Rock Climbing Instructor Assessment

If you would like to teach or supervise people climbing and abseiling outside on single pitch crags then this is the course for you.

Dorset is one of the finest climbing destinations in the South East. The Limestone cliffs of the Swanage coast stretch for some 3 miles and offer a bewildering array of climbing routes. Coastal scenery and routes are spectacular and with some of the driest and warmest climates in the UK.

Before you attend a Rock Climbing Instructor assessment, make sure you have done the following:

• You must have attended a Rock Climbing Instructor (or Single Pitch Award) training course or been granted exemption from training.
• You must be familiar with the syllabus.
• You must be competently leading Severe grade climbs on outdoor crags with leader-placed protection.
• You must have led a minimum of 40 graded rock climbs with traditional protection at a variety of venues (of which at least 20 MUST be at Severe grade or above).
• You must be proficient in the use of climbing walls and have a minimum of 30 climbing wall leads graded at F4 or above.
• You must be proficient in outdoor bolt-protected sport climbing and have a minimum of 10 sport climb leads graded at F4 or above.
• You must have assisted in the supervision of 20 instructed sessions. These sessions should be at a variety of different venues with 10 being on indoor climbing walls and the other 10 on outdoor crags. A session is a half day or evening. At least five of these sessions must have personal reflective comments recorded on DLOG. (For guidance see question 3 in the DLOG section on this page.)
• You must have physically attended and completed (i.e. not online) a first aid course which involved at least two full days or sixteen hours of instruction and included an element of assessment.

Rock Climbing Instructor assessment is 2 days long.

Scope of the scheme

A qualification holder can operate on:

Single pitch trad and sport crags

Indoor and outdoor bouldering venues

Climbing walls & towers

A single pitch venue is:

Described as single pitch in a guidebook

Allows climbers to be lowered to the ground

Non-tidal and has little objective danger

Presents no difficulties on approach or retreat, such as route finding, scrambling or navigating

The scheme does not cover:

General mountaineering

Multi-pitch rock climbing

Teaching lead climbing skills

Access to tidal sea cliffs or any other location where retreat is not easily possible

Further details here:

https://www.mountain-training.org/qualifications/climbing/rock-climbing-instructor