Last year, I took the BCEP class with the Mazamas – Basic Climbing Education Program. It was interesting; a great chance to review my well-trained skills, practice some that I hadn’t used in ages, and get to meet some new climbing and outdoors people. It was fun, and ticked all the boxes that I had hoped that it would.

My faith in the outdoors community reinvigorated, I quickly and happily volunteered to help teach BCEP this year. I was expecting to assist with the same group that I’d taken the class with the previous year, since leaders tend to continue teaching year over year, so I was a bit surprised when I was placed with a different group… but it turns out, this new group was just starting out – the first year the leader had led a BCEP team on their own.

The chance to help out with a new group, and to help build a similar culture of excitement and optimism for the outdoors? All while getting to show people the unbridled joy of rock climbing? Of seeing new views off the side of a mountain?

Well. Sign me right the heck up.


Sunday, 02-Apr-2023


As mentioned, I have a special spot in my heart for Horsethief Butte. It’s not a soaring crag, it’s not a massive crag, but it is the first crag that I climbed in Oregon – which for me, sets it apart from all others in the Pacific Northwest.

We arrived early – I’d been put in charge of wrangling the students, and thankfully was successful in shepherding them all from the campground to the parking lot with a minimum of fuss and stress… and while still getting some breakfast and coffee into me in the process.

There was a little, of course, but… minimal, thankfully.

The climbing of the day was short and sweet – we set a few routes, we showed people how to rappel, to climb, and to belay, on their first exposure to vertical rock. All the skills had been taught before, of course, but… As we all know, there’s a difference between learning something in a classroom setting, and doing it for real. Especially when the “classroom setting” is a 20 degree grassy slope, and the “for real” is a vertical cliff a solid 20ft tall.


That’s the fun of teaching, though, and absolutely why I was so excited to assist with BCEP this year.

I got to man the rappel station for a majority of the morning, helping people through the whole process from initial safety through to them arriving on the ground below safely. I was fortunate enough to see people start out on their first rappel, hands shaking as they set up their equipment and checked their anchors… and then see them at the end of the day, confidently confirming their gear before hopping off the cliff like a pro.

Everyone got quite a few routes in, and thankfully I wasn’t an exception to that! Nothing huge, and nothing particularly challenging… but they were fun none-the-less, and I was absolutely thankful for the opportunity to get my hands on the rock!

(Ed Note: Ben doesn’t have a list of the climbs that he did, since Horsethief is only mediocrely well documented. He climbed primarily in the back area sort of near the slabs, top roping a few 5.6s and maybe a 5.7)