Why do so many people sport climb 5.10 but trad climb 5.6? Well, progressing at trad climbing is tough! You could be getting stuck by; not trusting your gear, being afraid to fall, not having crack climbing skills, placing poor gear, having holes in your knowledge, lacking confidence in yourself, or many other things!

A tight ratio on this program will allow your AMGA Certified Guide or Instructor to see where you are at and whats holding you back! You’ll then get to work on those skills with expert guidance

Who is this course for?

• You’ve taken a trad course, have gone trad climbing on your own, and want to get continued instruction.
• You learned to trad climb from a mentor but are having trouble progressing.
• Whenever you climb trad you are terrified and feel like you are soloing.
• You climb 5.[bigger number] on sport but 5.[much smaller number] on gear.
• You’ve been climbing trad for a long time but never challenge yourself in your leads.

Itinerary
We’ll start off with a round table discussion about what we feel is holding us back in our climbing. We’ll do some ground school review of gear placements touching on more advanced considerations than what you may have gotten in the past. We’ll then get on ropes mock leading with a top rope back up and we will take incremental falls on our gear, building trust or discovering mistakes.

We will progress from there differently for each individual. Some folks will be ready to lead some challenging climbs, others will want to practice more mock leads, and others may work on getting comfortable with small falls.

At the end of the day, we’ll group up, share what we learned, and exchange contact info with some new partners!

Curriculum

• What might hold us back
• Changing “the leader shall not fall” mentality
• Intermediate gear placement considerations
• Overall pitch protection strategies
• When it is unsafe/safe to fall
• Incremental fall practice
• Personalized instruction for YOUR challenges
• Crack climbing movement skills

Prerequisites

• Personal trad leading experience (if you don’t check out our Intro to Trad course instead!)
• Solid lead and top rope belaying skills
• Capable of top roping 5.8 outside
• At least 1 year of climbing experience