Prerequisites
Rock III or equivalent and ample time seconding climbs.
Inclusions
Price includes guiding, permits and all climbing gear. If you have your own equipment by all means bring it. Local accommodation is not included in the program.
Lead climbing is quite a bit different from following: you are in charge of keeping yourself safe, as well as route finding and belaying the second up. The heart of leading is solid protection and anchoring skills and we aim to make sure you leave with these by the end of the program. We have a solid progression that starts with tuning your placement skills, taking placements and making anchors, strategies for lead climbing, managing belays, and contingencies such as rappelling and the basics of self rescue. With this program we aim to simply make you comfortable and familiar with the skills that will take you to greater heights.
Locations We vary the location some depending upon the conditions but primarily use the Bishop area.
Itinerary
Day One: We will work at a small crag near South Lake out of Bishop. Here we will be working on gear and equipment, placing and removing it in a on the ground “laboratory” setting so that you can experiment, finding how all those springy things and cams work. Then we will explore ways
of connecting placements together to create anchors. We will also work on belay stance management and upping our proficiency and efficiency levels so that once you get onto longer routes you will be efficient and speedy.
Day Two: Today we put it all together with you on the ‘sharp' end of the rope leading. For this segment we generally have backup protection systems in place so that you can focus on the mechanics of what you are doing and relax the mind a little. Sometimes we use a backup rope or pre-placed protection to start with and often have you doing the same route several times looking at it in different ways.
Instructors Our guides are American Mountain Guides Association trained so you can expect the highest level of climbing and safety knowledge combined with solid instructional skills and professionalism.
We highly recommend that you spend at least one night at moderate altitude (higher than 8,000') just prior to the trip. Spending a night in Mammoth would do the trick. Please refer to our Planning for Success info sheet for more info.
