This is a piece mainly aimed towards people wishing to teach trad climbing or already doing so and it looks at things to consider for novice climbers through to more advanced climbers.
Running the BMC youth meets, helping with the WTF 2019 and guiding lovely people on great routes all over the UK have been the highlights of this type of work. The lowest stress work is guiding, then teaching climbing and top end was organising events with multiple teams out but these were also some of the most rewarding. Teams out in North Wales, the Peak, Cornwall, the Lakes, guiding on Shelterstone, Torridon, the Lakes, Lundy, Wales, hard to beat.
It’s worth teaching climbing well as the habits you get people into might save their lives one day or prevent a serious accident. Buddy checks, bomber belays, belaying well, choosing suitable climbs, risk assessing falls, being ‘wily’ with protection, self rescue techniques, abseiling, knowing when to back off and how to.
On first getting into climbing I can hold my hand up and say I did a great deal of clueless and dangerous things. I tried to lead climb too quickly, on a VS, Brown slab corner, I was overambitious, dad said I shouldn’t, I fell off, cats clawed down before landing on footholds and managing to scamper back up, bricking it, with dad who was belaying justifiably pissed off with me.
I remember being on top of Shepherds crag belaying my dad up another route. An instructor came over to me, looking disgustedly at my set up, and said I should get input on what I was doing and my belays. Dad taught me to tie an overhand knot straight into any anchor, rather than having multiple anchors, equalised and isolated as is the norm nowadays.
When I was 17 I took out Emma Twyford when she was 12 yrs old. She said she wanted to lead an extreme. I said great and got her straight on the sharp end on The Grasp at Shepherds. She took a fall, came down and then did it. It gets E2 now and is a little knarly, with the hard bit being fairly near the ground.
On the BMC youth climbing weekends I used to go on them as an Under 18, later helped on them and may years later eventually organised many. On one I helped on when young I got given 2 kids. Walking up to Pavey Ark in the Lakes one of them said they’d led E1. Great, I thought.
“Jump on this VS”.
The lad who said he’d done E1 set off up a left slanting groove and it quickly became apparent he didn’t know how to place gear, was pretty wobbly and I stood watching, ineffectually at the bottom wondering what I could do. He somehow made it to the belay and I soloed up and got the lads to second me on the upper pitches. That’s how the BMC youth meets used to roll and that’s partly why they stopped running for a decade or so.
When I was passed my daft younger days I worked for The National Mountain Centre in Wales, Plas Y Brenin for a few years. Jesus, there were a lot of courses on all the time. In the staff room all the climbers would sit on the right side and all the kayakers on the left, a natural segregation. When the weather was good the climbers would be smiling and kayakers miserable, when it rained it was vice versa. You got to work with some great instructors and the odd one not so great but by and large next to people who were near the top of their game and knew how to deliver excellent courses.
It’s worth mentioning that Mountain Training qualifications, RCI, RCDI and MCI are all well worth getting, giving basic crag competence and skills for looking after novices on single or multi pitch crags. It’s also worth mentioning that these are minimum standard awards designed to reduce risk of serious accidents by sharing and assessing good practice.
Some of the most incompetent people I’ve worked with (stories too long for this article, perhaps I'll throw this into another piece) or have heard poor reports about have been highly qualified so I’d take a measure of an instructor by more than just qualification. The level for MCI, WMCI and IFMGA guide range is only to have to climb HVS-E1 which means the bar is relatively low, with some well qualified people being relative novices in terms of their climbing ability and knowledge whereas others, such as Dave Rudkin and Esther Foster are experts and passionate climbers.
The personal climbing level for any UK climbing award is relatively low but if you are guiding then having a high personal ability on the climbs is likely to give a higher level of safety and if running sport courses you can be of much more help to your clients if you can climb the routes they are wanting to do and offer advice on the moves.
On any course it’s worth having a group shelter as well as a 1st Aid kit, few instructors carry one on rock courses but if there is an incident it could come in handy.
Beginner courses
A good thing about beginners’ courses is that you can give them everything, from zero to hero, there is plenty they need to know. Effectively a taster to climbing, you want to be careful to give everyone a great time and not scare anyone off. If you are in North Wales you’ll likely get to know the routes on Idwal Slabs, Milestone Buttress, Tremadog, Clogwyn yr Oen, Holyhead and Carreg Wastad pretty well.
Most Plas Y Brenin 5 day rock courses for beginners follow a similar structure which makes plenty of sense:
Day 1: Intros, backgrounds, reasons for coming. Bottom roping, fig 8s, belaying, anchors. Single pitch crag.
Day 2: Top roping, clove hitches, equalising and isolating anchors, belaying from above, lowering, abseils. It’s worth taking plenty of care on this day, many newbies struggle to belay from above at first, worth backing up the tail ropes here. Single pitch crag.
Day 3: Multi pitching, seconding safely, belayer position, abseiling, protecting belays. Normally climbing in series, rather than parallel, better for teaching). When you have inexperienced seconds its worth doing shorter pitches if possible so you can keep an eye on them and keep good communications with them. It’s also worth saying twice+ not to unclip from each belay until they hear ‘climb when ready’ and their name, many people start doing it as soon as you shout safe. Very importantly, novices can belay shit, so don’t lead up anything you might fall off.
Day 4: More multi pitching and possible lead opportunity (with instructor on rope nearby). When you have people leading its worth keeping a close eye on the belayer as well as the climber. Getting the climber to get 2 bits of protection between them and the ground asap is always a good idea.
Day 5: More multi pitching, possibly more lead opportunities and a briefing to be careful when they lead on their own as they won’t have a guardian angel checking over their protection and set ups.
Most beginners will be happy on V.diffs, probably a lot of severes and may get up some VSs but HVS+ will often shut down newbies although I did have someone who could second E1s straight off, he was a scaffolder by trade though.
If you are teaching newbies to climb in North Wales you’ll likely get to know routes on Tryfan Bach, and the easier ones on Tremadog like Booboo and Oberon. The weather is often better at Holyhead Mountain so routes like Hat, Elephant and New boots and panties are also good shouts. Llanberis Pass is actually a trickier venue than places like Ogwen to find suitably easy angled routes for newbies to lead on.
If people are already leading indoors a two day course might be suitable to get them leading on trad outdoors.
For me to have someone on the lead who is a newby I want them to be able to build a belay on the ground (low stress environment) and seem comfortable seconding. If they can’t build a good belay whilst on the ground they won’t be able to place good protection whilst leading and therefore aren’t ready to do so. There is no need to have anyone on the lead too soon, who may not be ready, by seconding an experienced leader people can learn a lot of good practice and see how protection is placed as well as getting adept at how to climb outdoors.
It’s easy doing this on easy angled, slabby terrain, but on steeper climbs and performance end coaching you’ll have to think about the best place for your rope to be and the redirection points you are using. I normally clip in direct into redirection points with a quickdraw, clip a jumar above and clip into this then undo the overhand redirection knot. You need to make sure the client is comfortable and out of the way of you when you are doing this. It’s worth getting adept at doing this quickly.
I say this method of managing clients leading is standard but not always. For very experienced clients or 1:1 coaching you may end up belaying but your knowledge of the client ability and route choice are very important if this is the case as if they get into trouble with you belaying at the bottom you can be of little help. That said I have had a client who onsighted three E4s over a wknd with me who had an experience level to allow this to happen, steepish climbs with clean fallout zones.
Rock improver courses
On ‘performance’ rock courses there will be more variety in what you’ll be covering than on beginners courses and likely more options for venues you can head to and climbs you can do. This can be particularly useful if the weather isn’t great. For instance if clients can do VS or HVS-E2 then Striptease, the Carreg Hyll Drem girdle, and Hardd around Tremadog can be done even if the weather is horrendous, they should stay dry. Clogwyn Y Grochan is also pretty good in the light rain and only a 10 minute walk from the car, it’s very quick drying.
It goes without saying that finding a dry crag is a key element on any rock course. I used to enjoy going out in the pissing rain to do routes when I was younger, but as I’ve aged I’ve realised it was by and large a crap idea, especially if you are directing a rock course, the likelihood of an instructor slipping on somewhere they shouldn’t fall off goes up massively and you can get some daft sods allowed to direct courses.
Get OCD about checking forecasts and knowing areas and crags that stay dry or sheltered. As mentioned earlier, Holyhead is often good when the mountains can be in the rain, the limestone around Llandudno is in a rainshadow from the prevailing South Westerlies and the slate quarries dry super fast. There are not many days in a year where you can’t find dry rock if you try in North Wales.
When you get people coming on courses who can already lead trad climbs but want to improve there are plenty of reasons people have for coming. Some examples of these are:
- They want input on pushing themselves as safely as possible (Beginner courses normally focus on the basic skills and getting people to stay well within their comfort zone when leading).
- Want someone to check their gear and what they are doing is ok, to improve confidence.
- They want to achieve a new grade or a dream climb.
- They suffer from anxiety, particularly on the lead.
- They’ve taken some knarly falls and want input to reduce the likelihood of this happening.
- They are afraid of falling.
- Never used double ropes.
- Want to learn some rescue techniques.
- They don’t get much opportunity to climb except on these courses.
- They’ve been climbing forever and don’t really know why they are there (beware that longevity in an activity is only very loosely linked to performance)
- Their parents sent them.
- Intros, backgrounds and aspirations.
- Rack check (beyond newbies kit offset wires, micro wires, more slings, larger selection of cams and micro-cams are all useful for tackling harder climbs).
- Get them to second a climb or 2, one similar to their top lead level they wish to try during the course, once suitably warmed up obviously. There will be more verbalising what you are doing than if you were just guiding. How you are protecting the cruxes, assessing fall zones, warning the belayer if nervous, placing a cam near a wire to reduce rope drag on wire etc. I normally climb in series on this if possible too, often climbing it on a single with the client unclipping the single rope and clipping 1 of their double ropes through each runner, like a mock lead.
- After this then they can get a lead each (if you have 2 clients). For everyones benefit I choose routes that have ok to good protection. An example of good E1s would be Seams the Same and Bella Legosi is dead, on the slate, cracks which people can take their time on. Equinox and Seams the same are similar for first VS leads. The better your knowledge of climbs in an area the more you can guide your clients to appropriate routes for them to try.
- Occasionally I’ll put protection in for people either before they lead or during if I’m concerned about a fall zone or if they are struggling a fair bit on the climb.
- Review of the day and make a plan for the next.
The above is roughly what I go through on the Teaching performance trad courses, principally as CPD for AMI members. And get someone to give coaching to another member on a route which they are going to find tricky, unlike the lead climb coaching people do with newbies.
A key take away from a performance course is managing areas that they might fall off to minimise the risk. Newbies starting out should want to stay well within their climbing limit, so they can focus on placing good protection and develop their general crag competence.
Once people are pushing their grade as those coming on performance courses are, going for routes from VS-E2+ they are highly likely to take a fall at some point. When they leave your course you want them to have a good idea of managing this:
- Making a nest of gear around a crux area.
- Warning belayer when you are ready to commit.
- Focusing on long deep breaths.
- Remembering to shake out and keep a track on footholds on cruxes+bulges.
- If the fall area is clear they can commit, if it’s not it’s down to their recent climbing exploits and self awareness to decide if they want to commit or back off and come back another day.
- Rapid climbing on cruxes.
It’s worth mentioning that although I drill into people to risk assess falls and get into good pre-fall procedures I try to avoid people falling or if they are that they are not going very far at all. Some friends have taken falls on trad that have looked innocuous but have led to injury.
- Headgame: Managing anxiety before and on the lead. Getting people into a mindset that they can move above gear, that good holds will appear and breaking the climb down a step at a time in as confident a manner as they can muster. A positive aggressive style is very efficient and a bit of anxiety can improve performance. Can be hard to tap into a good psyche level sometimes where you are excited and willing to give 100% but it makes such a difference if you can. Many of my hardest onsights have been done doing next to no sport climbing and little training during those years, but just being in a good headspace from doing a lot of trad climbing.
- Clipping: People are often crap and slow at clipping quickdraws. There are four ways of clipping, 2 with each hand. You are going to fall furthest when you are about to clip, so practicing on the ground pays off quickly. I get people to do everything with 1 hand on easier climbs so that when they get onto VS/HVS or harder they are adept at placing gear fast with 1 hand.
- Speed: Speed at placing protection is important when the climbs get steeper. Quicker you fire ok gear in, the quicker you reduce the possibility of a knarly fall. This is where having a well organised rack is super handy, wires and cams are first to be placed so want to be on the front of your harness, quickdraws on back sides, but each to their own obvs.
- Fall procedures: Risk assessing falls for crux areas, nests of gear below, warning belayer if going for it, never getting rope behind leg. Getting this pre-possible fall procedure ingrained is super important for pushing yourself as safely as possible.
- Self rescue: Links to the headgame above. If people are climbing on sea cliffs or more remote terrain they can feel more confident if they know how to deal with possible incidents. Key things I think people should know how to do is ascend and descend a rope with prussocks, escape the system and simple hoists.
- Falling: Kids who compete in comps quickly desensitise to falling off indoors. People who sport climb normally desensitise to falling. Committing 100% above even good trad protection with a clean fall zone is a bigger deal to get your head around.
- Awareness: Haven’t got a good idea of what they are capable of and want an expert to see how far they can take their climbing at that point in time. (I’ve had people on courses come and climb 6c+ after only having led 6a+ before hand).
- Jamming: Great for resting, being able to see protection and obviously essential for many crack climbs. A good finger or hand-jam often feels better than a jug to me on a route and guestimating where you can use them on a route, particularly if you are in ‘extremis’ might save you. To relate it to bouldering think about a bloc like Brad Pitt, if you do it with a heelhook, its 7c, without its 8a+. A route like Grond on Dinas Cromlech is E1/2 if you can jam well but surely feels about e4 without. If people don’t get adept at jamming they leave themselves at a serious disadvantage on many climbs.
- Footwork: The footholds outdoors are by and large a lot smaller and more nuanced than those found indoors. A session on the slate can really show people what they can get away with using and how good their shoes are. I often use the outside edge for the smallest footholds as this retains its angle more than the over-used front of the toe and uses different muscles in the calf. For the smallest foot holds, edges or smears, you don’t want to be on them for very long at all.
- Need to know how redpointing works: Mainly sport and indoor related but the gains made transfer into trad. Very good for getting people used to falling off on terrain they know well. Getting crux, clips and top half wired. A rest day or 2 before serious attempts on longer term projects. Attrition mindset (not for everyone, redpointing has sometimes felt like psychological warfare).
- Don’t like bouldering: I never used to see bouldering as climbing, few people did, look at the old guides and there was a page given to places like the bowderstone, as an afterthought. Look at it now. It’s not totally transferable to trad, which is predominantly headgame, endurance, technique and footwork biased but Dave Macleods 9/10 climbers make the same mistake point to its importance for improving at climbing. One session per week you’ll normally do more hard moves than in a year of trad climbing.
- General fitness: Many trad climbs have a big approach walk. And then you may be bridged in corners or stood on small footholds for ages. Having strong legs and good general fitness can pay off big time. A bit of running and basic core sessions can make a difference.
- Flexibility: Instructors often tell people to take small steps and get used to using small footholds. This is all well and good but sometimes there is nothing to do but do a high step, I personally prefer this to using dodgier small footholds unless I have to. Easy to spot when you are observing people climbing. The more flexible you are the better the footholds you get to use.
- Route reading: Most deckouts indoors happen between the 1st ad 3rd clips. People should know where they are going to clip from as part of the safety chain. On trad climbs if the start is tricky or strenuous you want to gain an idea of what you can get in. I’ll often direct my belayer to where I want them, particularly if there are directional wires that might flick out low down if the belayer is in the wrong spot or I’m worried I’ll land on their heads.
- Getting adept at using double ropes: The yanks don’t understand why we use them but on any climb that has a slight traverse or goes around an arête they are miles safer, as well as allowing you to abseil twice the distance as climbing on a single rope. Split the route into 2 halves, a left and right and use each rope accordingly. On longer pitches if the climbing is steady low down its worth extending the low protection more, to reduce rope drag higher up.
- Motivation: Written goals are considerably more likely to be achieved, so write your goals down, more details the better. Get partners involved for trips and target routes you want to have a go at.
- Tactics: If people haven’t done a good deal of bouldering or sport they may not have developed tactics to have top form for a big lead day. For big redpoints having 2 rest days before hand, having an excellent warm up, knowing number of attempts to give something and rest time between attempts.
- Training: Specific for trad climbing. The new boards and climbing gyms are actually pretty naff for training for most trad routes, where the angles are easier and the physical necessities are more about balance and finger endurance on vertical to slabby terrain. Thats why the amazingly strong boulderer you see on the wall loses it when they are on a VS outdoors.
- Sport climbing: Interlinks with trad climbing pretty well, particularly for headpointing and as there is so much of it on limestone it can help with climbing in places like Pembroke and most steeper trad venues. Large fitness gains on sport can be made in a matter of a few weeks, so if you can do a bit in the spring it can set you up well for a summer of trad.
- Training plans: When I used to run the development coach scheme one of the most useful sessions in that 2 days course was getting attendees to write 3 month training plans for different clients, with different aspirations and then reviewing the training plans. On less experienced clients there might be sessions covering ‘Fundamentals’ of climbing (flagging, rockovers, footwork etc) whereas more advanced there may be a week or 2 of Power endurance and 4 by 4s. For me personally I normally write out a climb I really want to do, then use my diary to build a small plan around it, and to review sessions on the climb.
Big thanks to everyone who has come on or helped on a course with me over the years.