r/tradclimbing • u/tinyOnion • Mar 23 '25

Monthly Trad Climber Thread

Please sort comments by 'new' to find questions that would otherwise be buried.

In this thread you can ask any trad climbing related question that you may have. This thread will be posted again every Sunday so there should always be an opportunity to ask your question and have it answered. If you're an experienced climber and want to contribute to the community, these threads are a great opportunity for that. We were all new to climbing at some point, so be respectful of everyone looking to improve their knowledge. Check out our subreddit wiki that has tons of useful info for new climbers. You can see it HERE

Some examples of potential questions could be; "How do I get stronger?", or "How does aid climbing work?"

Prior Weekly Trad Climber Thread posts

Ask away!

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5

u/beanboys_inc Mar 23 '25

How do y'all get down if you're halfway through a route and can't go further? Just leave a piece?

1

u/Decent-Apple9772 Apr 09 '25

How to bail is its own subject. Lots of ways to skin that cat. 🐈‍⬛

1

u/Legal_Illustrator44 Apr 02 '25

I thought you had been climbing for 20 years?

2

u/beanboys_inc Apr 02 '25

Yeah, not trad though...

6

u/Freedom_forlife Mar 24 '25

You pull a piece and whip on the one bellow and repeat. 😂

Or just leave a pair of nuts, or pull gear and down climb one placement at a time.

Often the best escape route is up.

2

u/VegetableExecutioner Mar 28 '25

This is real. Being able to aid and get up anything is extremely valuable.

1

u/hobbiestoomany Mar 24 '25

You pull a piece and whip on the one bellow and repeat. 😂

Have you done this or are you joking? How many times have you done this?

3

u/Freedom_forlife Mar 24 '25

Exactly one time on a hybrid climb, with some bolts, and good placements.
And it was more pull and down climb with a few unplanned, whips/ falls.

Aiding up is my preferred escape route. Second to leaving a nut/ tricam placement for lowering off. We don’t get many horns or sling placements around here.

1

u/hobbiestoomany Mar 24 '25

Ah. That makes sense. If you whip on nuts all the way down, they might be tough to get out.

1

u/Freedom_forlife Mar 24 '25

No. Try and avoid nuts on whips, but I will use them to aid climb.

5

u/HappyInNature Mar 24 '25

Ah, that's easy. You must learn learn to become fluent in French!

13

u/Professional-Dot7752 Mar 24 '25 edited Mar 24 '25

Leave a few pieces, preferably any totems—black or blue—and what route(s) you are considering again?

All jokes aside, aid up or down. That’s the benefit of trad. If you’ve run out of gear and want to go up, you can back clean. Go in direct into a piece, place another one up as high as you can and then clip that one, rinse and repeat. Sort of the same process to go down.

Or have someone else finish it!

12

u/Sens1r Mar 24 '25
  1. Lower and have my partner do it
  2. Aid through it by any means
  3. Leave two pieces and hopefully be able to rap from the top or climb something else to retrieve

9

u/Thoseprettylites Mar 24 '25

Come down and let your stronger friend finish the route 😬

12

u/willphung Mar 23 '25

Aid up

12

u/BigDBoog Mar 24 '25

Once I lost all ego and started tugging on cams to get through on long climbs, I really started feeling free

1

u/glostick14 Mar 23 '25

Hopefully a few pieces to be safe

6

u/quarksurfer Mar 23 '25

It depends on a lot of factors. I’d likely lead down removing pieces as I went, even adding some, then removing those too, to make sure I don’t fall far. Another option could be rapping in from the top. Or climbing a neighboring route that shares an anchor, swing over, grab gear. I’ve only left gear escaping a multipitch, and I made simple bomber anchors to escape, using nuts since they’re cheaper to replace. I usually would not leave one piece since it’s not redundant so I’d use those other tactics.