Advanced course: Cracks and Trad climbing

A one-day advanced course to introduce crack climbing techniques and trad: layback climbing, the correct use of protections, hand, fingers and fist jamming.

For a good 20% of climbers around the world, climbing is just about cracks.   If you want to explore this funny world made of blood and tape, friends and initial humiliations, this course may interest you.

Crack climbing, by tradition and type of walls, is definitely another world than the one we are used to in the Eastern Alps and the Dolomites.  It is rightly feared because it is very rough and, compared to the grade, very difficult.  In reality, using the correct techniques, an apparently impossible pitch can be trivial after a few attempts. A way of climbing where 40% is about brute force while the remaining 60% is mainly interlocking techniques and the habit of placing protections. A smattering of crack climbing and the use of friends can also be of great help for classic climbing in the Dolomites or on limestone.

How and where

How the course is designed and where: the course is offered in two versions, the first one will be held in one day, in a suitable crag. For example the cliff of Val di Borzago, which has many cracks and nearly zero people going there. The second possibility is a two-day course with an overnight stay at the Segantini refuge, climbing on the Campanile di San Giusto, one of the most suitable areas in Trentino for crack climbing.

Didactics

A short demonstration will be followed by practical tests, we will mainly climb top-rope (whoever wants to, can try leading). Initially, we will focus on climbing techniques and then also introduce the placement of protections on the pitch.

Who is for

Climbers with experience and who are able to climb a 6a (lead or top-rope is indifferent) at the crag.

Classic layback climbing technique, basic jamming techniques (fingers, hand, fist and off-width), placing climbing protections, how to tape hands, use of crack gloves (provided by the guide), use of feet in the crack.

Purpose

Acquiring the basics of crack climbing and the correct use of “mobile” protections (friends, nuts, etc.).

Location

Val di Borzago cliff or San Giusto tower.

Meeting point

Tione di Trento.

What to bring

Normal mountaineering equipment, your “mobile” protections (if you have any), a roll of climbing tape.

Rate

con 1 climber 300€

con 2 climbers 160€

con 3 climbers 120€

con 4 climbers 120€

For the two-day course ask for a quote and the full program. All climbing equipment is included. Preformed groups are preferred but if you are alone contact me anyway, the course could be an opportunity to meet a climbing partner!