Aid Climbing

Is a form of rock climbing that involves the use of highly specialised, manmade equipment to make the climb possible, and to assist the climber in doing the climb or route.

This may involve hammering a piton, a peg or large nail type piece of metal into a crack in the rock to pull or stand on, or placing a special metal hook over an edge to give the same assistance.

Because of the nature of aid climbing, i.e. using equipment to actually climb on, and the large nature of some of the crags climbed in this fashion, sometimes literally tons of equipment may be needed to complete these aid routes, with a lot of it being hauled up the rock face by the climbers on it.