Learning to climb with Go Outdoors!

Me on Middle fell Buttress (D) on my first day of an introduction to climbing course with ISM

It’s hard to know where to start when you don’t know what you don’t know!

So I reached out to the lovely folk at Go Outdoors, stockists of all things climbing gear, who very kindly took me under their wing to help me along on my learning journey!

Not only were they available to talk me through kit, but I also got a backstage pass to their climbing product staff training event! Now first off… I don’t work in retail so I didn’t know that this was a thing… but secondly… I was stoked to see how much training and support is in place for the retail staff who are ‘on the ground’ helping us whenever we’re stood in store scratching our heads!

Wild Country delivering product training at the Go Outdoors staff training event

The staff at Go Outdoors are expected to have a good level of knowledge about all of the gear they are selling to customers and so they are trained to know and understand what is what and what it is used for. Which, when I think about it, makes perfect sense and what a great opportunity for me in my ‘learning to climb’ journey!

A large selection of trad climbing protection!

Along with attending the Go Outdoors training event, I have now had three introduction to climbing days in the Lake District with Adrian Nelhams from ISM and so I have been on a steep (and craggy) learning curve… so what have I learnt so far?

Firstly I learnt that there is a lot to learn! There is a lot of different equipment for different styles of climbing and although after attending the GO training event I have a good overview of products relating to sport climbing, indoor climbing, bouldering and trad… for the purpose of my blog (and my learning) I’m focusing solely on trad gear!

The three key items of kit and the most important items for safety is your helmet, harness and shoes. Helmets, harnesses and shoes all need to be correctly fitted in order to provide the correct protection and so heading to your nearest Go Outdoors store is the best way to test out a range of different helmets, harnesses and shoes to find the right product for your shape and size.

Fun fact... Troll designed and manufactured the first ever sit harness in the world!

Climbing Hardware:

Hardware refers to all the important climbing gear that we need when we embark on a trad climbing adventure! So, to get me started on my climbing journey, Go outdoors sent me a selection of walnuts, torque nuts, quick draws, slings, HMS Screwgate Carabiners, ‘jammys’ (Prussiks), a belay plate and a nut key!

Belaying:

Belaying is the act of exerting tension on a climbing rope to counterbalance the climber when they fall to reduce the fall and prevent them falling very far. Essentially belaying is the climbing term for controlling the (safety) rope whilst the climber climbs. Climbers will more often than not, take it in turns as a pair; one of them climbing whilst the other belays, then they swap. So belaying is an essential skill all climbers must learn, and learn correctly. The person holding the belay rope, or the belayer, pulls the rope through a belay device as the climber goes up.

When it comes to belaying there are many different devices available, I wanted something that would be easy to use as a beginner but also suited to a range of activities such as cragging, multi-pitch climbing and mountaineering and so Go Outdoors sent me the Petzl Reverso Belay/rappel device. I’ve used this several times now on four different multi-pitch climbs and I have found it easy and effective to use when belaying. The reverso mode provides assisted-braking while belaying one or two seconding climbers from the top of a pitch, not something that I will be doing any time soon but it’s great to know I have durable gear that will last and will also suit my needs as I continue to develop my climbing knowledge and skills!

Belaying on Murray's Route (s4a) on Dow Crag in the Lake District

Carabiners:

A carabiner is a common piece of mountain climbing equipment; it is a clip made from aluminium that allows climbers to link together ropes, harnesses and other pieces of equipment. These come in different variations as a screwgate, snap gate or auto locking. If you plan to do anything other than bouldering, you’ll need at least one good climbing carabiner to get started, and the more you climb, the more you’ll need.

Though you may be familiar with smaller, non-locking carabiners found on keychains or water bottles, those won’t cut it for climbing – climbing carabiners are specially designed to withstand a lot of weight and force and keep you safe. In fact, all climbing carabiners are designed to hold at least 20kn of force, or around 4,500lbs of weight! That means they’ll hold your car so you don’t need to worry about them holding you!

Clove hitch on a screwgate carabiner - this is how I attach to anchors while I belay!

For my starting kit Go Outdoors sent me a selection of different snap gate and screw gate carabiners!

Screwgate carabiner:

When it comes to belaying your partner, a screwgate is essential, this is a manual locking carabiner which safeguards your belay and your partner to prevent the carabiner opening. Go Outdoors sent me two sizes, a larger carabiner and a smaller variation. The large carabiners have been great for belaying, anchors (can fit 3 clove hitches) and carrying larger equipment.

180cm sling stored on a large screwgate carabiner! Great piece of kit, used a few times to anchor on large boulder features

Snapgate carabiner:

Go Outdoors sent me two packs of their Spectre wire gate carabiners … and aptly the description starts with ‘Ready to build your first trad rack?’ … yes please! These have been perfect for my rack and coupled with the slings (I’ll come to those next) they make great extendable quickdraw’s perfect for trad climbing!

Extended quickdraw on a trad route to ensure the direction of pull in the event of a fall is not altered during the climb!

Slings:

A sling is a sewn loop of webbing that works in conjunction with all your other gear, such as carabiners, quickdraws, cams, nuts and your climbing rope. Slings are exceptionally versatile items of equipment. Available in a variety of sizes, 120cm is by far the most useful length, although longer and shorter sizes also have their uses!

Go Outdoors sent me a selection of slings from 60cm to 240cm! The 60cm slings work alongside the snapgate carabiners to make extendable quickdraw’s perfect for trad routes. The 120cm slings work well for building anchors and the 240cm sling proved useful to loop over large boulders for an anchor! Slings can be placed over rock spikes, used to thread holes or go around chockstones or trees. On most trad routes its good to carry at least a couple of slings, often more, to make use of these features. A sling can also be used to link several protection pieces together, either when making a belay, or equalising multiple pieces together.

The 180cm sling in action on a boulder at a belay during our ascent of the Troutdale Pinnacle (S)! Here you can see that I have used a clove hitch and a screwgate carabiner to secure myself on the anchor while I belay Ade!

Nuts:

In rock climbing, a nut is a metal wedge threaded on a wire that climbers use for protection by wedging it into a crack in the rock. Quickdraws are then clipped to the nut wire by the ascending climber and the rope threads through the quickdraw. Nuts come in a variety of sizes and styles, and several different brands are made by competing manufacturers. Most nuts are made of aluminium.

Go Outdoors sent me both a walnut set and a torque nut set to help me start my climbing rack and these have been perfect in the craggy Lake District rock!

Large DMM Torque nut in position during our ascent of Murray's route (S4a) on Dow crag, according to Ade this was a 'bomber' piece of protection!

In the past, actual nuts (as in nuts and bolts) or wooden wedges were attached to a piece of cord and placed into cracks. Along with classic pitons, they were often the only devices available for securing climbing routes!

The gear has certainly come a long way!

DMM walnut in position during our ascent of Murray's route (S4A) on Dow crag!

Nut Key:

A very useful tool for anyone new to trad climbing, mostly because you will spend a lot of your time seconding and removing protection placed by your partner! Go Outdoors sent me a nut key with a leash. The leash is a great feature which prevents you from dropping this tool as you get to grips with using it, often in precarious places and always at height!

Prusik:

Go Outdoors sent me two Jammy’s – These are 5.5mm sewn rope sling which can be used as a prusik or rope clamp and can be used for abseiling or to create a rope clamp for quick hauling/crevasse rescue. The Prusik knot is a type of friction hitch used in rock climbing that creates an easily adjustable cord loop attached to a climbing rope. I practiced abseiling in the Alps with a French Prusik and also used these in the crevasse rescue training and for a small and simple piece of rope, it’s a surprisingly effective clamp!

Ropes:

Okay, so that’s a lot of gear, but if you're climbing anything other than a boulder problem you will also need a rope! For me, as a beginner to climbing, Go Outdoors sent me a 60 meter dynamic single rope to get me started!

Climbing Murray's route (s4a) on Dow Crag

There are a number of options when choosing a rope. Typically, when indoor wall climbing, outdoor sport climbing and mountaineering you’ll use a single rope and when trad climbing you’ll use double ropes.

Double ropes:

The reason people use double ropes for trad climbing is twofold. As we climb, we place trad gear into cracks and weaknesses in the rock to protect ourselves lead climbing. We find the correct sized piece of trad gear and lock it into the chosen crack by pulling it downwards to secure it and we then clip a quickdraw to that piece of trad gear and clip our rope through that quickdraw.

Using double ropes allows a climber to climb up a route trailing both ropes while leaving them free to clip the left rope to the trad gear they have placed on the left and the right rope to the trad gear on the right.

This means that the double ropes run parallel without too much friction or pull on the quickdraw’s so that you are gentle on any trad gear placed and less likely to lift any placed gear upwards and out. It also means that if the lead climber was to fall, then that that person’s weight on the rope is more likely to exert a downward force on the trad gear placed and it’s more likely to hold as a result of that.

Imagine if the rope zig zags up the route climbed by the lead and that person then falls, the person at the bottom will lock the rope securely by using their belay plate and the weight of the leader falling comes onto the other end. In this scenario as the rope becomes taught it will exert a sideways pull on all the gear that the lead climber has placed and possibly pulling every piece of gear out as the rope tries to straighten itself out with the heavy loads applied.

When leading sport and indoor wall climbs this isn’t an issue, as a bolt drilled and fixed securely into the rock can hold a sideways, upwards or downwards force in the event of a leader fall. With this in mind the gear is fixed and not leader placed as in trad climbing and so everyone typically uses a single rope for its handling qualities in the event of a fall and its ease of use belaying.

Belaying using double ropes, or two half ropes is a complicated skill and takes time to learn.

Single Ropes:

With this in mind and the complexities of trying trad and outdoor climbing for the first time, I opted for a 60m single rope. I can use this rope top roping, sport climbing and indoor wall lead climbing as I slowly gain the belaying and climbing skills needed to enjoy the sport safely. Belaying is so much easier for a beginner if it’s done using a single rope!

When using a single rope for trad climbing, the leader has to be careful not to have the rope zig zag up the route behind them as discussed above as you don’t want any sideways force on any trad gear that you have placed for a downwards force. This is why (as mentioned above) we have been using quickdraw’s made up with 60cm slings, so that we can extend that quickdraw out to allow the rope to run smoothly between each piece of placed trad gear.

The difficult ledge traverse on the first pitch of Murray's route (s4a) on Dow Crag - extendable quickdraws being used to ensure the rope is gentle of the protection that has been placed

Imagine that the rope is the trunk of a tree and the quickdraw’s are long branches connected to that trunk, so if the leader falls the forces on any piece of trad gear is a downwards force.

As I develop and grow as a trad climber, and over time get onto more technical, complex and harder routes, my rope skills will have also developed and I will then start using double ropes.

Single ropes for trad climbing, used correctly, are great for moving efficiently and perfect for me as a steppingstone to ‘learning the ropes!’

Here’s my kit!

Shoes:

LA Sportiva Tarantula Climbing shoes

Rope:

2x Beal Karma climbing rope

Slings:

4x Beal Dyneema Sling (10mm x 120cm)

3x Beal Dyneema Sling (10mm x 60cm)

Beal Dyneema Sling (10mm x 240cm)

Nuts:

DMM Wallnut set 1-11

DMM Torque nut set 1-4

Carabiners:

5x Shadow Screwgate Carabiner

5x Shadow HMS Carabiner

Quickdraw:

2x DMM Spectre 2 (6 pack)

Other equipment:

Prusik – 2x Beal Jammy 5.5mm sewn rope sling

Nut Key – Wild Country Pro Key with Leash

Belay plate – Petzl Reverso Belay/Rappel device