I am SO glad I found this site. Huge thanks to the contributors. Killer beta. Wanted to say that first.
Bio: I climbed outside when I was young enough to not care and probably should have died or something with some of my falls. Gym rat for a couple years, a couple years back before a surgery. Getting back into climbing. In-gym 2-3x/wk. trying to get some core back and work my limbs. Am 25 live in Heber City work in Murray 3 days a week. Looking for:
1) Good starting outdoor stuff (I know how to use the site, but if you can spare a sec for recommendations that'd be killer) hopefully near Heber or near my commute. 2) Someone(people) out there who'd want to go play outside and kinda show me the ropes outside a gym? I really want to get outdoors but do it right (safely) this time. 3) Generally looking for climbing partners in/around Wasatch, Summit, and SL Counties. 4) Suitable beginners group (or at least patient group)
Gear: Harness/shoes and several smaller harnesses. 25 or so QDs, a few nuts, a few slings, belay devices, biners, and random other chains etc. Have used top roping 50m rope and bag, and new 60m rope and bag. Grabbing some pads this week from KSL. So you won't need to loan me gear, at least for sport/bouldering
Rock Canyon (directly east of Provo; roughly half an hour from Heber?) has tons of beginner sport routes. Good beginner areas include Red Slab, The Appendage, AC/DC Wall, The Jobsite, and The Wild. Lots and lots of sub-5.9 sport routes.
As far as a good beginner group goes, Mountainworks (the climbing store in the same building as The Quarry climbing gym in Provo) has the Utah Climbing Club. It's two or three hundred bucks for a year and they go climb somewhere cool every month (they went down to St. George a couple weeks ago and are going to climb Rainier this year). They also do clinics, etc. There are a limited number of people in the group, though, and it might be full now. Give them a call and find out.