Rock Guiding 101

Spent a few eye-opening days re-educating myself with an AMGA course - courtesy of Eli Helmuth, a certified IFMGA guide and owner and head guide of Climbing Life out of Estes Park, Colorado.

I think I can relate the experience a bit to my perceived Spanish fluency. When put to the test, words and definitions I was pretty sure I had command of are tangled in the ethers of time and not quite exact - or dated and colloquial/regional and no longer in the common vernacular...

Good to shake the cobwebs out and to get exposure and up-to-date beta - the new science behind factor two falls, pull tests vs drop tests, the necessity to wash ropes and harness to keep them supple and happy, finding out just how sketchy old button head and hardware store bolts are, pitons? shudder. 30% of strength is compromised when clipping a rope direct to a camming unit instead of the sewn sling, trees near the edges of cliffs often have incredibly shallow roots systems and should generally not be trusted as anchor points, a floating gri-gri at chest to eye level and clove hitch in but keeping the belayer out of the system is a good tactic, 3 to 1 z-rigs and counter balance lowers are good tricks to know, saltwater/seacliffs like Thailand will literally eat the metal/pockmark un-anodized carabiners and harness buckles...

Definitely a language all to itself but one that is mutually intelligible, or should be, amongst the dedicated...

Now its time to practice - a good excuse to get strung up on cliffs for the next few weeks before the assessment and spend some eves gaining more fluency with tech tips/vid tutorials at the Climbing Life website... Even if I were to never guide a client this course is well worth it - just for my own comfort/knowledge/safety while transiting the vertical world...

It seems a lot of fixed gear/anchors out there are dangerous... Hmm. Best to view it guilty of being dangerous until proven otherwise...

Eli debating the merits of passive pro... Verdict... cams rule. Eli claims to have guided a full season of 58 trad days in 60 and claims to have not placed a single nut... I guess we can thank Ray Jardine for helping us to escape 1970's climbing standards - slowy but surely...

 SPI guides in training on Dementia