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I am new to aid climbing, still practicing on easy and short walls. I am getting the feeling that if you use adjustable daisies you don't need a fifi hook anymore, but I could be wrong and miss something.

Dooes an aid climber need a fifi hook if he uses adjustable daisy chains?

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No, if you use an adjustable daisy chain you do not need a fifi hook. Then it is as easy as attaching the extended chain to your placement and adjusting it to the desired length. As adjustable daysies are made from one tape, there is anyway no attachement point to place a fifi hook.

One sidenote: Extending the chain with one hand after attaching it is borderline cumbersome to impossible, so if it has been made too short initially you are in a mess. The adjusting also only works if not twisted or otherwise messed up, so you need to be tidy. For those reasons quite some aid climbers do like to use regular daisy chains.

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  • thank you. So far I used the fifi to go "metal to metal", as I read in a book. That is, to attach to the carabiner to which is attached the aider - not using the fifi on the aider steps. I have seen that Petzl is releasing these very soon. Maybe they could be easier to extend? petzl.com/en/Sport/New/EVOLV-ADJUST#.Vc20OFQrKpc – Dakatine Aug 14 '15 at 9:26
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    That is not the way I learned it: I attach the daisy and the aider (=ladder?) to the placed gear, then put the fifi into a daisy loop to achieve the desired distance to the aider. If I understand correctly, your method always has the shortest distance possible. With a somewhat longer distance you have more reach (but the gear is also more likely to pop out as you have more cross load). Regarding the Petzl device: I do not get the exact mechanism from the pictures but if it holds its promise it seems so, yes. – imsodin Aug 14 '15 at 9:33
  • Thank you for the clarification, I will give it a try. Having no instructors, I am all self taught and my "teachers" are these books: amazon.com/Aid-Basics-Andy-Kirkpatrick-ebook/dp/B00COR3VY4 and amazon.com/How-Wall-Climb-Chris-McNamara/dp/0983322511/… (just as a reference) – Dakatine Aug 14 '15 at 10:52

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