Bail up

Solo Aid Rules From a Night Time Jaunt up The Prow
Trip Reports

Solo Aid Rules From a Night Time Jaunt up The Prow

Solo Aid rule #75: Do not wear headphones when you lead, this prevents you from hearing the sounds of the rock and any movement of your placements as you weight them. Solo Aid rule #76: Do wear headphones when you lead, this prevents you from hearing the sounds of the rock and any movement of your placements as you weight them. Solo Aid rule #173: Once you place your third bomber piece in a row, reach down and back clean the second piece. No need to carpet bomb the route. Solo Aid rule #46: Double check the back of your harness. Things hide in plain sight like they think they're in a refrigerator. Solo Aid rule #113: Climb at night during the winter. The cold is sometimes the only thing that will keep you moving. Freezing to death is a reliable motivator. Solo Aid rule #4: When falling asleep on…

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December 3, 2011
Tons of Junk A3 – Joshua Tree (Dihedral Rock)
Trip Reports

Tons of Junk A3 – Joshua Tree (Dihedral Rock)

Fun Times, Tons of Junk A3 - Dihedral Rock - Joshua Tree NTB DFU rotten View post on imgur.com View post on imgur.com View post on imgur.com View post on imgur.com View post on imgur.com View post on imgur.com View post on imgur.com View post on imgur.com View post on imgur.com View post on imgur.com View post on imgur.com View post on imgur.com View post on imgur.com View post on imgur.com  

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November 21, 2011
Bathooks
Creative Nonfiction

Bathooks

C2 means hooks, manmade divots in the granite. A three-pronged talon of iron, Claws the exposed face If the technique is called bat hooking, I wonder if bats have feet similar to raptors. These hidden holes, lost in shadows that play as my neck cranes back and forth to examine the pitted surface to the rock. As I step up on the aiders attached to the hook I imagine small bats hanging upside down, claws curved into invisible holes only they can see. When the tips of the hook skates a bit, I imagine that I make a sound similar to the high pitched squeal of those same bats when they are disturbed by a hand or piece of gear invading their daytime crack bivy. *image credit to Andy Kirkpatrick

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November 7, 2011
Copperhead Quandary
Creative Nonfiction / Trip Reports

Copperhead Quandary

Placing a copperhead in the middle of your first solo aid climb is part excitement and part trepidation. I can high step to a hook off to my left, reaching up with my left hand I try to see the ledge with my fingertips, recreating granite landscapes like a fisherman reading sonar. Place a Cliffhanger and stare at the flat end rock back and forth, I step back down and rest on myfifi. A quarry has the benefit of being a pre-destroyed crag. Epoxy and drilled handholds already grace the shattered face and so, placing a copperhead becomes less of an ethical quandary. I tell this to myself. Scan the rockface in front of me fully aware of the finite nature of all rock and all routes. Who aids at Riverside anymore anyway? Do I screw up the route for the next, did the one before do my the favor of…

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October 12, 2011
Vertical Vee at Riverside Quarry
Trip Reports

Vertical Vee at Riverside Quarry

Crux one of solo aiding happens at the parking lot. A hummingbird appears for a second and peruses the splashes of color raining from my haul bag and onto the sidewalk next to my car. Simple mathematics would tell me that the most efficient way to pack and sort the gear would be to shovel it back into the trunk of my hatchback and drive back home where the sun hasn’t started to bear down and the cotton sheets work just as well to cool a body laying on top as they do warm a body laying beneath them the night before. Riverside Quarry is a jelly donut in a hardman’s aiding circuit. Gridbolted for sport climbing between aid seams that hold scars that can be traced back to seventh day adventists preparing for their own assault upon the stone in Yosemite, nailing was never so safe. A flat approach…

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October 10, 2011