What's in my pack: big wall gear by Brent Barghahn
Brent on a crux section of El Corazon, El Capitan. Image: https://www.brentbarghahn.com/climbing-blog/el-corazon-ground-up-2022crux
Brent Barghahn, professional climber and humble bad-ass, knows a thing or two about big walls.
He has some very impressive free ascents on El Capitan, such as El Corazon, El Nino, and Golden Gate.
He’s also an innovator of climbing gear, much of it for lead rope solo and top rope solo. Check out his company, Avant Climbing.
You can read some detailed stories of his climbing adventures on his blog.
One of his blog posts is a collection of general big wall tips, with a link to a detailed gear checklist.
The big wall tips are excellent. Many of them you'll find on the Alpinsavvy big wall section, such as":
using a tagline, among others.
In addition to the expert tips is Brent’s schweeeeet gear checklist. Attention to detail is crucial on a big wall, and a solid checklist like this will help you bring most everything you need.
Yes, it's mostly focused on free climbing, which is beyond the skill level for most of us plodders, but it's still is useful for aid climbing.
(If his blog ever goes away, here’s a link to a copy of the gear checklist.)
Want to get to know Brent?
Here’s a longform interview and demonstration with him from my pal Ryan Jenks at HowNOT2, discussing lead rope solo techniques.