Will aid climbing make you a better trad climber?

manpreet Best Answer 2 years ago

I was reflecting on how different disciplines of climbing help you become a stronger climber in other disciplines. Like how bouldering makes you a better sport climber, because it teaches you beta and helps you develop the strength you need to get you through the hard cruxes of a sport route. And how sport climbing makes you a stronger trad climber by giving you the endurance from climbing longer routes, while letting you climb near or at your limit safely while on fixed protection.

Getting into trad climbing is where you make a huge transition from juicing though routes to learning how to route find, place protection, find good belay points and set up bomber anchors. As a sport climber you don't have to commit much brain power into following a route or placing anchors, it's like connect the dots, you just follow the bolts, and clip in your draws until you find the next belay station. Trad climbing requires a lot more specialized gear, a lot more knowledge and a lot more route finding skills.

Being a strong climber isn't good enough for trad climbing, you need to be a wise climber. Most people learn to trad climb I think by following a good leader. You climb with someone who has a lot of wisdom, and you get to clean all the gear they place, which gives you an opportunity to see what they use and how they use it.

Given that aid climbers get a lot more use out of their gear, place way more pro and get a lot more practical experience with it, would it benefit some one getting into trad climbing to first try out aid climbing to to give them more experience with their gear and make them better at placing solid pro?