Outdoor

Nothing is more exhilarating than testing your climbing skills in the great outdoors! During the spring and summer months, Cliffhanger organizes outdoor courses in beautiful Squamish, British Columbia.

We’re excited to partner with Vancouver Mountain Guides as our official outdoor course leaders for the 2020 season.

LEVEL 1 – ROCK NOVICE

This is a fun and informative introduction to climbing outdoors. Rock Guides will teach you how to build your own top-rope anchors and climb safely on the rocks. You’ll be planning your own regular outdoor climbing trips in no time!

This is our most popular outdoor course; please book well in advance.

Course Topics and Activities:

• Safety systems and protocols, hazards at the crag, and risk management
• Review of top-rope belaying, knots, and tying-in
• Equipment strengths, forces on top-rope systems, proper use, and fit
• Top-rope anchoring and integrity assessment: single direction trad anchors, bolts, vegetation
• Safe communication and terminology
• Build and practice top-rope systems and anchors
• Ground anchors and when to use them
• Rappelling and using a prusik as a back-up

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER NOW!

ROCK RESCUE

You’re five pitches up, when unexpected thunderclouds roll in. Or worse yet, your partner gets injured.  Have you ever wondered what you’d do in these situations? As with all things in climbing, safety comes first! If things go wrong, you need to know how to get yourself or your partner out of trouble. Rock Rescue will teach you the basic mechanics and systems necessary for high-angle self-rescue.

Course Topics and Activities:

• Mechanical advantage techniques

• Anchor tie-off and escape

• 3:1 and 5:1 raises

• Rope ascending techniques

• Knot passes

• Counterbalance lower of an injured climber

ROCK LEADER: TRADITIONAL

(GEAR PLACEMENT)

Rock Leader is an advanced lead climbing and protection placement course. You’ll learn how to climb terrain on which fixed anchors and protection are not the norm.

Course Topics and Activities:

• Hazard awareness and management

• Equipment care and use

• Fall restraint and fall protection strategies

• Evaluation of fixed anchors

• Review of anchor criteria (I.D.E.A.S.) and anchor building practices

• Rope management

• Rappelling with a prussik as back-up

• Equipment selection for lead climbing

• Gear placement, evaluation, and removal

• Lead climbing strategies

• Top-down and lateral belays

• Basic self-rescue and accident avoidance

Important notice: Due to the advanced and in-depth nature of this course, all participants must have sufficient indoor lead climbing experience, and they must be leading at a solid 5.10 level.

Lead climbing courses require additional skills. Cliffhanger recommends that participants have the following prerequisites. Any exceptions must be discussed one-on-one with the Rock Guide beforehand.

ON-DEMAND/CUSTOMIZED COURSES

If you didn’t find an outdoor course to suit your needs, we can customize one for you – just call us at 604-874-2400. Upon special request, Cliffhanger can offer the following courses for self-organized groups.