ground or something you'll hit unless you're in some a4 weird stuff So you could take a 60-foot whipper and you're you just get a free rope swing no extra charge It's not like you're gonna get hurt and the bigger the rope fall What happens is you have more rope to absorb that fall? I would so much rather have a 40-foot whipper than a 5-foot whipper. I Prefer bigger things so in my mind Now that I know where I'm going my first piece and I'm gonna clip after what was at the anchor is gonna be the ceiling bolt so That's the closest I would ever clip this even if this was sketchy stuff so Since I'm not clipping that Let's just climb as quickly and efficiently as possible to get up here grab the back of the carabiner while I'm climbing I grab my Little carabiner here a little higher chill out a little bit get balanced and figure out if I'm going to High-step if I try to high-step and it makes me take twice as long to get a good piece of gear in not worth it You have to balance between whether it's worth the extra energy to top step Right now. I don't need to top step any more than that bolt in the ceiling So I'm just gonna do what I have to then Minimum here because it's the next obvious piece put my fingers in there boom Sit back on it. I can get slack in this Bounce test it and because it's good take it off. Trust it stand up take this off boom spread this out get on it take this off and Organized throw it over. I'm not clipping that and I can just go up or I can clip the thing I'm not gonna put my quickdraw on here until I've got on my next piece Yeah, so I down aided back here because no one was blaming me and I think that's super helpful to be able to go in any direction because sometimes that's easier than Having somebody lower you it's also nice as a follower. She's not a reade certain parts. Sometimes that's horizontal down or up Have you ever misread the route? My buddy got into a real pickle He hooked like 30 times in a row and it's like this is harder than it should be and it did down hook All the way back because I can't like there's nothing to lower off of that's that's a good point You'll see that I'm climbing in approach shoes, but I actually like the mythos climbing shoe That's big enough for me to wear socks with it because it's still comfortable enough for me to wear all day But I can get my toes into things like this. I can step here I can even step here in order to really top step slightly low angle stuff You should be able to like really top step some low angle stuff. That's the magic sauce right there But you have to be like eyeball what you're gonna need make sure it's not in the back Make sure this is all the way extended and make sure it's ready to go. So sometimes I'll pre place gear on Here knowing that I need one of two options and then I'll get it. I'll get it ready I don't put it in my mouth because that's not gonna work out for you and I will put it like just just good enough and then I'll go up and Commit to like the awkward move and then reach and then I have it like here And I can put it in and then you have to have the sewing machine arm with the sewing machine leg But don't be afraid to fall. I would almost recommend if you have like a bolt a bolt a bolt to take that time if you've never taken a whipper to unclip your Let me show you how to how not to fall so put your ladder on first put your personal anchor on second and Take all this stuff off And you still have one ater to get back up and then you can unclip this and wouldn't that be funny if I fell And you can you know, you know not have it between your legs like I have it right now So just now when I was pretending I'm about to fall notice the rope was between my legs. That's bad I should still have rope management going on like you would in a normal climb While I'm still managing my personal anchor and my ladders Want to stay organized because if you're gonna need this you want to not have it flip you around especially if you're top-heavy with the chest harness full of gear or You swing into a dihedral like I did on the fifth pitch of lost aerospire fell past the fourth anchor Into that corner and I was upside down when it happened and I couldn't close my hand for the rest of the day Because I jammed myself in there. It would have been a lot better if I went feet first into the corner So have good rope management. Hey, Jeremiah. I'm 20 feet from the top is about five minutes or an hour Depending on what route you're on It's really nice to be able to communicate with your partner that they should wake up finish their snack Pee now or forever hold your peace like it's nice to know that they're almost done Especially if it's been a while they've been on lead and it's around the corner. They can't see It's also nice if you are the belayer to communicate. It's like hey the halfway mark you just passed it It kind of gives them an idea of where they're at on the pitch. So This is really nice for updates every so often and to make sure your belayers still awake One little thing that I wanted to mention right before we kind of wrap this episode up is a couple stories on that fear of falling while aid climbing is Understand that yes, you're gonna get on sketchy Pro and gear does blow I have probably fallen on every single route that I've climbed and I've came out just fine every single time So yes, it's scary. Yes, it's sketchy Pro. It's a weight only a lot of the time anyways But not to be afraid But a downside to a chest harness versus the way that Ryan racks is that I'm very top-heavy, right? So because I'm top-heavy it is a lot easier as I fall to get flipped upside down and put in a different orientation because I'm not My center of mass is not at my hips any longer. So just kind of keep that in mind That this is a downside for that reason Also your gear becomes weightless Whether my way or this way and what happens is it hurts almost as much as you know It's kind of hitting the rock is your gear coming and slapping you. Mm-hmm, but you don't don't worry about that so much But you don't have to be that afraid of falling but In a controlled environment take a practice. Well, that's what the rope is. Therefore You're gonna rarely if ever get six kilonewtons on a fall, especially if there's enough rope out You'd be hard to get maybe four kilonewtons and whatever's catching you is gonna be pretty good cams. They're about eight Micronuts we have a whole video on how strong they are blew my mind I did blow a couple wires though on changing corners on the nose, which was fun Okay, I've had a rivet hanger the wire that you put over the fixed bolts It was brand new. I didn't bounce test it because it's good bomber gear It was the smallest one they make as soon as I sat on I did like this free move to reach it clipped it sat On it it basically unraveled and that's what made me fall on the spire Wow It's if I bounce tested everything I would have been fine, but I was also trying to like hurry So your friend hurries and falls yeah, and I don't think you fell on the Zodiac right I did not fall in the Zodiac No, so but your friends fast. Yep, but falling takes time So, how do you so I think there's there's a balance between those two things and you're gonna notice that about yourself on that 18 does take a long time And so there's a fair balance between staying safe and still moving fast You can't stay safe and move at six hours per pitch right six hours per pitch is not safe But you can't move so incredibly fast that you're unsafe So you do need to find a fair balance and that comes with practice every day so you can keep us are away Please don't lead aid. Ah The first time when you go on a wall, this is stuff that you can go practice on a grade That's one or two three grades harder what we're gonna show in the last videos is the A to Z stuff and placing pro is in a 513 crack and Not very many people are climbing this thing. So I'm out of the way I get to practice and Until I hit let's say a goal While showing Andrea how to aid if first time took her I think two and a half ish hours And it's only see one and it's 120 feet. That shouldn't be more than 30 to 45 minutes once she's practiced the moves, right if she just showed up blind to the crack Maybe an hour an hour is acceptable to get up any of these first walls. Yeah, you're not gonna epic You're gonna have a good time three You won't a couple things remind remember as a belayer is a your job also as a blair besides for keeping your Climber safe is also to keep a very high stoke for them. It can be very terrifying while on lead It can also be very personal that I'm taking a long time on this pitch and I'm slowing us down I've felt that and I've apologized to my players a lot of times saying ah, man I feel like I'm taking forever on this. I look down I feel like I'm only 20 feet up and every single time. They've been a really good partner to me who had said Keep it up. You're making progress. I Just keep moving forward and I'm right there with you man Stuck is a valuable asset weighs zero grams and if somebody's scared reassure them that you've got them and that you're not just trying to like take a pee while holding the Gregory just kind of Make sure you reassure them but that's I think gonna be one of the next videos is how to follow and belay