Rock Climbing Logo

Rock Climbing



Sun 6 Apr 2014 9:00am - 6:00pm

Posted by Aaron L on Tue, 25 Mar 2014
Leaders: Aaron L
Standard: app/trips.standards.Lead pass indoors - dated prior to 25/3/2014, or d
Meeting: Tue, 1 Apr 2014, 6:30 pm


Requirements: Your technical climbing ability is mostly irrelevant to your ability to stay safe while rock climbing. So the requirement for this SAFETY course is you must already have a lead pass indoors and want to take the next step - outdoor sport climbing. Preference given to those going on the Nowra trip at easter. (NB: for those who don't fit the above requirements, there will be another LTL1 during the easter holidays)

Anyone who has gotten the "climbing bug" and wants to learn to lead climb outdoors this year, this is the first module in a 3 part course designed to teach you everything you need to know about climbing safely in the outdoors.  The reason it is in 3 modules is to give you time to get enough experience in each module to learn the next.  Remember also that the focus of these courses is on safety - not your climbing ability.

In past years this was run as 3.5 modules - the first 0.5 "mini" module was teaching top-rope indoor climbers how to lead climb indoors.  That mini-module will no longer be run - this year the first pre-requisite to come on these courses is to already have a lead-pass from an indoor climbing gym, or to demonstrate your ability to lead climb and lead-belay safely indoors.  All of the Gyms in Melbourne have lead courses available if you don't already have a lead pass.

A description of all three  modules to the course are as follows (more in-depth descriptions can be found by looking at the module itself):

Learn To Lead 1 - Sport Climbing Outdoors
Pre-requisites: Must have a lead pass dated prior to 25/3/2014 from any indoor climbing gym in Melbourne, and have used it to lead-climb indoors at least 3 times this semester (yes, you only have a couple of weeks to achieve this).  You must also have mastered the clip-training board in the MUMC clubrooms.

The 6 April sport climbing course is for those who plan to attend the Nowra trip at Easter.  Priority will be given to people who are going on that trip AND have a lead pass already (i.e. as at 25/3/2014)

I will run another LTL1 course during the Easter holidays (date TBC) for those who do not have a lead pass yet, or are not going on the Nowra trip at Easter.  For you, the cut-off date for your lead-pass will be 15/4/2014.

Course content: we will take the skill you know on indoor plastic into the outdoor environment.  We will teach you how to set up anchors on pre-bolted rock, as well as returning safely to the ground with all of your gear.  Multi-pitch climbing will not be covered until module 3. 

These skills will enable you and a partner to travel pretty much anywhere in the world, find a sport-climbing destination (there are lots) and have a whole lot of fun!  It's a great way to get your technical climbing abilities up without worrying too much about advanced safety techniques.  Many of today's climbers simply stop here and never learn trad climbing - a worthwhile path if you would rather work on your technical climbing ability than explore unchartered rock faces.  On the other hand, most of the really great climbing areas in Victoria are all trad-gear only, so if you aren't moving on anytime soon and still want to climb... the next modules are worthwhile.

Homework: your homework after this part of the course is to get as much experience as possible.  Before the next module, you must have been lead-climbing on an outdoor club trip at least once, and preferably you have gone out with friends to practice as well.  You will also need to have followed a leader on more than 500m of (at least some) trad climbing to attend the trad module.  Top-roping outdoors and purely sport climbing outdoors is not counted towards your 500m - you need to have had some exposure to trad gear, and pulling it out is a great way to get that.

The max leader to beginner ratio for this trip is 1:4.

 

This module sets you up to attend the follow-on modules:

Learn To Lead 2 - Trad Climbing will take what you have learned (and practiced) and add the difficult element of traditional gear placements, including trad anchors.  Again, this course will not cover multi-pitch climbing, but focus on single-pitch and returning safely to the ground with all of your gear.  See the trip description (*currently links to last year's version)  for more details.

Learn To Lead 3 - Multi-Pitch In the final module of this series we will again take what you have learned and apply it to rock faces much higher than 30m.  See the trip description (*currently links to last year's version) for more details.


Back to list of trips