Your First Outdoor Climb: What to Know Before You Go

Transitioning from gym climbing to your first outdoor climb is an exciting step for any level climber. While the gym provides a controlled and accessible environment to develop skills and confidence, a gym can never quite prepare you for the experience of climbing real rock. But before you buy gear, strap on your pack, and head to the crag, there are several essential things to know before you go to ensure your first outdoor bouldering or sport climbing experience is safe, successful, and one you will want to repeat.

While there are online and app-based guides for climbing crags, having a physical guidebook can be one of the most important items to have on your first (or any) outdoor trip. These books don’t just list routes and locations, they provide critical information about the approach, difficulty, grades, landmarks, route names, safety, and gear requirements for a route. When you’re heading to an outdoor crag, the approach can often be longer and more complex than expected.

Bouldering areas can be hidden deep in the woods and easy to miss. Sport climbing crags can be difficult to discern which climb is which, but it is essential to know to ensure you have the correct number of quickdraws and gear for the anchors. A guidebook will help you navigate trails, avoid trespassing on private land or getting lost, and provide visuals for the route of a climb. Some areas also have online or app-based guides (like Mountain Project), but having a physical book can be more reliable if cell service drops out.

If you’re heading outside for your first bouldering session, there are a few key differences to prepare for compared to gym bouldering.

The approach to a specific boulder or even a boulder field is far more challenging than walking from the parking lot into your neighborhood climbing gym. Outdoor boulder approaches are usually long (think between 20 and 40 minutes) and require navigating steep terrain (sometimes even ladders or natural stairs!). And while you might be an avid hiker, carrying bouldering pads to a boulder is a far different challenge than wearing a pack. Crash pads are cumbersome and are an absolute requirement for outdoor bouldering, as they provide the safest landing. Depending on the route and the physical space around the boulder, several pads may be required to protect the climber from a hazardous fall, and all these pads must be hoofed in. Additionally, the ground around a boulder is just that, ground, and is usually not flat like the nice padded area of a gym. Landing zones can be littered with smaller boulders, angled earth, and even sometimes trees, making laying crash pads a creative game of Tetris.

Though it might seem obvious, outdoor bouldering routes do not have delineated holds like the conveniently colored routes in a climbing gym. Guidebooks can help identify the intended beta for an outdoor climb, but learning to “read” the rock is a new skill that an outdoor boulderer must learn. New to outdoor boulderers will quickly find that a V2 outdoors is much more difficult than a setter-provided V2 indoors. On your first climb outdoors, expect to be humbled by your assumed climbing grade.

Staying safe while bouldering is always the most important goal. Assess your potential fall area and crash pad coverage before trying a problem. Uneven or sloped landings can increase the risk of injury, even with pads. Save highballs (climbs above 15 feet) for later trips, as even the best padded highball fall can end in severe injury.

If your first outdoor climbing experience is going to be sport climbing, preparation can not only be the difference between a positive and negative experience, but it can be critical to your personal safety.

Before you even get on the wall, it is critical to have a belay partner that you trust, a helmet to protect you from falls as a climber and from potential falling rock as the belayer, and gear that you have checked for deformations or damage. Having a climber in your group who is a seasoned outdoor veteran is highly recommended. If your climbing group hasn’t climbed outside before, many gyms offer gym-to-crag classes that can cover the necessary basics more deeply for a safe trip.

Sport climbing involves ascending routes that have permanently placed bolts for placing your own protection in the form of quickdraws. Unlike lead climbing in the gym, you will have to clip your quickdraw to a bolt before clipping your rope. It is essential that when you begin a sport route, you have the correct amount (if not an abundance, in case you drop one) of quickdraws to ascend the route and set anchors.

A major difference in outdoor rope climbing versus indoor is rope condition. Gym ropes don’t see the same wear from dirt and weather. An outdoor rope should be dry-treated if there’s any chance of rain, damp ground, or moisture on the rock. Wet ropes become heavy, less reliable, and more prone to damage. It is critical to check the forecast and avoid climbing on wet rock, as many rock types can become fragile and break when wet, creating unsafe conditions for you and your belayer and ruining routes for other climbers by breaking off holds.

Overall, be patient, take the time to learn, and never hesitate to ask questions or seek guidance from experienced climbers. Before you go, there’s a lot to know, so do your due diligence to be an informed and safe climber who respects the sport and nature.

What kind of outdoor climbing are you excited to try? Comment below!