About a year ago, Mel and I decided to do a big wall in America. A month ago we bailed at the top of the first pitch and flew home without having completed our objective.
The route was Tricks of the Trade in Zion National Park, Utah: 18 pitches of up to 5.10d with a pitch of clean aid climbing. Mel had tried it previously, but as neither of us had successfully climbed a big wall before we had a long list of skills to learn. Big Wall Wednesdays were born, and they would cover pendulumming, jugging, aiding and hauling (plus the many many MANY faffs associated with hauling) on various shorter crags around the Peak District.
We researched and asked questions; practised, faffed, rehashed and refined; got rained on, went to the pub and then we practised some more. We begged and borrowed equipment (thanks to all those who helped us out), and we bought no end of specialist bits and pieces especially for our goal (exciting but expensive). We bought flights, rented a car, made cat-sitting arrangements and took three 24kg bags (plus hand luggage) on the London underground (not advised). And after all that time and expense, we failed.
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- Evening hauling in late 2023
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- Jugging up Windy Buttress at Stoney Middleton
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- Learning to Aid climb
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- Hiding from the midges!
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- Our pride and joy – the big wall belay setup
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- Not an experience I’d recommend
It is quite deflating not to complete a big objective that you’ve put time and effort into. For us the weather was the main issue – a heat wave followed by a storm (as heatwaves often are) gave us a much smaller weather window that we would have liked. This window turned out to be hotter than forecast. Starting the route was a hard decision in the knowledge that failure was likely – is it worth spending all these days faffing about and preparing for something we are unlikely to do when we could be cragging? But as Mel very rightly reminded me: we were there to do a Big Wall, we may as well give it a go.
Bailing was an even harder decision. Partly because you’ve already carried 50kg water and 50kg equipment up a hill and hauled it up a pitch. But it can also be hard to know when to call it a day. Is it really that hot? (Yes it was). Should we just push through regardless? Are we being soft? (Who cares!) There are all sorts of heuristic traps to fall into: we’ve told people we’re going to do this thing, we’ve put in all this time, we’ve come all this way, we’ve spent all this money, this is the only chance we have… Ultimately these are irrelevant, but can easily seem more important than things like heatstroke or taking a bad fall out of a bold chimney. Bailing was the right choice for us (our skills, experience, energy, fitness) in the conditions on the day. So that’s what we did.
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- Pitch 1 of Tricks of the Trade
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- Lowering the haul bag
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- Walking back to the bus stop
That doesn’t make it any less deflating. We lowered the haul bag, abbed off the route, repacked for walking off, poured water over our heads, ate loads of laughing cow cheese and bushwhacked back down to the bus stop where incredibly clean and well-turned-out fellow tourists welcomed us back to civilisation and asked how long we’d be out for (‘just the day, actually’). We spent a good half hour working out where we’d parked (an epitomically human experience), re-pitched our tent, went to the pub and reflected…
Right. So we haven’t done the big wall, we won’t do it on this trip, we’re disappointed… but we have spent a year learning new skills, practised them in context and learned from the experience. Big Wall Wednesdays would continue with the benefit of improved knowledge and experience. Plus – let’s put things into perspective – we’re alive, we’re still friends and we’re in the pub on a really cool holiday.
That is the nature of big objectives: that final push is just a small part of the process. The research, the practise and training you put in beforehand is a bigger chunk of the journey. And as the proverb goes: if you’re not failing, you’re not growing.
Hati
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- After bailing, in front of the buttress
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- One of the many incredible views in the national park
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- A view of The Watchman from our campsite
Beyond the Edge Ltd is based in the Peak District, easily reached by train from London and within easy travelling distance from Sheffield, Manchester, Leeds, Nottingham and other Northern towns and cities.
We are one of the UKs most experienced providers of climbing, walking, scrambling, mountaineering and navigation training courses.
Most of our courses are run in the Peak District National Park which has some of the finest rock climbing, bouldering, walking and hiking in the world.
