Today i was rock climbing coaching in the Wye Valley working for the BMC. I had four young people from various youth squads that had booked a course with the BMC to learn to lead sports routes outdoors. None of the guys and girls had climbed outside before but had all lead before indoor and all climbed at a good level. So it was my job to do some good climbing coaching to get them up to speed and out on the crag.
The team pictured above were all super keen so we headed to Wyndcliffe Quarry to start off with, which is a great venue for climbing coaching. With two pairs climbing i put up two bottom ropes so i could watch the guys lead while a rope was above them the whole time. As they were indoor climbers i didn’t give them the guide book or tell them the grades, they had to climb both routes and then let me know what grade they thought they were. To be fair to them they were very close to the grade – that doesn’t normally happen so good effort team.
After that we did some climbing coaching on stripping anchors after leading a route, we did this on the ground and then moved onto the guys leading there own route and then stripping it themselves. This is impressive considering some of them were only 11 years old and it takes a lot of learning and putting into practice to get this nailed so well done guys.
After everyone had lead a route we packed up and headed over to Wintours Leap on the other side of the river. We got everyone on a few harder things with everyone getting some climbing coaching on a F6c and a F7a which is awesome for a first time outdoor rock climbing. After a few goes some of the guys got the routes clean which is an incredible achievement.
If your interested in climbing coaching then get in touch.