WOMEN’S CLIMBING COURSES

Women’s Intro to Outdoor Climbing 

Rock climbing outdoors is an amazing experience! You think you want to try it? Or you’ve already been a few times, tagging along with more experienced partners, but you aren’t confident about your own skills? Our women’s Outdoor Sport Climbing 101 will help you develop the skills needed to start sport climbing outdoors.

This clinic will include instruction and practice on the ground and skills demonstration and practice on the rock on single-pitch, bolted sport climbs. There will be opportunity to top-rope and lead climb (for those who are interested).

This clinic will cover the following topics:

• Equipment overview
• Choosing and reading routes
• Movement on real rock
• Sport leading, “mock” leading (lead climbing with an additional top-rope) and lead falls (if you’re interested!)
• Lead belay techniques and considerations
• Building and cleaning sport anchors
• Being a responsible outdoor climber (awareness of common hazards, environmental impacts and other people).

Prerequisite: experience top-rope and/or lead belaying.

Women’s Intro to Trad Climbing

Cracks, cams and jams! Do you want to climb in places like Indian Creek, Yosemite or the Gunks? Maybe your local crag has some beautiful crack you’ve been eyeing. Or you want to go climbing in the mountains. With trad climbing, the possibilities are endless. But it may seem daunting to start: There’s so much gear to choose from! Does it work? And how do you even climb a crack?! This Intro to Trad clinic is designed to be an accessible place to start or to improve your skills.

This clinic will include instruction and practice on the ground and skills demonstration and practice on the rock on single-pitch crack/traditionally protected climbs. There will be top-rope climbing and the opportunity to lead climb is possible (for those who are interested and placing consistently solid protection).

We will cover the following skills:

• Trad (traditional) gear: what it is and how to use it
• Assessing rock quality
• Building trad anchors
• Crack climbing technique
• Leading and “mock” leading (lead climbing with an additional top-rope) on trad gear

Prerequisite: experience belaying. Preferred: Outdoor climbing 101 clinic (or equivalent experience).