The most common question asked regarding Fox Mountain Guides Summer Programs is “how experienced do you have to be to participate?”  The answer is quite simple: you need not have any experience rock climbing at all.  Our camps are designed to take total beginners and invite them into the climbing community.  To do that, beginners need to learn basic technical systems and movement skills, but that also need to feel that they are no longer outsiders.  So, we don’t hide anything about rock climbing from summer campers.  Campers learn to navigate multipitch systems, campers learn to lead climb, campers learn the subtle jargon, social customs, and ethics involved in rock climbing.  We think that is what modern campers are looking for: authentic experiences, real time scenarios, and empowerment.

We also try to teach campers to live like climbers live.  Climbers don’t like to be told what to do, so we try to let campers experience that rogue spirit.  At Fox Mountain Guides Summer Programs, campers plan the meals, campers pick the climbs, campers set the agenda for the evening activities (within reason).

Schedule

Day One:  Arrival, Introductions, Bouldering.  We start climbing right away.  A bouldering session is the first thing we do, reviewing basic movement concepts and giving everyone their essential equipment (shoes and chalk).

Day Two:  Basic Technical Systems and Equipment.  On our first full day, we get the ropes out.  Campers learn to wear a helmet and harness, how to tie in, how to belay, and lots more movement.  With their basic tools in place, our adventure can really start to take off.

Day Three:  Intermediate Technical Systems and Equipment.  Since campers mastered the single pitch realm on the first full, we spend the second teaching them about the multipitch realm.  Campers learn to clean gear, belay from an anchor, anchor themselves, and rappel.

Day Four:  Intermediate Systems in Action.   Campers meet a multipitch guide who takes them on a real rock big wall.  Guides need the campers to be able to do the things they learned the day before: belay a leader, clean gear, and rappel.

Day Five:  Advanced Technical Systems and Equipment.  Having seen a guide lead climb, students have seen enough to get the concept.  Now, it’s time to start learning it themselves.  We learn to place trad gear, learn to manage a rope line doing mini leads on boulders, and we finish on mock leads.

Day Six:  Advanced Technical Systems in Action.  Students pick a project to lead and apply their lead climbing skills.

Day Seven:  Bouldering.  On the morning before we leave, we have one last little session to say goodbye to the mountains.