Colin and I had our first day of big wall school as it were on the University Wall in Squamish. In addition to being our introduction to wall climbing systems, it was also my vertical bachelor party. Thus, we took along some excess weight mostly in the form of beer. We learned a lot about how to rig a haul, haul the pig, set up and live on ledge.
More than anything I learned that I like free climbing a lot more. Don't get me wrong, I completely look forward to spending some time on El Capitan climbing routes that largely go free with long sections of aid or even some of the easier aid routes. However, considering that I already don't have enough time to climb, I'm not convinced that I want to spend any of it learning to hang from increasingly sparser and poorer protection. That being said I do enjoy that aid climbing puts you in amazing positions and with all the luxuries and comfort of the ground. It's quasi-vertical camping.
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| Slab-hauling to the base of the U-Wall |
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| Colin cleaning the first pitch... looks like a better free pitch than aid! |
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| You can tell you're new at wallin' when you take a picture of easy hook placements.... |
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| Big Wall cuisine |
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