Based in Snowdonia, North Wales we provide a range of low ratio Rock Climbing, Scrambling and other Mountain based courses, such as learn to lead climb courses, intro to scrambling courses, mountain leader refreshers, private guiding, coaching and lots more! We are also a Mountain Training approved provider of the Single Pitch Award scheme.
We choose great course locations in Snowdonia and across the whole of the UK to best suit your specific aims and needs. Find out more about the courses and how to book by looking around the site or getting in touch and check out our Testimonials page.
Are you excited about rock climbing? There’s something unique about the challenge of being on the rock face and it requires some unique skills. Learn these with Jez on some stunning crags in Snowdonia, North Wales.
Want to tackle some exciting Scrambles or get into Winter Mountaineering? Maybe embark on the Mountain Leader Training Scheme or just have a great week in the mountains learning new skills? What ever it is explore this section for ideas…
There are a number of Instructor Training Courses out there these days, but this one is very different to most. Instead of focusing on many different activities, we focus on what we know best – Rock Climbing and Mountaineering.
I remember the days of trying to climb something at my limit, be it indoors or outdoors, where my warm up would consist of an espresso, waving my arms around a bit, climbing an easy route, then wondering why I got pumped out of my box and climbed terribly.
It was pretty simple really, my warm up routine was lame, pointless really. Sure, these days my warm up might be a bit different depending on whether I’m jumping on a low stress E1 after work, or headpointing an E4, or redpointing that 7b+, again, but I’ll be doing a warm up of some description for sure.
Looking out the window at the drizzle means one thing, no two. Firstly, no excuse not to go down the wall for some training and secondly no excuse not to write a blog about something… Normally my blogs are super easy to write, this one’s a bit more complicated, requiring more thought, but here we go, just bear in mind this is a massive subject, so this is really just an overview – the internet is full of great articles, and some utter rubbish as well.
For years I was kidding myself “off down the wall to get strong” I’d say, rubbish. Is going down the wall with a mate and doing a few routes training? No. I’m not saying it’s pointless, it’s great fun and you’ll get some benefit, as you will from any climbing, but don’t kid yourself it’s training. Sorry about that.
Grades are just arbitrary numbers and yet we get so hung up on them. I’ll happily admit I’m motivated by them and they provide goals and targets for me to work towards.
Type “how to climb 7a” in to Google and you’ll get plenty of results, the top one being by Steve McClure, the man who’s just climbed 9b, read it, it’s good.
Unlike Steve, I don’t have many grades in hand when I climb a 7a! My best onsight is only a grade harder at 7a+ and my best redpoint is 7b+, this year is the first year I’ve put some proper effort in to trying to push my grade and I’m about to start working my first 8a (nb. working is a long way from succeeding..!)
