Overview

TRAD LEAD CLIMBING SCHOOL
CMC Denver Group Technical Section

"Our mission is to develop, teach, and practice a culture of safety and sound judgment in the CMC climbing community."

The 2006 class will be held in late Summer/Early Fall (see schedule). Before the class begins there will be 3 identical skills review sessions in May, June, and July. Students must attend at least one of these review sessions.

This class will introduce you to traditional lead climbing. The class will not teach you how to climb, but it will teach

• a safety protocol for protecting the climbing team
• techniques for building Anchors that are E.R.N.E.S.T. (Equalized, Redundant, No Extension (protected from "shock loading"), Solid, & Timely)
• techniques for placing climbing protection, along with detailed instruction on evaluating the adequacy of the placements relative to the fall risk.

Ideally, applicants will have completed the CMC Rock Seconding School or Basic Mountaineering School, although climbers with comparable experience may apply as well. Before beginning the course, students will review the basic skills necessary to safely participate. The skills are outlined on the skills page. In short, applicants should:

• be experts at lead belaying
• be perfect with regard to belay communication
• be proficient with basic climbing knots
• be proficient rappelling with autoblock
• understand the importance of staying connected to redundant anchors at all times near a cliff edge
• understand and practice anchor point redundancy
• understand and practice weight testing of anchors

As for climbing ability, applicants should be comfortable climbing 5.7 outdoors or 5.9 in the gym. The following routes are exemplary in terms of difficulty:

• Calypso (5.6, 2-pitch)
• Verschneidung (5.7, 2-pitch)
• Cozyhang (5.7+, 3-pitch)
• the Owl (5.7, 2-pitch)
• The Staircase (5.5, 1-pitch)
• Guide's Route (5.6, 3-pitch)
• Lovers Leap (II 5.7, 5-pitch)
• Fandango (II 5.5, 3 or 4-pitch)
• Mesca-Line (5.7, 1-pitch)
• Wind Ridge (5.7+, 3-pitch)
• Classic Dihedral (5.7, 1-pitch)
• Batman & Robin (5.6-8, 4-pitch)
  

Trad climbing involves crack climbing. Gym climbing and many sport routes do not involve crack climbing. It's a good idea to seek out some good crack climbs at the local toprope crags to get in some practice.

• 5.8Crack (5.8, toprope) - at Lookout Mountain, Golden
• Turkey Rocks Area (multiple toprope crack climbs)

John Long's book Climbing Anchors will be the textbook for gear placement. An additional supplementary textbook would be Rock Climbing: Mastering Basic Skills by Craig Luebben. Reading this book prior to the course would be a great way to review the basics and introduce more advanced concepts.

Send inquiries to directors John Fields and Greg German at