I grew up in a tower block, so the normal fear that people experience when exposed to height was removed at an early age;tiptoeing along concrete banisters five stories up and climbing behind garbage chutes was an early rite of passage.These experiences should have made life easy for me when, 30 years later, I hung spinning from a single strand of rope. The angle of the mountain below me meant that I wouldn’t hit a thing for 1,000 metres if the cord snapped. Yet in this situation – a situation I’d experienced many times before – it wasn’t the fear of heights that was the problem. Rather, the rational and very real fear of falling. It was 2001 and I was alone and about to complete the Reticent Wall on Yosemite’s El Capitan, the most difficult ‘big wall’ on the planet. In these days of mountaineering speed records, it was comforting in an old school kind of way to look down and trace the line I’d climbed, measuring it not in hours or days, but in weeks. For 12 days, I had hung from this overhanging sheet of diamond-perfect granite, piecing together a line of unimaginable minimalism, the very limit of human adhesion. No matter how strong your fingers were, this was a line that required cunning and artificial aid to scale: hundreds of edges no bigger than a finger nail to be grasped by tiny sky hooks of steel, and cracks so unfriendly they could only be grasped by soft copper nuts that had to be deformed by blows from my hammer in order to grip the mountain.Climbing such a route, where any fall could easily result in serious injury or worse, and with the ever-present void below (even when sleeping) meant that the psychological pressure was immense and unrelenting. Overcoming rational fear and dealing with mental exhaustion was just as much of a trial as the scaling of each section of the route. But by far the biggest pressure was the fear of making a mistake that would see me fall from the wall. On a vertical cliff, anything that’s dropped is lost forever, and that includes one’s guard.

Living on the wall
Big wall climbing, unlike conventional ‘free’ climbing, requires far more than just physical strength and stamina (although they help). In order to scale a route of such length, it’s vital that the climber has the equipment and skills necessary for living on the wall for days or weeks at a time. This involves not only the skills needed to slowly progress inch by inch, such as hammering in pegs, skyhooking and copper heading, but also the ability to take the gear out, haul all necessary survival gear (water, food and bivvy gear), and safely set up camps along the way, suspended in folding sleeping platforms called portaledges.The skills and sheer quantity of equipment needed for such a long climb take several years to acquire, which is generally done by building up from day-long climbs to short walls that feature one or two nights out, before finally tackling longer adventures into the vertical.The climbing rack used is extensive: typically a double set of everything on the easy climbs (cams, nuts, pegs, hooks), increasing as the grade rises to perhaps a triple or quadruple set of everything. Karabiners (krabs) are the glue that keeps everything together, and it’s advisable on anything but the easiest climbs to have at least 100 of them, along with countless slings, cords and locking krabs. Huge racks are best left with the belayer, with the lead climber climbing with a pared down rack, getting extra gear as required via either a haul line or a zip line (a thin rope used to pull up gear or the actual haul line). Most climbers combine their racks for smaller walls, but it’s worth begging, borrowing and stealing extra gear when tackling bigger projects.It’s assumed that anyone attempting to climb a big wall is already a climber, but in order to make the transition, they must extend their general rock and rope skills. First, it’s vital that you learn the art of aid or ‘artificial’ climbing, which involves placing a piece of protection, standing on it (using a ladder-like sling called an ‘aider’), and then fixing a higher piece of protection. The security of these placements, and the distance between each, provides a difficulty rating for the pitch. The aid rating goes from A1 (solid protection throughout the length of the climb), to A5 (marginal protection for tens of metres, with a probable death fall if any mistakes are made). Most climbers will begin on A1 pitches, building up their confidence, and using standard pieces of protection such as nuts and cams to progress. An ideal place to practice this technique is in an old quarry. The second important technique to learn is how to follow a leader on such a pitch. This technique is called ‘seconding’. This is generally carried out using jumars (rope clamps). With jumars, the belayer can climb the leader’s rope quickly and remove the many pieces of gear easily. It’s vital that this technique is carried out safely on all types of pitch (including traverses and pendulums), as many climbers have been killed due to failures in this technique. The basic safety advice is that you should never trust your jumars, as they can – and do – come adrift. Stay tied in to the rope at all times. Once these two techniques have been practiced, it will be possible to progress to more difficult climbs and begin to use more sophisticated gear such as pegs and sky hooks. The only way to get better at this style of climbing is to practice, otherwise you’ll be so slow on the wall that you’ll run out of either time or water long before you’re done. This style of climbing is far removed from the freedom of free climbing, and very often can seem more like doing DIY. Yet it’s the reward of slow progress through skill that many people enjoy, as well as the fact that it’s possible to ascend to places that free climbers can’t yet reach.

The big wall haul

Once the climbing itself is sorted, it’s time to learn the basics of moving and living on a wall. Hauling is used to bring up supplies, which can range from a day’s food and water for two climbers (several kilograms), to a monster two-week load for four (200 kilograms or more). Learning how to haul efficiently and safely is vital. The load is carried in tough vinyl haulbags, which are smooth, so they run over the rock with little drag. They are hauled via a pulley with a built-in cam, so the rope will only travel one way. The climber hauls the bags up using his or her body weight or a ‘Z’ pulley. Hauling is a slow and exhausting process at first, when the bags are full of water and bagels, but as the days roll by, it slowly gets easier.Correctly packing a haul bag is vital if all your supplies are to make it up the wall. The bag is lined with your foam sleeping mat, which provides padding. The water bottles go in the bottom. For a hot-weather climb, it’s worth carrying at least four litres of water each per day, as dehydration is a real killer on a wall. On my solo of the Reticent wall, I carried 60 litres of water, bringing my total bag weight up to 150 kilos.Food goes in next. In Yosemite, grub tends to be simple stuff that doesn’t require cooking. Most climbers take tins of stew, beans and chili, along with cheese, bagels and tortillas.Bivvy gear follows food. All climbers should take a bivvy bag and a synthetic rather than down-filled sleeping bag: a down bag will die in a storm, no matter how weatherproof your flysheet is,and the US Park Service has been known to charge climbers with recklessness for using such bags.Spare hardware and storm gear goes on top of your sleeping bag, along with sufficient snacks and food for the following day, an MP3 player and speakers, and a digital camera.Your portaledge is attached under the haulbag. A portaledge is a folding cot that is often the only sleeping option on blank walls and can be erected in a couple of minutes. It’s vital that your portaledge also features a tough flysheet, as storms on walls can be very dangerous, producing huge amounts of runoff and often pinning you down for a number of days.

Pack a poop tube
In the old days, climbers would relieve themselves into a paper bag that they would throw down from the wall. The idea was that they would collect up their bags when they finally descended, but many failed to do so. This tactic has now become illegal (much to the relief of those walking along the bottom of the walls). Hence the development of the poop tube – essentially a capped plastic drain pipe. Full paper bags are stored in this tube until they can be disposed of. The tube is hung as far away from the haul bag as possible, and adding some kitty litter is a good idea.A simple first aid kit and repair kit also lives in the haul bag, along with the most vital item in a big waller’s arsenal – gaffer tape. If it can’t be bodged with gaffer tape, then it’s time to call it a day.Clothing for big wall climbing varies from Roger Moore style safari suits to Lenny Kravitz hippy weirdness, but for El Capitan, a tough but cool style is the way to go. Long baggy pants, a long-sleeved top and a sun hat (worn under a lightweight helmet) will keep your skin covered and reduce dehydration. Bear in mind that bright colours look good in photos.Fingerless leather gloves are also a good idea, as wall climbing is pretty tough on the hands, and knee pads give protection when lead climbing or hauling equipment. On your feet, go for sticky approach shoes that you can climb in and take along a comfy pair of rock boots for the free climbing. Full winter storm gear should always be taken on any wall, because no matter how nice the weather seems on leaving the ground, you’re guaranteed to get hammered if you leave it behind: several climbers have died in storms on El Capitan, even though it’s in sunny California.But most important of all is a great climbing partner and the desire to scale the wall. That’s because big walling is by far the most difficult discipline in the world of climbing, and for much of it, you’ll feel as if you’re going through hell.As a great man once said, “Just keep going”… oh, and don’t look down.