I couple of years ago Andrew was a student of mine in an AIARE 1 Avalanche Course. Since then he has toured quite a bit in the New York and Vermont back-country and built up a pretty good list of rock climbs from Moby Grape on Cannon to lots of sport leads at Rumney. Wanting to improve his leader skills and efficiency we spent a beautiful day yesterday at Cathedral Ledge working on the finer points of multi-pitch trad climbing. Since I wanted to maximize the amount of info we could cover in this private course I drafted up a brief agenda the night before to give our day some structure.

Meet at 8:30, Drive to top of Cathedral.

Morning Session: Brief anchor building clinic

Attaching to a multi-pitch anchor (various methods pro/cons)

Belaying a second; harness, re-direct, direct  (various methods pro/cons)

Assisting a second: Canadian Drop Loop, 3:1, 5:1 improvised pulley’s

Move to Barber Wall, Rappelling Clinic (why do people keep dying)

Middle-marks, end knots, safety at the edge, pre-rigging, stacking, efficiency

Moving through 3rd & 4th class terrain

Climb Upper Refuse in 3 pitches

Efficient seconding. Belay transitions. Proper lap-coiling. Swinging Leads vrs. Blocking

Lunch

Back to “classroom ledge”.

Extending top-rope anchors

Leader Rescue Session.

Belay Escapes.

Ascending Loaded Rope.

Counter-balance rappel with injured climber.

Whew, that is ALOT of information for an 8 hour course but we wrapped it up right on time. I love guiding days like this when I’m not just leading someone up a climb, but sharing the tips & tricks that can take a decade to discover with a fairly competent climber. I look forward to working with Andrew again to continue to improve his skill set!

If you want to spend a day like this with me there is still plenty of fair weather to get out before winter arrives! We can have a day like this well into November, so click here for info on our private courses!