Tips for Leading a Successful Climbing Trip

Andy Hamilton

            There are many different organizations and guide companies out there that offer a variety of different rock climbing experiences.  Each of the trips has their own advantages and disadvantages to both the client as well as the guides. The ability to accommodate all aspects of a rock climbing experience is a very tricky task and has to have a little bit of luck for it to run smoothly.  I am going to give some ideas that should be considered when leading your next outing to the crag. I’m not going to technical into gear, techniques, or overall daily breakdown. These are just a few tips from my experiences leading, teaching and being led…

Know Your Clients

Whether you are leading a group of kids, a woman’s adventure club, or a group of somewhat experienced climbers, the most important part of a successful day is making sure you get to know everyone in your group. Establishing a friendly and trusting relationship will build the groundwork for a smooth trip. If the group you are leading has no experience climbing, they are probably going to have a little bit of fear and anxiety about what the day is going to hold for them. It’s probably not a good idea to start of with some horror stories about taking 40-foot whippers. Instead, start off with a little icebreaker or some other activity to get everyone’s ready for a fun day. You could also start off by letting them know your (positive) climbing experiences and background, so that it starts putting their minds at ease and makes for a less stressful day.  Sharing experiences and showing the clients your passion for the sport helps get them motivated and puts them in a better state of mind from the beginning. Establishing this trust and early friendship will help with the honesty that both the client and the guide needs for the day to go as smooth as possible. Trust and honesty are a huge part of any outdoor activity. Which leads me to my next point…

Balance Ability levels

The most efficient way I have found to help set up my day of guiding is to make sure you get some climbing history or experience levels from your clients before the actual day of the trip. This will give you the ability to plan your day better as to accommodate for beginners as well as climbers with experience. Having a varied experience level in a group of clients isn’t always a recipe for disaster. If you are the lone guide for the day, having someone that already knows belay techniques will be beneficial if you have to lead every climb to set up top ropes. Having to teach someone at the crag can be very unnerving the first few times you are setting up the climbs.  This is another reason that knowing everyone’s ability levels before the trip comes in handy, as you can plan to have a second guide to help setup ropes and demonstrate climbing techniques or plan to be at an area with a trail to the top of each climb.  The down side to having a varied skill level group is trying to balance the beginner day with the more adventurous day of climbing for the experienced client. Finding this balance can be tricky but it’s also doable. My best advice is to get everyone’s goals and expectations for the day early on so that you can plan accordingly.

Information?

From my short experience leading climbing trips I have hit a few speed bumps when it comes to the what information to put out to the group. I have had experience teaching college climbing classes and as well as working with guide companies leading multiday climbing trips. On one side I am suppose to teach almost everything that I know about climbing to a group so that the outcome is to have students that can eventually go out and climb on their own.  When it comes to guiding a climbing trip, the main point of the guide company is to make money and teaching a client enough information to the point they don’t need a guide would likely not lead to a future return of that client. Also not being informative enough would yield the same result. Again, this guiding gig seems to be a delicate balancing act of being able to make people happy and have the ability to adjust to different situations. Hopefully the company you are working for will have an overall plan for the trip and details as to how much information you are to teach.

Backups!

This is a broad range of things that I am talking about, having backup gear, back up food, back up locations, and back up knowledge and skills to get you through unexpected events. Back up gear is pretty obvious, as well as food. But what if a client has a food allergy or special diet and you are on a trip that provides lunch and all you have to eat is salami and ham hoagies?  Or what if a group of climbers show up and they are all roughly the same height, weight and shoe size. Having a broad range of food and covering all your bases with gear is just something that will take time to dial in and really depends on the situation. The back up knowledge I am talking about is safety and rescue techniques when things go wrong.  As a guide or just climbing with buddies, you do not want to get caught in this situation. Always have the tools to get you or your clients out of any situation that you will be putting them in. The other backup knowledge I’m referring to is information of a site, climbing history, teaching topics or anything else to fill in those awkward moments of silence during the car ride or waiting in line for that next climb. That leads me to the next backup, location. Having a backup location incase one crag is full,  there are weather problems, or some other unforeseen issue is a must in order to fulfill the expectation of the client.

These were just a few ideas for someone that is new to guiding or leading a climbing trip. When I first started, I thought that it was going to be a piece of cake and that I had all my bases covered, then Murphy’s Law. It seemed like I hit every one of these issues all on one trip.  To say the least, it was a huge learning experience and that is why I want to pass the knowledge on. Every trip is a learning opportunity for both you and the people you are guiding.