Learn To Lead 1 - Sport Climbing Outdoors

Requirements: You must have a Lead Pass from any indoor climbing gym in Melbourne to attend this course. You must also have practiced it by lead-climbing indoors at least 3 times this semester. You must be committed to safety while climbing and, because you have practiced, you will easily be able to demonstrate awareness of safety issues and how to manage them.

Anyone who has gotten the "climbing bug" and wants to learn to lead climb outdoors this year, this is the second module in a 3(.5) part course designed to teach you everything you need to know about leading on trad gear.  The reason it is in 3.5 modules is to give you time to get enough experience in each module to learn the next, and to ensure that you are indeed committed to the climbing game - not just freeloading!  Remember also that the focus of these courses is on safety - not your climbing ability.

A description of all three-point-five modules to the course are as follows (more in-depth descriptions can be found by looking at the module itself):

Learn To Lead 0.5 - Lead Belaying
You've already done this one - See the (past) trip description of what you need to have learned if you missed it.

Learn To Lead 1 - Sport Climbing Outdoors
Pre-requisites: Must have a lead pass from any indoor climbing gym in Melbourne, and have used it to lead-climb indoors at least 3 times this semester (yes, you only have a few short weeks to do this).  You must also have mastered the clip-training board in the MUMC clubrooms.

Course content: we will now take what you have learned (and practiced) indoors into the outdoor environment, and we will teach you how to set up anchors on pre-bolted rock, as well as returning safely to the ground with all of your gear.  Multi-pitch climbing will not be covered until module 3. 

These skills will enable you and a partner to travel pretty much anywhere in the world, find a sport-climbing destination (there are lots) and have a whole lot of fun!  It's a great way to get your technical climbing abilities up without worrying too much about advanced safety techniques.  Many of today's climbers simply stop here and never learn trad climbing - a worthwhile path if you would rather work on your technical climbing ability than explore unchartered rock faces.  On the other hand, most of the really great climbing areas in Victoria are all trad-gear only, so if you aren't moving on anytime soon and still want to climb... the next modules are worthwhile.

Homework: your homework after this part of the course is to get as much experience as possible.  Before the next module, you must have been lead-climbing on an outdoor club trip at least once, and preferably you have gone out with friends to practice as well.  From what you have learnt you should be realising that this is your life - and the life of your climbing partner - we are talking about, so failing to practice these life-saving skills before learning the really difficult stuff isn't going to help anybody.  If there aren't enough club trips going out, organise one yourself! There's nothing stopping you organising a trip and asking a leader to attend.  Work on developing your climbing skill level and continue practicing everything you have learned.  You need to be comfortable and competent sport climbing safely outdoors before we can even think about teaching you to use trad gear.

The max leader to beginner ratio for this trip is 1:4.

This module sets you up to attend the follow-on modules:

Learn To Lead 2 - Trad Climbing will take what you have learned (and practiced) and add the difficult element of traditional gear placements, including trad anchors.  Again, this course will not cover multi-pitch climbing, but focus on single-pitch and returning safely to the ground with all of your gear.  See the trip description for more details.

Learn To Lead 3 - Multi-Pitch In the final module of this series we will again take what you have learned and apply it to rock faces much higher than 30m.  See the trip description for more details.

The details of this event (location, cost if any, maybe the date) are still up in the air - they may change later on, but the course material will stay the same.  Attendance numbers are limited and depend on the number of leaders available - I will apply a "first in, first served" rule if we need to limit numbers (as well as looking really closely at your pre-requisites!).  Don't worry though - you can catch up in time for the next course if you miss out on this one - see me for details.