Moving from the gym to the great outdoors

I've been gym-bouldering for 1.5 years, currently at a V5 and just breaching V6. I want to get outside and start sport climbing and move towards trad, but I've never done it before.

What's the best way to get started learning techniques, safety, finding a partner, etc... I don't have a steady climbing partner. Is that step 1? Seems like a chicken egg thing unless I find a generous soul willing to take on a total n00b. Any ideas from people who've walked the path before would be greatly appreciated! -Adam

Read some books - Mountaineering, Freedom of the Hills (that's a single book title), or other climbing books.

Hire a guide, if you can afford to. That will be your best way of learning quickly, but the most expensive. Even better yet (and more expensive) is hiring a guide for private instruction. Even one day with a guide will be extremely helpful.

Aren't there people in your gym that climb outdoors? There is a little more risk in choosing someone you don't know to teach you, as you can't really gauge their competence, if you don't know yourself.

I think there are various "Gym to Crag" courses given. Check with your local REI to see if they have some group classes.

Edit: There are plenty of experienced climbers that are willing to take out someone new with them, if you have a good attitude. You don't have to buy them lunch or beer, but that's a nice gesture. Just be humble and willing to learn.

Allow me to share an experience with you. I went out with this one kid a few years ago, very strong, pretty competent (it seemed at the time), and genuinely loved climbing. He goes to set up a top rope for our group on a route, its getting dark and we were a bit too tired to all lead it. I am seconding and cleaning, I get halfway up, look at the anchors he built for us. The route ends at a double bolt with tow hooks, anchor looks funny. I clip into a bolt so I can focus on what I am looking at, he has the rope through one of the tow hooks (not both) and at no point through the gear that he placed up there. He completely built an anchor and did not clip the rope through it, I was on one piece of protection. I asked to be lowered and it was near dark, we just left the gear up there and walked away. No one in our group climbed with this fool again.

The point of the story, just because some sounds like they know what they are talking about doesn't mean they do. Like what Frank said, read books. They tell you and diagram how things should look and what to watch out for and most of them are written by seasoned guides. Look up some youtube videos on how to tie some of the knots and what anchors are supposed to look like, don't take them as the only way since there are multiple safe ways to do things.

Semi cheap easy way to start learning by yourself. Get some rope (like 10 ft of 9mm would be the most realistic to practice on) and know how to tie your figure 8, 8 on a bight, 8 retrace, 8 for joining two ropes, 8 on a sling, clove hitch, and double (or triple) fisherman. This will get your skills up but when you go out with people you have found to be trusting then get them to check your knots and ask them questions about what they are doing and why for all the stuff they are doing (when they aren't on the wall!). When they get down, ask them how they built the anchor up there and why they did it that way. (I am not a fan of the magic X, equalize and figure 8 that sucker!). Know what an american death triangle is and why it is called such and how to avoid it. Ask them to leave their gear on the wall and practice making unclips as a second on the climb, this will teach you clipping stances and how to work with a QD. As Frank said, a good group of climbers are usually more than willing to take out someone to introduce them if the person has a good attitude, bring a cooler with a beer for everyone as payment for knowledge at the end of the day and just enjoy it!

You're asking a lot of questions which could all have one answer: find an experienced climber to be your mentor. Easier said than done, and it also brings up the question posted above 'How can you assess their competence?'

As Frank mentioned, reading some books on climbing is a good place to start. I have a copy of John Long's 'Freedom of the Hills', and have also read his books 'Climbing Anchors' and 'More Climbing Anchors'. I would suggest you start to educate yourself on the protection aspect of climbing, as knowing the theory of how to protect yourself with gear will give you a good idea of how competent others you climb with really are.

A guide is also a great idea, if you can afford it. But as with anything, you need a little knowledge to understand how much you have to learn. So I'd suggest reading what you can before hiring a guide, to make sure you get the most out of the experience.

Edited: Read this thread mountainproject.com/v/how-t…

Depending on your region sometimes there are local groups that offer a Rock Climbing course. For example in the North East a few of the AMC (Appalachian Mountain Club) Chapters offer a course which focuses on climbing safety systems, belaying, etc. You wont be leading at the end of the course, but you will be setting up top ropes and seconding. This will build your network and you can go out with some very competent individuals who WANT to mentor you.

You also only refer to having been bouldering. If you don't know how to belay take your gyms belay course (or find a gym with ropes and take it there). Then take their learn to lead course. At the end of this you will be more comfortable with some of the processes in sport climbing, but by no means ready to tackle your first outdoor lead. I think these steps will open you up to the community of leaders in your gym where you can assess their talents in a safe environment and maybe find some mentors that way.

Also, start bouldering outdoors at V5 you should know some people in your area who boulder outside, become part of that community and see if you can find any mentors there! It will also give you some basic outdoor skills (how to stay hydrated, pack food, hiking with awkward gear on your back, etc).

Basically my suggestion is:

1. Figure out what is up in your area
2. Plug yourself into the local climbing scene and make friends
3. Find mentors. Just ask competent people to take you climbing.

As said before a guide is a good idea, but make sure you talk to them about what you want to get out of your day with them before you go.

Also I back up everyone elses read the books claims. When you go out with a mentor you should be grilling them constantly. They should be able to give you solid answers... Your reading should give you a basis for evaluating if those explanations are reasonable. If they use confirmation biases to prove things (I do it this way and I haven't died yet! As opposed to, this is a correct way of doing thing Y because X, and Z.) stay away! They have picked up bad habits and don't know why they are doing things.

these are fantastic, thank you! I'll definitely check those books out.

Ask around at the gym to find people to go out with.

If you can't find anyone at least ask around for common single pitch sport crags that you can also top rope at.

Read up on how to set stuff up and what to do. Practice / ask others at gym to make sure what you are doing is correct.

When you get outside if you aren't with others just ask some others to look at what you are doing and for help. People generally outdoors will help you out or give you advice.

Hey Adam, welcome to the Proj.

IMHO climbing outside is what climbing really is all about. Sure it's fun to get in shape and climb hard plastic, but I think you'll find that the experience of climbing will be made much richer once you venture out the door.

It's definitely important for you to learn how to stay safe out there, be that from a book or a knowledgeable mentor. Have you signed up for the partner finder on this site yet? That could be a good resource for finding somebody in your area.

In addition to staying safe outside, it's also very important that you learn how to respect the areas in which you climb, both for the sake of the environment and for the sake of access. If you haven't already, check out the Access Fund's educational resources on responsible outdoor climbing. accessfund.org/educate-your…

How about posting in the forums here looking for a partner in your area? There are region specific forum posts, so post in one of those.

Get yourself a harness, a belay device (I like the single version of the Alpine Smart), a locking biner, and a helmet.

Don't bother with ropes or draws, you are not going to lead for a while. Rely on your partner's gear and offer to buy some beer at the end of the day.

Dial back your expectations a bit. A gym V5 may be an outdoor V2 or V3 (do you boulder outdoors?). Folks at your gym should have an idea of how things stack up vs the real world in your area. Plus, sport routes tend to be longer, so they require more stamina to finish than power. So you may be doing 5.9 or 5.10a initially. If that is too easy, you can find a stronger group to climb with.

Be a nice guy, ask questions, don't talk about how strong you are, or how weak you are, etc. Just climb. Tell people you are a noob and want to learn how to belay. Having an assisted breaking device will help people feel more comfortable.

Adam: where are you from? If you post that on this thread, I'm sure somebody will offer to take you outside for a day. If you're in New England, I will happily show you some basics.

ViperScale wrote:When you get outside if you aren't with others just ask some others to look at what you are doing and for help. People generally outdoors will help you out or give you advice.

See caveat about not knowing how experienced people are: the person you're asking may know even less than you do.

To add to what Rando said, spend the extra $10 or so and make that 9mm practice static 30 feet (or more) - this way you can practice setting up anchors around your house (and use it when you go out).

Pick any 2-4 objects you can tie a rope to and make equalized anchors off them in a variety of directions with a variety of different systems. Coat closet doorknob, console table back left leg, and a slung kitchen chair - equalized with correct direction of pull for a climb off the right cushion of my couch.

Before I ever even TR'd outside, I learned damn near every system I would need for trad climbing (gear only anchors at my crag). Once you learn the main concepts, you will be able to judge the competence of someone else teaching you a bit better and at least be able to spot potential deathtraps.

Knowing those systems frees you up to focus on things like gear placement that you can't learn in your living room when you do get outside.

Brent Apgar wrote: See caveat about not knowing how experienced people are: the person you're asking may know even less than you do.

This is just a fact of life. Do your best to find people you think know what they are talking about, but there are tons of conartist out there so unless you are an expert at everything you just have to do the best you can.

Like saying I don't know how to fix a car so I can't take it to any mechanic because I don't know if what they are telling me is true or not.

I do know people who I climb with that I would never tell a new person to go climb with because they think they know alot more than they do. I have stopped him from hurting other new climbers who he brought out when i met him to climb onetime. I understand what is good and bad and he isn't completely bad but he likes to do weird stuff that is completely unnecessary and could get a new person hurt. Heck when I first started out we probably weren't doing the best things but we had to start somewhere.

So your options
1) Pay alot of money for a certified guide to teach you to do stuff.
2) Get books / read online and teach yourself to do it
3) Find someone who you think knows what they are doing to help you
4) A mixture of the first 3

The 4th is probably the best option look up information so you can a general idea of what to do and what not to do. Than if you have money go with a guide to get some basics or find a person to go out and you should have at least a little knowledge so if they start doing something you read never to do.

Don't go running to the store to buy a lot of gear, start out with your partners stuff, just buy a harness and a helmet (you'll see a lot of people don't use one, THEY SHOULD). Learn how to place trad protection (cams, nuts, hexes, etc) at ground level, or toproping, before you even think about leading your first pitch, a good book about this is "Climbing anchors" and "More climbing anchors" by Jhon Long, learn with your partner's gear. If your objective is to climb multipitch trad, you're going to need much more equipment than sport. I would recommend you to learn with an experianced trad climber, not a super bold sport climber, even if you're only going to climb sport (I say this becouse there are a lot of sport climbers [not all] who can onsight 9b+ [french scale] but don't even know what a prusik or a munter is, and generally [not always] trad climbers know more about safety and stuff).

I personally jumped directly into trad so i learned the saftey stuff (even rescue/self rescue) first and then how to climb harder

I'm sure there are a lot of old tradsters who will love to mentor you.

climb safe ;)