Home > Climbing Books/DVDs > Climbing books reviews: Rock Climbing Essential Skills and Techniques (Mountain Leader Training UK)

Climbing books reviews: Rock Climbing Essential Skills and Techniques (Mountain Leader Training UK)

Climbing Books/DVDs | | March 24, 2010 9:46 pm

The cover describes this book as being the official handbook of the Mountaineering Instructor and Single Pitch Award schemes. I would go as far as calling it “The Rock Climbers Bible!” I’m not the only one either, I heard it described as such by other climbers at the Single Pitch Award training I attended a couple of weeks ago.

The book features really useful information, pictures and diagrams for rock climbers and climbing instructors alike.

It’s divided into 19 sections:

  1. The climbing environment
  2. A brief history of UK and Irish climbing
  3. Warming up
  4. Movement skills
  5. Training and improving technique
  6. The basics
  7. Bouldering
  8. Single pitch climbing
  9. Indoor climbing walls
  10. Leading climbs
  11. Sport climbing
  12. Problem avoidance and solving
  13. Multi-pitch climbing: rope work
  14. Descending from multi-pitch crags
  15. Multi-pitch problem solving
  16. Scrambling
  17. Sea level traversing and gorge scrambling
  18. Accidents
  19. The law and risk management

I would never recommend that reading a book should take the place of receiving proper ‘hands on’ training. However, this book is a fantastic piece of reference material you’ll find yourself referring back to time and again. I keep my copy (actually my brother David’s copy – shhhh!!!) in my bedside table for easy access – yep I’m sad!

rock-climbing-essential-skills-and-techniques

Whether you’re a beginner, a seasoned climber or a budding instructor you will find this book useful.

Rather than buy this from Amazon, I would recommend supporting the UK climbing Industry, and buy from a specialist climbing book shop. Rock Climbing Essential Skills and Techniques is available to buy from The Climbing Book Shop for just £16.99.

You have probably noticed that I’ve mentioned this book in other pages of my blog recently. No apologies there, this really is a must have!

If you have a copy, I would love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to drop me a comment below.

It's good to share!

Written by

Gareth Hanson is a hugely enthusiastic climber and the editor of Rock Climbing UK (this very website!), an online rock climbing magazine for UK climbers. Check out RCUK's Twitter account here.

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  • http://andychilds@live.co.uk andrew childs

    hi my name is andrew ive been a good climber since i was 7 yrs old and i want to make a career climbing as when i climb its as if im in my own world and i feel im floating in air , i can climb almost any thing, at the age of 8yrs i climbed street lights and on top of my house, i can climb trees by grabbing branches to the top , its weird when i climb i visualize were im going to climb and i always make it to the top, please were do i go and show my pertential, if you could help it would be dream come true and i would like to meet you if you could help.

  • Gareth Hanson

    Hi Andrew,

    Wow, sounds like you’re really keen on climbing. Have you done any wall climbing, indoors or outdoors? If not, then you need to start by contacting your local climbing wall and taking a climbing course. Beginners courses are usually a couple of sessions that show you how to fit your harness, tie onto a rope, belay and some basic climbing techniques.

    Once you have done that you’ll be able to climb unsupervised at any indoor climbing wall in the UK (provided you can demonstrate the basic safety stuff).

    By the time you have been climbing walls for a few months, you should get an idea of where you want to go with it. Many people progress to lead climbing, you can either get someone to show you or take another course.

    Once you’re proficient at lead climbing you may want to take it outdoors and start leading, placing protection (again there are courses for this, but you could just buddy up with an experienced outdoor climber). After about 6 months climbing outdoors and placing protection, you may be ready for the Single Pitch Award, which is a good place to start if you want to instruct others.

    If you need any help finding any courses or anything, or just need some more advice, drop me another comment.

    Best of luck, Gareth