Gym to Crag - Sport Climbing (Anchors, Cleaning & Lowering)

Make the transition from indoor sport climbing to outdoor sport climbing!

Learn the fundamental skills to take your sport climbing to other gyms or beginner outdoor crags. Our experienced and certified guides will educate and support your transition from indoor to outdoor climbing. We will be climbing at one of Pittsburgh's most scenic and memorable urban climbing areas. With big views of the city and easily accessible climbing, Frank Curto Park is a perfect place to start your outdoor sport climbing adventure. With a focus on safety and universal best practices, students will review Sport 1 skills (clipping, lead belaying, etc...) before learning and practicing important new skills such as:

• building top rope anchors for sport routes
• personal anchor system use
• cleaning a sport route and retrieving your gear
• lowering vs rappelling during cleaning
• using a stick clip
• using a guide book
• specificities related to fixed gear/hardware
• outdoor crag etiquette

Important Notes:

• Participants must have successfully completed Sport 1 as well as:
  • be able to comfortably climb 5.9 on lead
  • possess an ASCEND blue lead belay tag
  • have enough experience to lead climb and lead belay confidently
• Participants must be 18 years or older.

Location of trip: Frank Curto Park:

• The parking lot is located at GPS: 40.452728, -79.974355. You can type those GPS coordinates directly into Google Maps and it should take you to the parking lot.
• When on Bigelow Blvd heading towards the city, keep your speed low so you do not miss the right turn into Frank Curto Park. The right turn is at the GPS pin and parking is very obvious after that.
• There are no restrooms immediately available at this climbing area. The closest public restroom is located at West Penn Park, adjacent to Frank Curto Park.

In regards to your booking, here is some highly important information, please be sure to review everything in detail as soon as you can:

WAIVER/FORMS

• All participants must sign the ASCEND Assumption of Risk and Release and Indemnity Agreement and Outdoor Waiver. PLEASE NOTE this is different than our indoor climbing waiver. Participants under the age of 18 must have this document completed by their legal guardian.
• You're also responsible for providing us any relevant medical information. A medical history form will be provided by our guides during the pre-climbing safety meeting. For medical questions or concerns, please email climbing@ascendclimbing.com.

ARRIVAL

• We kindly request that you show up at least 15 minutes before the booking is scheduled to start.
• Please be prompt so as to respect everyone's time and take advantage of as much of the day as possible. We may move locations, so it is not guaranteed we will be at the specified meeting place for the whole session, and communication methods can be unreliable. Thank you for understanding!

CANCELLATION

• What if ASCEND cancels?
  • Our guides will use their best judgment when deciding whether to reschedule or cancel a booking. We generally schedule our trips for Saturdays hoping to use the following Sunday as a back up day if needed. You will be notified by email if your booking is rescheduled or canceled due to inclement weather, low attendance, or other unexpected/unforeseen circumstances, and will be given a full refund or rebooked into an upcoming trip.
• What if the PARTICIPANT cancels?
  • Cancel more than 7 days before your booking: You will receive a 100% refund to your original payment method.
  • Cancel between 48 hours and 7 days before your booking: You will receive 100% of your payment back as store credit.
  • Cancel less than 48 hours before your booking: No refund or store credit will be issued.

GEAR

• Appropriate clothing for the weather and the outdoors (rain shell, boots, etc.)
• Sunscreen/bug repellent (NO deet, damages nylon equipment)
• (Back) pack
• Water/Food
• Closed toed, lacing shoes or boots
• Personal medications
• Hand sanitizer, face covering
• ASCEND can provide any climbing equipment needed, however you will need climbing shoes in your specific size! If you need to borrow a pair, please arrange to visit our Point Breeze Facility to pick up a rental pair prior to your trip date.
• Personal climbing gear can be used granted that it passes normal safety checks.

WEATHER

• Forecasts are highly unpredictable until the day before/of a trip. IF on Friday morning, the weather is forecasted to be significantly inclement on Saturday, ASCEND will reach out to you via email and we will attempt the trip on Sunday. If the weather is also inclement on Sunday, we will reschedule to another weekend in the future.

CRAG ETIQUETTE

• Pets are not permitted during outdoor programming. For safety reasons, we need as few distractions as possible, during our time with you. Service animals are permitted with appropriate documentation in advance. Please reach out to climbing@ascendclimbing.com with any questions.
• Please consider tipping for your guides' efforts that are above and beyond what you would expect. It is common in the industry but not required.