HOOKING UP: The Ultimate Big Wall and Aid Climbing Manual
​By Fabio Elli & Peter Zabrok
Versanti Sud, Milano Press

I have just finished reading Fabio Elli’s and Peter Zabrok’s Hooking Up –The Ultimate Big Wall and Aid Climbing Manual. I am now in need of a stretch and my whiskers need pruning. This is no normal climbing manual; this is a biblical testament to all things big wall climbing. 

Hooking Up comprehensively covers leading and seconding, hauling and fixing ropes, gear and history, vertical camping and even that crazy game of rope soloing.

For good measure, there are also chapters on big wall speed climbing and alpine aid. Some favourites of mine are towards the end: How to Learn to Aid Climb and Bitchin’ Places to Climb, which are the authors’ selections of the world’s best big walls. And don’t forget Pete’s Glossary of Dr. Piton-isms – you’ll need to grab a beer, as this is not a study but rather entertainment!

There are many laughs to accompany your wising up as you turn the pages of Hooking Up. Weighing in at 1.6kg, there are 670 pages, 3000+ colour photos and 17 stories from the best in the world to keep your stoke building, and to inspire you to get out there and test some of the knowledge you’ve learned in this tome of big wall beta.

Now aid climbing is not for your Nike-wearing, hoop-dunking or dunking-donut everyday bro. It’s serious shit requiring dedicated skill building. Fabio and Pete keep telling you throughout the text that aid climbing, solo climbing, speed climbing, rappelling, and everything else is dangerous, really dangerous. This cautionary warning is like salt to every chapter - as important as some of the techniques and uses of equipment discussed, like things not recommended by gear manufacturers.

In saying that Pete and Fabio go deep into explaining the ropes and rurps, the nuts and bolts, and the ledges and edges of all things aid climbing, I should add that there is so much information explaining cluster-fucks and set-ups, things became a bit messed up in my brain! I recommend that you take pieces of this book – in small bites like a fine pasta – then go find a rusted-on big wall climber and practise-the-shit-out of this stuff before you get to those solo aid and alpine aid chapters.

The stories within the text help keep it real. Folks like Jim Bridwell, Erik Sloan, John Middendorf, Chris McNamara, Andy Kirkpatrick, Mike Libecki, Libby Sauter and David Allfrey share their best and worst moments on the baddest-ass walls in the world. Hooking Up recognizes the masters, and their stories are a gold frame to the big wall artistry explained in this book.

So if you want to learn, be inspired by cool climbers, get tips on how to do your big wall stuff even cleaner, lighter and brighter, then buy yourself a copy of Hooking Up.

It’s a master class in big wall climbing, from its authors who want you to go out and have a great time up there, and then get you home safely for cheers and beers, even if “home” is your portaledge a couple thousand feet off the deck! Well done to Fabio and Pete for this collaboration and classic contribution to the global climbing community. 

The Authors

Co-author Fabio Eli

FABIO ELLI has a real job as a chemical engineer and lives in the north of Italy near Como, where, as of this writing, he is currently confined to his house under lockdown for COVID-19. Fabio was introduced to climbing and the mountains by his dad when he was 14, and since then has courted his climbing addiction with bodacious big wall ascents throughout Europe and North America.

Peter Zabrok, aka. "Piton Pete" being photo bombed by another Yosemite fixture, Alex Honnold.

​PETER ZABROK started playing with ropes as a caver then began climbing more than 40 years ago. Pete is a self-unemployed financial advisor and dirtbag wall rat. This climber is one of the nicest guys you will encounter out there, and he’ll play you a tune on any piano he sees while drinking margaritas like an athlete chugs Gatorade. He’s, like, Canadian, eh? But he can be found in Yosemite every spring and fall, if they ever reopen the border (another CoVID fall-out). At home in Ontario, Debbie, Peter’s wife, tries to keep him honest as they climb ice and rock together. ​

CONTACT (to buy the book in English contact Peter Zabrok at passthepitonspete@hotmail.com ​
​FACEBOOK: @Fabio Elli, @Peter Zabrok