What skills/knowledge do newer (or transitioning to outdoors) climbers not know that they should?

I find that in large urban/metro areas there is a massive lack of mentorship and education which leads to unnecessary risks being taken, people not having as good of a time as they would have otherwise, and others being inconvenienced due to not understanding etiquette. I would like to put together a free little guide on the things that most gym to outdoors classes don't teach, which I think are a great many things-- I think there are some skills where these classes do a surprisingly fine job, but that they simply are not comprehensive enough and that there is significant demand for better education that covers more topics than what is typically available. 

As such I am working on putting together a free little guide on "What They Don't Teach You About Outdoor Climbing" or something like that. I will make a PDF and possibly later make a YouTube video about it if I can be sufficiently arsed to do it. 

Some of the ideas I have are:

• Judging the bolt spacing/safety of a sport climb (don't assume it's as safe as a gym climb, judgement is required!)
• most newer leaders don't sufficiently learn how to not have the rope go behind their legs, put just a tad more time into practicing this skill
• cleaning an anchor without lower offs and either rappelling or lowering off
• discussion of when one ought to rappel and when one ought to lower off
• etiquette, or please stop being a dickhead at the crag (hogging a popular route with a large party for 6 consecutive hours, playing music, having your shit everywhere)
• explanation of leave no trace ethics and how people commonly violate them in ways that are harmful to the environment and potentially even access
• explanation of how climbing access is threatened in many climbing locations and good behavior is necessary to maintain climbing access

What else should newer climbers be aware of for the benefit of themselves and others? Any comments on the things I've listed? 

Thanks

Truly grasping their own mortality. And, that bad shit happens to anyone at all, your fabulous self included.

Until you grasp that?

You're a hazard to yourself and others, no matter what you tell yourself.

Best, Helen

Old lady Hwrote:

Truly grasping their own mortality. And, that bad shit happens to anyone at all, your fabulous self included.

Until you grasp that?

You're a hazard to yourself and others, no matter what you tell yourself.

Best, Helen

Glad to have your input, Helen. Could your comment accurately be summarized as "the severity of consequences is not to be underestimated" or "it is not uncommon for climbers to not take the risks very seriously until they have a close call or hear about a bad situation that occurred to someone they know, and it's better to have a healthy respect for risk from the beginning"? Or am I missing your point?

Thanks.

Rope handling skills.

Most people transitioning to multi-pitch routes have no idea how to manage ropes so that they don't get tangled when at stances or switching between belaying and climbing.  

It's one of the first things I notice when climbing with a new partner.  How well they manage the rope tells me a lot about how much real experience they have.  

The main thing I see, which is a generic principle that if it were always followed would avert quite a lot of dumb accidents where people die:

Before thou shall transition to a new system, thou shall always test-weight the new system while still backed up by an old, proven system.

That applies for example to:

• Going off belay at the anchors. tether up, weight-test your tether, only then yell "off belay"
• Getting back on belay after grabbing a bunch of slack from your belayer. Keep the tether on to the anchor, ask the belayer to take, feel that you have indeed been taken and only then remove the tether.
• Weighting your rappel - same thing. Setup the rappel, weight-test your rap device/prussic, and only then remove the tether.
• etc.

I learned that lesson in my 2nd year, as I was about to rappel off an anchor, fully comitted to my atc w/o a prussic (I know) only to realize my atc was somehow clipped into a plastic gear loop, not the belay loop. Oups.

Okay another thing, less important but still - good communication should be clear, concise and mostly always the same thing. Seems people have that tendency to add a bunch of irrelevent details, but that really only dilutes the critical info.

One of the biggest things i see is not realizing bad rock (ie holds that could break, placing gear in bad rock, dragging rope through loose flahes/blocks, etc). That being said though, i have seen many climbers who are supposedly experienced that are oblivious to this as well.

Don't be afraid to hire a guide.

Ricky, I'm cracking up because I know which FB posts put you over the edge.  Thanks for offering to help that dude out.  Your short guide is going to be long...  There is a lot to know.

Rickey, 

New climbers don’t understand that they are not to bad under all the guise of society laying on the climbing. I just think that when everyone needs to have some perspective on whether or not that they keep climbing? It just seems like these days, climbers new and old, are never having to have any of the things that used to be things that they had.

-sledge h.

- no-fall zones exist everywhere, even on sport climbs (and “sport” climbs), learn how to assess the fall zone as both the climber and belayer

- belaying 15’ from the wall with a loop of slack touching the ground is not the right technique outside (or anywhere, but you know…)

- basic gear and systems stuff you might never have thought about if you’ve never had to hang the draws, like, how to recognize drag or edge-loading situations that require an extended draw (people have no idea about this!)

 - how to bail in a risk-managed way and not leave a mess for the next person

I find that in large urban/metro areas there is a massive lack of mentorship and education

Is this not the case in small rural towns as well? Like, ever been to, say, Angels Camp before? Place isn't exactly crawling with mentorship and education opportunities. Shoot, it's easier to find gold there than it is to find a climbing partner, let alone mentors. 

At the very least, people in large metro areas can find there way to a climbing gym, where they can meet other people who climb. 

Nathan Doylewrote:

Is this not the case in small rural towns as well? Like, ever been to, say, Angels Camp before? Place isn't exactly crawling with mentorship and education opportunities. Shoot, it's easier to find gold there than it is to find a climbing partner, let alone mentors. 

At the very least, people in large metro areas can find there way to a climbing gym, where they can meet other people who climb. 

City gumbies be like:

stuck Prius on 2wd forest road

shows up to crag at 10k' in shorts, because it's been warm in town for all April

brings half liter Nalgene to "be prepared" for a day at the crag

climbing trips are 4 hours or less because no one taught them to poop outside

Country gumbies be like:

first close call was when hardware store rope broke when Billybob tried rappelling

top rope anchor is broken down truck at top of cliff

never learns to lead climb because cams can't be made from anything laying around the farm

Think. Think. Think.

Encourage climbers to think about possible scenarios they might encounter. You can’t prepare someone for everything, but you can encourage people to think about what might happen the next day and you will avoid 85% of headaches.

Nathan Doylewrote:

Is this not the case in small rural towns as well? Like, ever been to, say, Angels Camp before? Place isn't exactly crawling with mentorship and education opportunities. Shoot, it's easier to find gold there than it is to find a climbing partner, let alone mentors. 

At the very least, people in large metro areas can find there way to a climbing gym, where they can meet other people who climb. 

lol you probably don't see it, but you've learned things in a very different way to most urban climbers. I don't know who taught you how to use the rope as an anchor on multipitch as one example, but urban newer climbers don't do that. If you meet someone from the SF Bay Area who does that they probably have a shit ton of experience. Whoever taught you to do that gave you more mentorship than most urban climbers ever get. I'm not saying it's good out here, but I'm saying it's bad out there, like really, truly, horrifically bad.

Now granted it's hard to compare because a weekend spent at Castle Rock in the Santa Cruz mountains will have a more than 50% chance that you'll have to say something to someone, meanwhile out here there's a 90% chance that I won't see anyone else at the crag even on Labor Day weekend, so it's hard to know what newer climbers are like out here when you hardly ever see newer climbers. But my general impression is that a lot of newer climbers out here do have a mentor, where as I can't really name many people back in the bay area that do. 

But anyway, I'm loving these suggestions. Y'all are very helpful. Thank you. 

Eunny Jangwrote:

- no-fall zones exist everywhere, even on sport climbs (and “sport” climbs), learn how to assess the fall zone as both the climber and belayer

- belaying 15’ from the wall with a loop of slack touching the ground is not the right technique outside (or anywhere, but you know…)

- basic gear and systems stuff you might never have thought about if you’ve never had to hang the draws, like, how to recognize drag or edge-loading situations that require an extended draw (people have no idea about this!)

 - how to bail in a risk-managed way and not leave a mess for the next person

This, plus slim's comment on loose rock. Don't you just *love* climbing with a new person and looking down and seeing that big ol loop of slack when you're just above the first bolt? ugh. that's probably my most consistent complaint/critique with rando belayers.

Also, general self-rescue is an extremely underappreciated and under-practiced skill set. 

Lots of good things listed. A few things I would add/expand on:

For access and stewardship - understanding who is responsible for maintaining and preserving access, routes, etc. Supporting LCOs and national orgs like AF. Take responsibility and support those who do the work to make it possible.

Entitlement - not treating crags like a gym in the sense that you're not entitled to a packaged and ready-to-consume experience just because you paid for a rack of draws and a rope. Related to previous point, I see too many new climbers either assuming that "someone else" will deal with maintaining bolts/trails/access or just assuming that they have no agency in dealing with those things. Learn how to report or tighten a spinner, be conscientious about social trails, etc.

Not taking up too much space - this is both literal and figurative. Music, hammocks, giant groups, dogs, shouting, etc. All the things in the "what are you a snob about" thread that affect the experience of others at the crag.

Basic self rescue/bailing - not even how to do a MMO and escape the belay, etc. Just some logic around what happens if your climber or belayer get hurt, or you want to bail, or you drop your belay device, etc. It amazes me how many people don't try climbs because they have no concept of the options for bailing from something too hard for them.

Echoing Puppy's point on "think think think" - how to clean a steep route, the consequences of swings and pendulums, kinked ropes, rope length, etc. All the things that come into play when you're not climbing on a nice even gym wall with bolts every 4 feet.

Efficiency - many people are content to climb 2-3 pitches in a day but I've seen plenty of new climbers that think this is the norm and to be expected. Some tips on how not to take 2 hours on each pitch would be helpful.

How to evaluate a potential partner and some common red flags you might encounter.

Ricky…

A short note about Old tat, new tat, fixxed pins, taking on gear you haven’t tested, why and when to do a hard catch, why and when to do soft catch, how to find and identify routes, how to work a route, how to get down and a whole bunch of stuff I don’t even consciously think about anymore. 

the old tat comment brings up something that kind of drives me crazy.  i see comments on routes (often times somewhat obscure routes) where they say something like "somebody needs to bring new webbing for the anchor because we thought we might die...".  ummm, why don't YOU have webbing?  it kind of goes with puppy's point.  there are two kinds of people - ones who are always thinking several moves ahead and preparing for various scenarios, and people who just continually stumble into situations.

Learn how to purchase your own wag bag, shit into it and carry it to the nearest garbage.

Isaiah aka Zay Foulks wrote:

Climbers transition from gym to rock should understand that their "progression" is an artifact of society. In other words, this whole "gym, to top roping on rock, to sport climbing, to TRRRRAAAAAAADDDDDDD climbing" is artificial.

I'm not saying it's a "bad" thing. But I have met more than a few climbers at various crags who said something along the lines of "Oh I haven't taken the lead class yet." ...and YES, these were Bay Area folks with sometimes-multiple gym belay tags hanging on their harness.

I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with this, but what is the point here?