When I think about what we do in our climbing instruction I am reminded of a letter that I got from one of our students which illustrates well what many of you have told us about what our courses have done for your climbing careers. Here is an excerpt:

"Professional instruction proved priceless to me on so many levels. I noticed my base technical skills were at a higher level compared to more "seasoned" climbers. There is just so much ground level knowledge I gained that would have been impossible to replicate without professional instruction. As I progressed in my climbing, I teamed up with my instructor as a climbing partner four years later on a 3000ft big wall on Baffin Island. I highly recommend professional training from certified guides to anyone serious about climbing safely and effectively."

I’ve watched a lot of people climb. From people learning to climb right up to seasoned climbers with years of experience. While you might think that the latter demonstrated the most refined skills I can tell you with certainty that this is not the case. The fact is that in the absence of a negative feedback to inform us otherwise, we tend to repeat the same behaviours over and over again for years on end regardless of whether that action is the most efficient, safe or suitable. That is a long way of saying that just because a climber is seasoned does not mean that the techniques they use are the best ones. They could well have been doing things the wrong way for a long time!

The big advantage of taking professional training is that you learn how to do stuff right. The obvious time to get stuff right is from the very beginning of your career. Then you can be practicing the right stuff all the way along the path as you become more experienced. Having said that it is never too late to teach an old dog new tricks. So I am going to endorse the idea of even those seasoned climbers considering some instruction from professional guides to “tighten up” their technical systems and to learn some new, faster, safer and more efficient techniques.

We have a bunch of climbing instruction scheduled for this spring and summer not to mention peak ascents, hikes and much more. Below are a few examples up to July. But these are just a few of the dates we have planned. We do as much “custom” work as we do scheduled trips and we prefer to have you define the dates for courses and trips rather than us doing it. So if one of our trips is of interest or if you have a crazy idea of something special you want to do, drop us a line and let us know the dates you want to go on and we’ll post them on the web site to get others to join you!

May 26 - Crevasse Rescue Course

May 27 - Rock Refresher Course

June 2/3 - Learn to Lead on Rock

June 9/10 - Introduction to Rock Climbing

June 22-24 - Three Day Alpine Skills Course

June 30 to July 2 - Fly in Mountain Skills Course

July 14/15 - Introduction to Rock Climbing

July 20-25 - Nootka Trail Hike

July 28/30 - Tantalus Range Ascents

Looking forward to a great spring and summer!

Jan