Improve your climbing skills by taking a focused clinic with us. These clinics are designed to build your independence and personals skill sets in specific ways.
We have clinics to challenge and expand climbers of all levels, from folks interested in learning about climbing, to experts adding advanced skills to their repertoire. All of our clinics are run on a custom/private basis so you’ll get maximum instructional time focused on your ability level.
Our Clinics:
Anchor Building
Anchor building is the foundation of every day of rock climbing. In this clinic, you’ll learn the principles of anchor construction and understand what makes a solid anchor. You’ll also practice building anchors all day long, in different locations. This creates different challenges and helps hone your understanding. Throughout the day, you’ll be in small group, with a guide providing you with mentorship in new techniques and skills.
This day is valuable for anyone who wants to build secure climbing anchors with confidence, whether at a top-rope area, or a lead or sport climbing venue.
Gym-to-Crag
Gym-to-Crag clinics are for gym climbers who are experienced with gym climbing, and have perhaps even climbed a bit outdoors. In this clinic you’ll build on the foundation of skills that you’ve built in the gym, and learn to translate those into an outdoor setting where the rope isn’t already hanging up when you arrive. The goal is to learn new techniques from our professional rock climbing guides, so that you can begin to make more responsibility for your climbing experience.
You’ll also learn invaluable skills for belaying outside, protecting your gear, using traditional protection in multipoint anchors. And of course, we’ll get some great climbing in – making sure to help you hone your movement and technique for real rock. Smith has climbs to push every level of climber and challenge you to improve your climbing.
Skills that you’ll learn and practice:
- Lead Belaying
- Cleaning anchors
- Rappelling with backups
- Footwork and movement technique
- Terminology
- Gear maintenance
- Building basic and complex anchors
Trad Climbing
Trad climbing is at the heart of independent climbing. There is nothing more fundamental to the nature of climbing, than starting on the ground and working your way up a rock face, placing fall protection as you climb. Doing so requires total confidence in your gear – meaning where and how to place it in the rock.
If you are eager to step off of the known bolt-lines, and quest up crack systems with a higher level of self-reliance, this clinic is your next step.
During this clinic we focus on efficiently using a variety of types of gear. You’ll practice placing cams,nuts and other removable protection. You’ll also learn and practice several methods for connecting individual pieces of pro to create multi-point anchors.
In addition to these hard skills, you’ll receive mentorship on the more subtle aspects of trad climbing. These soft-skills include, route selection, finding efficient stances, managing rope-drag, belaying difficult leads, and choosing belay locations.
Multi-pitch Efficiency
The key to efficiency in multi-pitch climbing is refining the rope systems. The benefits of organization include less stress and time spent dealing with ropes, ease of double-checking, less exposure to the elements, and the ability to enjoy and focus on the climbing.
The more practice you and your partner have using effective multi-pitch systems, the more climbing you can fit in, and the less energy you’ll burn along the way. Our guides have spent years training and practicing these skills. In this clinic they’ll share some tips and tricks with you, so that you can incorporate them in to your personal climbing.
Multi pitch efficiency isn’t something that you learn, it’s a skillset that you build and practice over time. Our guides can help you speed up your learning process by providing you with a solid foundation for multi pitch efficiency. *Note: we run this clinic at a 2:1 guide to climber ratio.
Climber Self Rescue
A problem as simple as dropping your belay device can turn a good day at the crag, into a long day. What will you do if your ropes get stuck during a rappel? What if your partner can’t pull through the crux when you’re already several pitches up a route?
Our climber self rescue clinic is designed to teach the skills to help you and your partner deal with the unexpected during a climb. Accidents can happen in the mountains and self-sufficiency is critical to confidence during outdoor adventures – particularly when professional rescue may not be able to get to you for hours or even longer during inclement weather. This course is designed to give you the baseline rescue skills and techniques that every climber should master before they enter into committing climbing terrain.
Our guides tailor their instruction to your level of experience, and their goal is to build your confidence with critical skills and techniques to more safely retreat in the event of dangerous weather, or simply because a climb is taking longer than you thought and finishing isn’t an option.
You’ll train in the following skills:
- Escaping a belay by securing your climbing partner to an independent anchor
- Ascending ropes
- Creating mechanical advantage systems using your climbing rope
- Lowering a climber with a secure back-up
- Improvised belaying-techniques
- Which gear to ALWAYS have on your harness and how to improvise with it
- Which gear NOT to use and why
- Decision-making in the vertical environment
Specific techniques that you’ll learn:
- Friction hitches for multiple applications
- Rappel back-ups
- Multi-person rappels
- 3:1, 5:1, and 6:1 Hauling systems
- Rescue spiders and patient care
- Anchor transitions
Don’t see exactly what you’re looking for? Book a private guided day of rock climbing and let our office know exactly which skills you’d like to build
