BigWallEquipment

From WallWiki

• aider: webbing ladder used when aid climbing. The aider is clipped to gear, and then climbed. Climbing higher up the ladder gives more reach, but is less stable. There is much discussion of how many aiders one should use, two or four being the most common options. Some prefer ladder-style aiders while others use old-school aiders with triangular steps or Russian Aiders which consist of "trees" of metal rings that are climbed via hooks strapped to the climber's legs.

• alien: Type of cam produced by Colorado Custom Hardware. A favorite cam among many Yosemite locals, they have a narrow head width and the soft aluminum used in the cam lobes for a better “bite” on the rock. This combined with a unique trigger mechanism and their small size, it is no wonder they are the standard on Yosemite’s hard cracks.

• ascender: Tool used while jugging a rope. First design was called a jumar and developed in France. The device utilizes a cam with teeth which will grip the rope when pulled downward but will freely slide up a rope when pushed upward. An integrated handle on the device makes it easy to pull yourself up while ascending a fixed rope. A pair is used, left handed and right handed.

• bathook: named for Warren "Batso" Harding, bathooking is the process of climbing by placing hooks in small drilled holes in the rock. Bathook holes are essentially shallow bolt holes, and are used by those doing first ascents because it's easier than drilling a full bolthole and cheaper than putting a bolt or rivet in it.

• bolt: permanent climbing anchor. May have a hanger for clipping, or just a threaded post sticking out of the rock. On aid routes these are often old and scary. There has been much work done lately to replace timebomb anchors in popular areas.

• booty: Any piece of gear that is left on a climb because the owner was unable or simply forgot to remove the piece. Sometimes booty may also be found at the base of a climb after it was dropped by a previous party. Climbing Karma dictates that a general notice should be left in order for the owner of the gear to have a chance of retrieving said gear. This also typically involves the exchange of malt beverages or herbal remedies. If no owner is found and the finder keeps the gear, then the finder is vastly more likely to lose gear sooner than later.

• cam: removable protection which utilizes opposing cams to hold it in cracks or pockets. There are many different brands, some of which have a passionate following.

• cleaning: Act of jugging a fixed line after a leader has finished a pitch and removing the leader’s protection from the rock so nothing is left behind. Cleaning can also mean the act of removing rocks, dirt, grass, bushes and other debris from a route.

• clean climbing: A style of climbing in which the climbers only place protection that can be : a. removed from the rock by the same team so nothing is left behind and b. does not damage or leave significant wear on the rock. Some times a clean ascent of a route will require the used of a fixed piece of gear. Should these fixed pieces be absent then the clean ascent may not be possible. A bolt is in the gray area of being “clean” or not.

• copperhead: small metal blob on a swaged cable that gets beaten into a crack or seam. The cable is clipped for progress and protection. There are a few tricks to doing this well.

• daisy: A piece of webbing that is both: a. attached to the climber at the waist singly or in a pair and b. attaches the climber to a belay or piece of protection when in the act of aiding. Two main types exist. The first and original is the standard loop daisy in which a dozen or so loops are sewn into a 3 foot piece of webbing. A [[hook|fifi hook] or carabiner must also be used in conjunction with a loop style daisy. One end of the daisy is attached at the waist of the climber and the other end of the daisy is attached to a piece of gear. The fifi is then used to hook one of the loops to effectively shorten the daisy and allow for a higher reach while aiding or for changing position while standing at a belay. The second and more modern version of the daisy is the adjustable daisy. This daisy comes in two different tensioning types. The first type is the buckle style produced by Metolius. Vaguely similar to the buckle on the waist strap of any common pack, there are two buckles involved and they pinch the webbing when weight is applied in order to stop slippage. The second type is the cam type produced by Yates. This type uses a strap of webbing and an Ancra buckle that has a cam which pinches the webbing to arrest slippage. This type may be easily released under load, contrary to the design of the Metolius version. Both types of adjustable daisies allow the user to easily adjust to an infinite number of different positions along the length of the webbing.

• deadhead: a copperhead whose cable has broken away. These can often be hooked, either with sharp hooks or beaks.

• dowel: essentially a really cheap hangerless bolt, with a threadless post.

• drill: Device used to bore a hole in rock so that a bolt may be placed in the rock. There are 2 different types of drills. The first is the hand drill. This drill utilizes hardened steel drill bits secured in a hand held bit holder and is designed to be manually driven using a hand held hammer. After several blows the drill should be rotated, ensuring binding does not happen and an even drilling of the hole. This method takes a lot of time and effort and is the only method allowed in many Wilderness Areas and National Parks and is the only method sanctioned by the “Yosemite Hardman Association”. The second type of drill is the motorized drill. This drill utilizes electrical or gasoline power to bore a hole into the rock. This method takes much less time and effort but is only allowed in certain areas.

• FA: First Ascent. This means first person, in human history, to ever set their particular hands to that particular part of rock and will forever and in perpetuity have ownership of the rock that they have graced with their touch.

• FFA: First Free Ascent. This means the first person to free climb your burly, A5 aid climb without using aid and doing sissy free moves all over your beautiful rock. See Lynn Hill on the Nose, FA Warren Harding, et al or Huber brothers on Zodiac, FA Charlie Porter, solo.

• fifi: a small metal hook that is attached to the waist of a climber’s harness and is either used in conjunction with a loop style daisy or used when leading hard, steep aid in conjunction with a pair of adjustable daisies. In the case of the latter example, the fifi used is a Kong Adjustable fifi. This fifi uses a series of holes drilled into the fifi hook that when a particular type of knot is used, allows the fifi hook to slip up and down the cord but when weight is applied, will arrest slippage.

• fixed piece: Any piece of protection that is left behind on a climb, whether intentional or not. A piece left in the rock because the owner could not get it out is also called booty. A piece that is intentionally left in the rock is often left behind in order to precipitate a clean ascent of a route. These pieces should generally be left in situ because future parties may be relying on them to aid in their own clean ascent.

• friend: Originally developed my Ray Jardine and currently produced by Wild Country, the term “friend” is also a synonym for cam.

• funkness device: Thick, stout piece of cable with a loop swaged at both ends. One end is clipped to a piton or other stubborn piece ‘protection’ and the other end is clipped to a big wall hammer. The hammer is then swung; the resulting static force is usually more than enough to remove the most stubborn piece of gear.

• haulbag: see 'pig'

• hauling: The art of dragging a pig up a wall that contains your equipment, food, water and other sundries, effectively making you a vertically mobile base camp. The process of hauling generally involves a wall hauler, haul rope and pig. If blood, sweat, tears, cursing and crying are not present at the time of hauling then you are not doing it correctly.

• haul rope: A rope that is used to haul or drag something up a wall. Generally made of static rope, which does not stretch and increases the efficiency of the art of hauling, a haul rope can NOT be lead on since the rope is not dynamic. Most prefer a large diameter haul rope (10mm to 11mm) for increased longevity and less potential for cutting of the rope over a sharp projection or edge.

• hammer

• hanging stove

• hooks: This is as simple as gear gets - bits of bent steel that you hang on ledges or stick in holes. Modifications can make them more useful. There is lots of information on hooking technique and tricks online. Cam hooks are also great for moving faster, and can take a bit of the sting out of expanding thin cracks. Note that hooks put a lot of force on a small amount of rock - be very careful with hooks in softer rock. Using cam hooks on sandstone trade routes is generally considered poor form.

• jugging: Act of ascending a rope using jugs, jumar, or ascender. Most frequently done by the belayer after the leader has finished their aid pitch and it is time for the belayer to come up to the high point. This is also done when you have fixed ropes and need to re-ascend to your high point.

• jumar: See ascender. Original design and name of the first ascender device.

• mank: Various pieces of crap that have been left behind in the rock and which no longer resembles or merits the name of fixed piece. Mank is the stuff you see on the wall, know that it is ugly and unsightly, but you generally leave for the next climber to clean up. A few generous and charitable souls are determined to remove this unsightly blight on our walls. See Ken Yager and the Yosemite Facelift.

• nut: wedge-shaped bits of aluminum or brass used for climbing protection. As with cams, some brands are generally considered vastly superior, and are (perversely) rather hard to obtain. The name is a holdover from the first pieces of clean climbing protection, which were slung machine nuts.

• pig: 'affectionate' term for a haulbag, a very large vinyl bag with minimal suspension. Can be used as a backpack, but not a comfortable one. Good for dragging up routes, and generally pretty heavy. Careful packing can greatly reduce wear and tear on the bag.

• pin scar: Repeated use of a hardened steel piton in a crack will create pin scars. Pin scars generally look like shallow boxes, although many different types of pitons will create many different types of pin scars. Aliens are reputed to be one of the best cam for use in a pin scar. Sawed-off angles can sometimes be hand placed in pin scars, allowing a clean ascent of a route.

• piton: a piece of metal (existing in many forms, shapes and sizes) that is hammered into the rock and is composed of either soft iron or hardened chrom-moly steel. Soft iron pitons are hammered into the rock and form themselves to the shape of the crack. Generally they are left in place because of their difficulty in removal. Soft iron pitons are rarely used in modern climbing. Chrom-moly steel pitons are the de facto standard in modern rock craft and come in a myriad of shapes and sizes including knifeblade, bugaboos, lost arrow, long dong, angle, bong, RURP, pecker, z-piton, et al. Piton are generally used in aid climbing however they may exist as fixed pieces on a free route as well. The use of pitons is NOT considered clean climbing because a piton is made out of hardened steel and when driven into a crack, will destroy and irreparably change the rock. Repeated use of pitons on a route will create pin scars . See Serenity Crack in Yosemite.

• poop tube: Big wall tool that is used to store and transport the prodigy that resulted from a morning session at the corner of the ledge involving you, a brown paper bag and a vision of ivory white marble and some flunky handing you pieces of raw silk toilet paper. The brown paper bags are deposited into the ‘tube and the ‘tube is attached to your haul bag and dragged along for the ride until you can unload the mess into the C4 dumpster.

• portaledge: portable sleeping platform which can (optionally) be collapsed for hauling. See also wikipedia entryand Fish Products

• protection: Anything that can be put into rock in order to help arrest the fall of a climber. The strength of various pieces of protection varies from body weight only, such as a copperhead, to atomic bombproof, such as a bolt. Some early examples of protection include knots stuffed in a crack, machine nuts slung with cord or webbing, pieces of wood, stovelegs and even pieces from the axle of a Ford Model T.

• SLCD: see 'cam'

• solo belay device: Device used for self-belay, when climbing roped without a partner. This could be as simple as clove hitches, but most climbers prefer mechanical systems such as the Gri Gri, SoloAid, or Silent Partner.

• stopper: see 'nut'

• swivel: Device that is attached to the top of the ‘pig’ and then attached to the haul rope. This swivel will freely rotate to allow the ‘haul rope’ to remain tangle free.

• wall: A term that generally implies any large piece of rock from 500’ to 5000’ high. The general requirement for something to be a wall is the need to spend the night on the wall because of its overall length, however modern ascents are generally quick enough that what was once considered one of the most impossible walls in the world in 1940’s (El Capitan) is now a day climb for many. A secondary requirement is that 3 pitches after beginning the climb, you must be asking yourself WTF are you doing there. If you do not question your sanity at this point then what you are on is not a Big Wall.

• wall hauler: A piece of equipment that facilitates hauling. The term “wall hauler” was originally a trade name for one of the early versions of the device however today it is a synonym for any device that contains: a. a pulley and b. a mechanism in which a rope may be pulled through the pulley and the mechanism will automatically block the rope so that you may release the haul rope without the pig dropping.

• zipper: Means to fall and have many pieces of gear rip out as you fall on them. Most commonly occurs on that dicey A4 leads when you are above a string of loose RURP, copperhead and other assorted mank and when you fall, you rip each of those pieces out behind you, giving you a fresh and new outlook on the pitch!