TRIP 5: Traditional ("Trad") Climbing Anchors

Focus: Advanced Anchor Building + Traditional Gear Placements

Description: Invest the same amount in instruction as you do in gear! Join ASCENDs awesome guides for an in-depth course on traditional climbing equipment, placement, anchors, and leading. You’ll learn how to use and trust “trad” climbing gear like the pros! Students will learn the skills to safely and confidently place and evaluate traditional climbing gear, how to make traditional climbing anchors "SERENE" anchors, how to lead traditional climbs, and the basics of single-pitch traditional climbing.

Best For: Climbers who are very comfortable with top-roping, have some lead climbing experience, and a general understanding of outdoor climbing rope systems.

Prerequisites:

• Participants must have an active ASCEND lead climbing certification.
• Participants 14-17 must be accompanied by participating guardian.

Location:

• Day 1: ASCEND Point Breeze
• Day 2: Coopers Rock State Forest, WV

Day 1 Topics: Assumes participant has passed a lead belay / climbing test and ideally has some outdoor sport climbing experience. Gear placements will be centered around a natural “rock wall” segment, with various rocks glued to a large plywood board.

• Learn about the gear needed for outdoor traditional climbing (trad rack not required for course)
• Review how to read a guidebook (approach, finding a route, reading gear beta, descents, etc.)
• Learn how to flake out a rope onto tarp, where to set up, and how to prepare and rack up for climb as belayer and climber.
• Learn / Review how to set up a SERENE (Solid, equalized, redundant, efficient, non-extending) 2-bolt anchor. It is common to find traditional climbing routes with bolted anchors.
• Learn how to place traditional gear
• How to transition and handoff gear efficiently and securely
• Belaying from the top
• Cleaning anchors and Rappelling

Day 2 Topics: Day 2 will be outdoors at Coopers Rock and focus is to practice placing gear, building anchors, belaying from the top, rappelling, and mock-leading.

• Practice and Demonstrate Day 1 skills outdoors.
• Learn Leave-no-trace (LNT) principles.
• Learn climbing crag etiquette

THIS TRIP REQUIRES A MINIMUM OF 3 PARTICIPANTS TO RUN.

SEE BELOW FOR VERY IMPORTANT BOOKING INFORMATION

WAIVER/FORMS

• All participants must sign the ASCEND Outdoor Programs Waiver. This is different than our standard indoor Facility Waiver. Participants under the age of 18 must have this document completed by their legal guardian. Each adult must complete their own. This must be done at the time of booking!
• You're also responsible for providing us any relevant medical information. Pertinent medical information may be shared when booking this trip.

ARRIVAL

• You must 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 will be issued.

GEAR

General 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
• ASCEND can provide any climbing equipment needed (harness, helmet, shoes). If you need any of these, let us know when completing the registration form and we will bring it to the outing for you! Personal climbing gear can be used granted that it passes normal safety checks.

The following gear can be provided by Ascend as needed: 

Required Climbing Gear:

• Harness
• Assisted-breaking belay device (Grigri or equivalent)
• Personal anchor system (PAS) – can be a purpose-build PAS, or a 120cm sling
• 3 locking carabiners
• 1 HMS style locking carabiner
• Climbing shoes
• Chalk

Recommended Climbing Gear:

• Climbing Helmet
• Prusik loop with locking carabiner
• Climbing rope
• 20 ft of 6 or 7 mm cordelette for anchor building with locking carabiner
• One 240cm (quad-length) sling, dynema recommended
• One 120cm (double-length) sling, dynema or nylon
• ATC-guide, or equivalent (Petzl Reverso, DMM Pivot, Wild Country Pro Guide Lite, Edelrid Mega Jul or Giga Jul) with locking HMS carabiner

Traditional climbing gear: 

If you have not purchased any traditional climbing gear, we recommended waiting until after the class so you have a better idea of what kind of climbing gear you may want to purchase. Here is a generic list of traditional climbing gear.

• Nuts
• Cams
• Tricams
• Hexes
• Nut tool
• ~6 alpine draws
• ~4 regular draws

If you already have traditional climbing gear, then please bring it so we can learn how to use it!

WEATHER

• Forecasts are highly unpredictable until the day before/of a trip. IF on Friday morning/afternoon, 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 try and reschedule to another weekend in the future or simply cancel the trip. Depending on the type of trip (like anchor building), we may still run a trip if the forecast is calling for light rain.

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.
• You may consider tipping for your guides' efforts that are above and beyond what you would expect. It is common in the industry, but not required.