Aid climbing
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Aid climbing is a form of rock climbing that uses mechanical devices and equipment, such as aiders (also called 'ladders'), to assist in generating upward momentum. Aid climbing is contrasted with free climbing (in both its traditional or sport free-climbing formats), which can use mechanical equipment only for climbing protection, not to assist in any upward momentum. Aid climbing can involve hammering in permanent pitons and bolts, into which the aiders are clipped, but there is also 'clean aid climbing', which avoids any hammering and uses only temporary removable placements such as spring-loaded camming devices.
While aid climbing traces its origins to the start of all climbing when ladders and pitons were common, its use in single-pitch climbing waned in the early 20th century with the rise of free climbing. At the same time, the Dolomites saw the start of modern "big wall aid climbing", where pioneers like Emilio Comici developed new tools and techniques. Aid climbing's "golden age" was in the 1960s and 1970s on Yosemite's granite big walls led by pioneers such as Royal Robbins and Warren Harding, and later Jim Bridwell, and was where Robbins' ethos of minimal-aid, and Yvon Chouinard's ethos of clean aid climbing, became dominant.
In the 1990s, the traditional A-grade system for rating aid climbing routes was expanded at Yosemite into a more detailed "new wave" system, and with the development and growth in clean aid climbing, the A-grade system became the C-grade system. The grading of aid-climbing routes is complex as successive repeats of the route can substantially change the nature of the challenge through the continuous hammering and also the build-up of large amounts of in-situ fixed placements from each ascending party. It is not untypical for a new A5-graded aid-climbing route, to migrate to an A3-graded route over time.
Aid climbing is still used on large big wall climbing and alpine climbing routes to overcome sections of extreme difficulty that are beyond the difficulties of the rest of the route. A famous big wall climb such as The Nose on El Capitan is accessible to strong climbers as a partial-aid route graded VI 5.9 (5c) C2, but only a tiny handful can handle its 5.14a (8b+) grade as a free climbed route. Aid is also used to develop "next generation" big wall routes (e.g. Riders on the Storm on Cordillera Paine, or the Grand Voyage on Trango Towers). Extreme C5-graded aid-only routes are also still being established, such as Nightmare on California Street on El Capitan.