Trad Is Rad Multi-Pitch Climbing Seminar 

GAIN CONFIDENCE IN THE MULTI-PITCH CLIMBING WORLD!

Our Three-Day trad leaders’ seminar helps you and your partner build lead confidence through practice, clean up your top-belay systems, and improve communication with your partner.

Then gives you a toolkit that inspires confidence to make educated rescue decisions when climbing doesn’t go quite as expected. Ready?

This adventure takes place in Golden, Colorado.

Pre-Course Call:

Our team extends the offer to schedule a group call before your course. They will discuss crag options for the day, review gear needs, and share a general time plan for the climbing day. This is also a great way to ask any questions.

Morning:

Meet at the trailhead given to you by your guide, share in some group hellos, and share a morning meeting,

The team will make any small adjustments to the kit and then take a stroll to the crag.

An integral part of climbing is familiarity with the area and its history. Our team shares some stories and educates as we approach.

Day 1: Learn to Lead Trad:

Conversations and Practicals around; Risk Management, Route Selection, Guidebook Comprehension, Gear Organization, Climbing Signals and Communication, Placing Gear and Building Anchors, Lead Strategy, Mock Leads, and Critiques.

The focus of this day is on building strong traditional climbing foundations that will set your climbing up for long-term success. Instruction will be limited to a single-pitch setting on this first day.

Day 2: Learn to Lead Trad (continued):

Practicals around;

+Mock Leads and Critiques (single pitch) Live Leads and Falling Practice.

Instruction and Practicals around;

+The Multi-Pitch System: Multi-Pitch Belay Station Management, Special / Funky Lead Scenarios.

With a solid foundation in hand, the focus of this day will be to add to the complexities of multi-pitch climbing. The goal will be to set up a working understanding of the systems, from belaying on a high anchor to expanding possibilities of not-so-textbook situations.

Topics covered are:

+how to mitigate risk off the anchor in hard climbing terrain,

+how to get better visuals on our partners at the anchor,

+what if we can’t climb through a section of difficult terrain.

+Belaying from the top

+Multi-Pitch Transitions including descents.

Day 3: Rock Rescue:

Instruction and Practicals around;

+The concept of baseline

+Ascending and descending a rope

+Build raising and lowering systems

+Belay device manipulation

+Rappel rescue, including counter-balance and tandem rappelling techniques and multi-pitch descent, transitions in those systems.

These are the rescue skills climbers need to know in order to self-rescue on bigger walls. Having a solid understanding of these skills gives you and the team confidence that not only can you climb safely, but when things don’t go quite right, your party can manage what was dealt to the team in an efficient and secure way.

End Of Day Debrief:

At the cars, we focus our attention on the day; sharing the Rose, the Bud, and the Thorn to ruminate more deeply on the experience. It is often customary ( but not mandatory) to have a meal back in the town to celebrate the great days spent in the mountains!