EMS Toproping Clinic - CT

[percious]

On Thursday May 12th EMS is holding a top-roping clinic, starting from West Hartford. I am interested in doing this clinic, but the minimum enrollment is 3 people and they have yet to sign anyone up. I am looking for 1 or 2 people who are interested to join. The weather is supposed to be beautiful for that day, but who knows, its a week out. Here are the details:

Cost: $105

Description:This special clinic will teach you how to set up top rope anchors using trees, fixed anchors and some artificial anchors. How to deal with rope wear, edges and safely belay in a variety of positions as well as, other important top rope related issues. This course is a great first step in getting out on your own.

Class meets at 9amish at the West Hartford store. The class lasts for about 6 hours. Expect to finish around 4pm.

PM me if you need more info.

-percious

 

[percious]

I talked to EMS today.

The trip has been moved from Thursday the 12th to SUNDAY the 15th!

Please come and join me. This will be a great clinic for those of you who are looking to get out of the gym, and onto real rock.

The climbing is likely to be held on Ragged Mountain in Southington. This is the huge cliff you can see on your left while traveling south on 91.

-percious

 

[jfb]

The cliff near Rt. 91 is Lamentation Mountain. Ragged is further west, between Rt. 10 and Rt. 71, overlooking the Shuttle Meadow Reservoir.

I think EMS in Hadley runs classes at Chapel Ledges in Ashfield, MA which is a very nice place to learn.

 

[percious]

Follow up

Ok, I took the class. It was a great experience.

I showed up at the EMS parking lot around 8:45 am expecting a few other souls to be lolly-gagging in the parking lot. No dice. I brought my rope and all my other stuff with me, and decided that if the guide didn't show up, well I was just going to head over to ragged mountain and figure it out for myself.

Luckily for me Matt showed up soon after, and no other clients, so I had a one on one for half the price! Sweet! Anyway, after the usual lawyerish paperwork, I followed Matt over to Pinnicle which is in my old hometown of Farmington. This is a smallish crag, with a great view of suburbia.

Matt set up an anchor at the bottom, and we went over the basics of how to do so, he had me undo the anchor-and redo it. In the middle of this, someone must have thrown a rock over the ledge, because one came flying down at us, and there were no loose rocks at the top. We quickly donned our helmuts, and yelled up that there were people down here!

Up to the top we went after some more discussion, and Matt had me set up a bunch of anchors. Next we had some lunch, and then climbed a few routes, going from 5.6 to 5.7 (First and Second Crack). After moving the anchors around, I asked Matt if he wanted to lead something, myself cleaning the route. Matt had me follow him up Zambezi Hatchet Head, rated at 5.8 . This was my first follow climb, and it was GREAT!

After rapelling down I finished off one other route that I wanted to try again, and we took off.

I was very impressed with the EMS climbing school, start to finish. Matt was very professional, setting up a schedule was easy, and I basically recieved exactly the instruction I wanted, at a super-reasonable price. Now its off to the crag on my own!

-percious

 

[Halite]

Sounds like you had a great day. Private guide for $105, sweet deal!

I was at Pinnacle the day before with my son and one of his friends. The AMC arrived shortly after us with a lead climbing class of about 25-30 people. It's a small crag, but even with that many people, there was still plenty to climb. Ragged Mountain has a lot more routes, but it is trickier to set top ropes there.

If you ever need someone to trade belays around the area, let me know.

 

[percious]

Sounds like you had a great day. Private guide for $105, sweet deal!

Absolutely. Matt got a nice tip. Anyone know what is standard tip for guiding?

If you ever need someone to trade belays around the area, let me know.

Sure, sounds great. Now I just need to find babysitting for Colden when my wife wants to join me... She is the driving force in my learning to climb...

-percious