I finally got a few hooks for my aid rig: cliff hanger, grappling hook, cam hook, and a tomahawk. I’ve had a few aid climbs with my standard pro and am getting comfortable with that so I thought it was time to get into some of the stranger aid gear — by no means the strangest!

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There is a beautiful granite rail bridge near here where we go to boulder regularly. It’s great to train on and nice to be out early before family life intervenes. It also turns out to be perfect for aid bouldering. I think I got placements for all my gear, even the tomahawk. The buttresses are low angled so great for ladder-only ascending traverses. The pylons are vertical so need a harness and daisy chains, great to practice all that too; you just need to get smooth at managing all the gear. The ladders are a Climb Design prototype made at Industrial Sewing Workshop. I was going for port & starboard with the red and green colouring but they ended up looking a bit Christmasy!