Rob Coppolillo – Intro to Trad Climbing

Rob Coppolillo – Intro to Trad Climbing

Intro to Trad Climbing

Internationally certified mountain guides Rob Coppolillo and Marc Chauvin will teach you the fundamentals of trad climbing in this 8-week online course offered by Climbing Magazine. From placing/removing gear and proper belay techniques, to how to make an anchor and manage a stuck rope, Intro to Trad Climbing takes the guesswork out of exploring traditionally protected climbs. If you’re a sport climber who wants to add a new dimension to your climbing, a gym climber who wants to explore all that your local trad area has to offer, or a seasoned climber who just wants to revisit the basics, this course is for you.

What You’ll Learn:

Combined, IFMGA guides Rob Coppolillo and Marc Chauvin have more than 75 years of experience rock climbing, guiding, and teaching climbing all over the world. They are also the authors of the just-released The Mountain Guide Manual (Falcon, 2017). This course will walk you through catastrophe knots, making trad/alpine quickdraws, belaying the leader and the follower, managing risk, and the right way to place gear to best protect your partner and yourself.

How This Course Works?

We know you have a busy schedule, so we’ve designed this course to be taken at your own pace. You’ll learn through a variety of interactive formats, including video instruction, photo descriptions, and more. Each lesson builds on the last, and, while we’ve designed the course to be 8 weeks long, you can take it as quickly or slowly as you want. Plus, once you purchase the course, the lessons are yours forever.

1) Trad-Specific Gear

• Passive (nuts, hexes, Tricams) and active (cams) protection
• Accessories (alpine draws, nut tools, trad harness, helmet, bullet pack, Prusiks, shoes, knife, cordelettes, quad-length slings)
• Belay devices (guide-style plaquettes, GiGi, Gri-Gri)

2) Gear Placement

• Getting it right (strength, security, ease of removal; accuracy and efficiency)
• How to practice placing (quick, accurate placements); weighting placements
• Critical elements to consider (secondary pulls, direction of pull)

3) Lead Protection System

• Understanding the difference between Trad and Sport climbing
• Protection strategies (considering location of cruxes, strategic runouts, objective hazards like ledges below a fall)
• Protecting the pitch
• Rack management
• Looking at the whole pitch
• Protecting your second

4) Anchors

• NERDSS overview (Ne=No Extension, R=Redundant, D=Distributed, S=Strength, and S=Simplicity)
• Required materials: cordelette, quad-length slings, shorter slings
• Anchor strategies (high anchor, conserving pieces for leading/cruxes, single- and multi-point anchors)

5) Belaying

• Lead-belaying fundamentals
• Top-belaying fundamentals
• Strategies to increase safety
• Special situations (disparity in weight, awkward stance, low anchor, out-of-sight leader)
• Giving a good belay

6) Rope Management

• Establishing a safe belay area
• Mid-cliff belay stance (rope management, comfort and safety)
• Managing the rope
• Strategies (swapping leads or block leading, transition)

7) Rappelling

• Rappelling fundamentals (body position, gloves, progression downward, third-hand back-up)
• The rappel rig (extension, third hand, devices)
• Friction hitches (autoblock and Prusik)
• How to add friction for wet/skinny/frozen ropes
• Carabiner brake

8) Special Problems

• Hauling a partner at a crux
• Lowering a partner with a guide-style plaquette
• Stuck rappel ropes (strategies, safety, releading a pitch with a free end)

INSTRUCTOR

Rob Coppolillo began climbing in the 1980s, sketching up cliffs outside Denver, Colorado, in Chuck Taylors and soccer shorts. Since then, he has climbed throughout North America and Europe, usually in appropriate footwear. He began his guide training in 2007 and earned his international certification in 2014, becoming the 97th American to do so. Having earned a BA in environmental conservation from the University of Colorado, Rob has set up shop in Boulder, where he co-owns Vetta Mountain Guides. He’s also the co-author of The Mountain Guide Manual, with Marc Chauvin. He’s married to an ultra-minx named Rebecca, and the pair have twin boys, Dominic and Luca.

Marc Chauvin has a diverse background in mountaineering. His experience began when he hiked the Appalachian Trail in 1975; soon after, he turned to technical climbing. In 1977, he completed a number of big walls in Yosemite, including an early ascent of El Capitan’s Tangerine Trip. He then began guiding in his home state of New Hampshire and became the director of a local climbing school. He started guiding high-altitude climbs in 1986, including numerous trips to Mount McKinley, Aconcagua, the Himalayas, Ecuador, and Peru. Seeing the need for professional standards in mountain guiding, and wanting to get more information himself, he became involved with the American Mountain Guides Association, helping to develop its rock guide program as well as serving as an instructor and examiner. After 30 years of guiding, he became the third AMGA certified IFMGA Guide, the highest level of certification in guiding. Recently, he co-authored The Mountain Guide Manual, published by Falcon Press. He is a Wilderness First Responder and Technician Class Radio Operator, and has completed the AIARE Level III Avalanche Course and the CAA Professional Level I and 2 Course.