Rock and Moor Intro to Trad Climbing Course

1 or 2 Days

Beginner / Intermediate

South Devon (or Cornwall*)

Ratio: Up to 2 clients to 1 instructor:

ONE DAY
1:1 £200
1:2 £110

TWO DAYS
1:1 £400
1:2 £220


About the Intro to Trad Climbing course:

This Introduction to Trad Climbing course aims to progress you from your current climbing skills level as far as is safely possible within the timeframe.

Trad climbing is a type of outdoor rock climbing where a lead climber places pieces of gear into natural crevices in the rock in stages, to help protect them if they fall. The gear comes in many types, and is removable by a following ‘second’ climber.

Building on your previous climbing knowledge, we will coach the skills required to help you towards your trad climbing goals. This may be to learn seconding skills, become a lead climber or better understand the rock climbing partnership. Your highly qualified and experienced instructor will ensure the learning is suitable to your current level of confidence and experience.

You may have tried outdoor rock climbing and abseiling on a taster session, and wish to learn and practice the fundamental skills of traditional climbing.

Or maybe you have been climbing and bouldering indoors and are looking for a one day introduction to roped climbing outside.

Perhaps you’re looking to join a climbing club and want an introduction to the common best practices to be a Safe Second, to get involved on club meets.

This course could also be tailored as an introduction to learning traditional outdoor lead climbing.

As much as time allows, and depending on your needs, you will learn about outdoor rock climbing equipment, personal safety, belaying techniques, climbing efficiency, understanding the lead climbing partnership and abseiling.

Please note, the safe pathway from a complete beginner to top roping, seconding and then leading trad climbs involves a surprising amount of knowledge, time and practice. (Once you are a lead climber, there are still many advanced skills to learn!) This course will help you on your climbing journey, but you may wish to book additional days if you are keen to progress further.

*One day courses are likely to be based in South Devon. Two day courses (or longer) can be based in South Devon, Cornwall, and potentially North Devon if that best suits your needs. We will happily discuss the options with you.

We would recommend combining this with other Learn Outdoor Rock Climbing courses for a more in-depth learning experience. There may be a discount for course combinations. Please enquire for details.

Objectives of the Intro to Trad Climbing course:

This will entirely depend on your current level, and interests and will be discussed with you, but may include:

  • Top roping skills refresher such as tying in, belaying, and climbing communication.
  • Experience climbing on single/multi pitch climbs (depending on your previous experience)
  • Learning about the lead climbing partnership
  • Climbing ethics and environmental impact
  • Introduction to seconding a lead climber:
    • Rope management
    • Buddy checks
    • Belaying techniques for top roping and lead climbing
    • Removing leader placed protection and systems for clipping on your harness
    • Climbing calls and communication
    • Personal abseiling
  • Introduction to lead climbing:
    • Placing and rating protection
    • Anchor selection and building belays
    • Belaying a second
    • Guide book interpretation
    • Self-evaluating your own development and ability

Included in the Intro to Trad Climbing course:

  • Highly experienced and MCI qualified rock climbing instructor.
  • Use of all essential rock climbing equipment such as climbing harness, helmet, belay device, ropes.
  • Unless otherwise stated, the Intro to Trad Climbing course will be run privately for you, meaning you benefit from a personalised activity, focusing on your individual interests, ability and goals.

All you will need to bring:

  • Warm, comfortable clothing appropriate to the day. It is always worth packing waterproofs.
  • Climbing wall entry fee when the course takes place indoors (not included)
  • A drink
  • Packed lunch and any snacks
  • Walking shoes for the approach
  • Comfortable climbing shoes

If you have your own personal climbing equipment, such as harness, helmet, belay device, screw gate karabiner etc. do please bring them along.

Previous experience:

This course is very flexible, and will help you to progress and learn from whatever level of experience you currently have.

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Testimonials:

“Mike is a fantastic teacher and gets the balance exactly right between developing new skills and keeping the climbing safe. Great day and will be back for more!“

“Mike is a good teacher and extremely knowledgeable. I felt the day was at a good pace to learn and take everything in that was being taught. I highly recommend Rock and Moor.”

“This is my third time going out with Mike in the last 3 months and he’s helped me go from someone who had never rock climbed before to seconding HVS 5a. I have felt a real sense of accomplishment at the end of each session. There are always plenty of tips and advice to go away with and practice between days out, which means the learning doesn’t stop when the ropes are in the van at the end of the day. Looking forward to my next trip out already.
It was great to get onto some tougher climbs and really push myself. Through conversations throughout the day Mike adapted instruction style and goals to help me get the most out of the day. Always felt safe and encouraged to keep going. Mike was very adaptable to my learning needs throughout the day”.

“I highly recommend Mike (Rock & Moor) for climbing tuition, he has a wealth of knowledge and experience to share in a positive and beneficial way. I can say this from personal experience as I recently had a great couple of days with him climbing in Cornwall.”

“I’ve had 2 separate 2 day sessions with Mike. First session as an intro to traditional climbing, second session on climbing safety/self rescue. Mike’s a great teacher, patient and knowledgeable. Brought a lot of confidence to my climbing.

“Great couple of days Mike. The way you handle the boys was “Spot on”. You gave them the independence they needed whilst keeping a watchful eye and pitching in when appropriate.
What you did put the client at the centre and created a powerful “experiential learning opportunity”. This skill is rare to find and much underestimated. I appreciate your skill, and thank you.”

“Bomber weekend! We did the 2 day Intro to Trad Climbing with Mike through Rock and Moor, and had an absolutely amazing experience. The location around Bosigran was perfect for us — stunning scenery, a great variety of routes, and plenty of opportunities to build our skills. We’d only done a tiny bit of seconding before, so Mike did a fantastic job of choosing routes that matched our level while still pushing us to improve.

A big part of the course for us was learning the practical side of trad climbing, particularly setting up belays, placing bomber gear and building anchors, and Mike spent loads of time making sure we understood what we were doing and, more importantly, why. He was incredibly safety-conscious throughout, while also being encouraging and adapting the course to exactly what we wanted to get out of it. We finished the course absolutely exhausted — in the best possible way! — and feeling much more confident and excited to put our new knowledge into practice.

Couldn’t recommend Mike and Rock and Moor highly enough. Thanks for an amazing few days!“

More reviews can be found on Tripadvisor, Google and Facebook.