UKC

Morning All,

I have a long term dream of climbing some of the easier big walls in Yosemite, perhaps starting with regular north west face of half dome, then moving on to other stuff but lets not get ahead of myself.

Being based in Suffolk most of my climbing is indoors, so I spend a lot of time bouldering or leading. And try to get out as much as possible, and within the last year have bouldered v8, sport climbed 7b and started trad climbing around E1 (Trad climbing is the newest discipline to me, so should hopefully continue to progress).

So other than conituning to travel to wales, lakes or peaks to pratice on real rock and expose myself to harder trad climbs. Is there any particular things I should be focusing on, I understand that being able to climb 5.12 uk equivalent E6ish in no way directly translates to being able to climb 5.12 on half dome, however surely I can practice either certain types of climbs? certain Locations? Climbs that are heavily exposed?  That may help.

Also at the same time as developing my ability to actually climb and not get scared, I would like to learn the AID side of things so that I could get out of sticky situations or climb the aid variations of the classics ie the 5.9 c1 RNWF. This question is abit more open ended, but how should I start learning and practicing this, books? locations to learn? maybe courses dunno?

Thanks Guys and Girls

Preparation would be highly dependent on the style you want to do the routes in. Is it to free Half Dome Regular?

At the current moment in time not "to" fussed on style, however ideally free, hence my urge to also learn how to aid climb effectively so I could do either. Might be naïve but my approach was that having a base in AID but also progressing my climbing would mean I could go for the free but resort to aid if things where way harder than I thought

I can't really help with freeing it but my experience was to get out there for an extended period and get used to Yosemite climbing, there's nothing quite like it in the UK.

I learned the small amount of aid skills necessary for half dome from more experienced people when I was out there.

Based on absolutely no experience of Yosemite,  my initial reaction would be to try getting a few longer (more than 10 pitches) routes under your belt in eg the Dolomites and look at your efficiency on the route (how much stuff are you carrying that doesn't get used, changeover times etc) and comfort.

In terms of free climbing standards, I went from becoming quite proficient at E5 onsight on a variety of rock types in the UK, straight to onsighting Yosemite 5.12a and 5.12b without any particular trouble. Probably helped that I was based in the Peak so jamming ability was critical on quite a lot of routes.

Get yourself a copy of Chris macnamara's how to big wall climb and follow advice in it as best you can.

Otherwise

- Lots of experience placing gear (so can do quickly is a real benefit of doing uk trad)

- jumaring, basic hauling etc. can all be learned/practised in a tree/at a friendly climbing wall, crappy crag (all needed for free or aid ascents)

- if you're keen to free stuff then seek out pure crack climbing - not too much in uk but sw some granite, quarried routes, or in Europe for trips e.g. annot (france), val di mello (italy), kvaloya (norway) - these last two also big mulitpitch.

- similarly motivated and local partner really useful.

Good luck!   

Isn't NWF Halfdome 5.9/5.10 to aid? That's 'only' about HVS/E1. You're probably already there mate.

Biggest thing would be the style of climbing as you can't really learn to crack climb in a gym. Get to the Peak and Cornwall as much as you can. 

I'm in a similar situation to you, man. Heading to the valley in October for a bit of a trial-by-fire! I have a rather lofty long term goal of free Freerider, but this trip is mainly to test the waters.

About the same as you with grades (bit less on the bouldering side), reasonably new to trad and no hauling experience, but have a dash of alpine multipitching which I hope will help. 

Would be interested in what you get up to training wise and would happily share my experiences too!