Fundamentals of Rock Climbing

3-Day Climbing School

Jump-start your climbing career! This course will teach you to be a fundamentally solid climber who is well-versed in safety systems, climbing technique, and belaying. After three days with us, you will have the tools to climb without a guide and will be a solid partner for a climber who knows how to lead.

This course is taught over three days at Crazy Horse Buttress. The first day's curriculum parallels our Introduction to Rock Climbing course, and you will be given a thorough and fun introduction to sport of rock climbing, the top-rope belay system, and rappelling (abseiling).

On the second day, you will learn Technical Top Rope Skills, which will teach you to be a self-sufficient top-rope climber. Learn more about top-rope anchors, bolt integrity, and redundancy between climbs on more difficult routes that will help you to learn more advanced movement and climbing skills. By the end of the day, you will be belaying and following a lead climber, threading anchors, and "cleaning" routes.

The final day is completely unique to this 3-day course, and is not offered anywhere else in Thailand. Our goal is to make you a versatile and confident top-rope climber, and this day will be crucial to your transformation to that end. Climbing safely without a guide requires familiarity with best practices, experience, and good judgment, and the third day of the Fundamentals of Rock Climbing course is designed to develop your skills on all three fronts. You will practice belaying a lead climber and catching falls. You will be taught to recognize hazards and will be asked to identify how faulty systems can be made better. And of course, you'll be spending a lot of time climbing on one of the most beautiful and diverse crags in the world! By the end of the day, you will be a confident and trustworthy partner for any lead climber.

This course contains three days of instruction, and climbers have the option of taking a rest day between the second and third course days. Climbers are responsible for finding their own lodging for the duration of the course, but if you are interested in staying outside of Chiang Mai, we can arrange a number of excellent home stay and guesthouse options that are just a few minutes from the crag. Please contact our staff for more information!

"Why don't you teach lead climbing in this course?"

At CMRCA, your development into a safe, reliable, responsible, and smart climber is our #1 goal. We do not believe that teaching a person to lead climb after having top-roped for only two days is consistent with that goal. As noted above, it takes experience to be able to climb safely, and although we believe we provide the highest quality of instruction, nothing can develop experience but time! If you are a climber with some previous outdoor top-rope experience who is looking for a top-rope refresher and an introduction to lead climbing, this course may not be the right choice for you: it may be more appropriate to take a two-day program of the Technical Top Rope Skills and Introduction to Lead Climbing courses. Please feel free to contact our staff for some help in finding the right course, if you are dissatisfied with our course offerings, or if you have any questions.