Bringing beginners and novices out onto rock for the first time for a new trip leader. Taking on the responsibility of checking gear and making safety calls can be daunting. Developing the confidence to make decisions about safety and efficiency can only be done with experience, but tutelage from a trained guide helps to develop these skills with less risk and guess work. On May 26 under the supervision of Jordan Lenham from Vancouver Island Backcountry Education members of the ACCVI undertook a 1 day Rock leadership course.
All of us have climbed for a number of years, but are interested in developing our abilities to not only lead club trips, but provide mentorship to beginners. Tyler Kennedy, Ben Gregory, and myself (Hans Whitefield) headed up to Darkside in Nanaimo to meet with Jordan near his home base. Darkside was a great choice of venue with three fantastic areas for climbing, the Boom Boom Room, the Main Wall, and the Coliseum. The climbing was all around fun on gentle 5.8 and 5.9 routes. The sandstone was a welcome change from the basalt and granite around Victoria where we are based.
We modelled the course on the ACC national rock leadership course. Of course, there’s no way to compress a 5 day course into a single day, but we focused on the main priorities for top rope and sport climbing leadership.
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Reviewing and refining anchor systems (primarily bolted/top rope setups)
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Safe and efficient group management at the crag
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Sport climbing systems and oversight
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Basic sport leading skills and considerations (if relevant to the group)
The morning started with a quick recap of our basic skills, but also an opportunity to practice less common anchors than the now ubiquitous quad. We progressed into managing a busy crag with multiple beginners, and basic ground rules for keeping a large group safe with limited leader supervision. Not only did Jordan provide us supervision, but provided us with a number of methods and techniques for supervising less experienced climbers practice their technical skills while in exposed environments. We finished up with some basic rope ascension techniques and training on plaquette devices in guide mode, mainly as a solution for recovering gear and anchors placed by the overzealous beginner.
It was great to explore this new climbing area, and we’re all keen to set up a day of climbing and swimming in Nanaimo before the end of the summer. This was the first educational event I set up as the executive for education, and found it really personally fulfilling. This is a great first step for developing leaders and I hope there is more interest in courses like these.
