Tag Archives: teaching

May4

BCEP – Showing people the ropes at Horsethief Butte

Posted on by
Standard

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)

Apr30

BCEP, 2023 – The first session, climbing at the MMC

Posted on by
Standard

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.


Saturday, 18-Mar-2023


As the intro says, I helped teach BCEP this year! It’s been a long time since I’d assisted with a climbing class in any way, probably since the summer of 2019 or so, and even longer since I’d really been an official assistant. I was super excited, but unfortunately had missed the first few events thanks to being in Ireland when they happened.

I know, I know… bad form, Ben!

But in my defense, Ireland was planned before BCEP, and I had been assigned to this group instead of choosing it, so… yeah. Not my fault, I swear!



Anyways, the first event that I assisted with was perfect for me – the first climbing session in the Mazamas mountaineering center! Harkening back to my own course as a student, the MMC has a few short walls that’re used to teach students the basics of rock climbing – how to secure a harness, how to tie in, how to belay… and even how to rappel!

It was an excellent day – I taught at the rappel station, mainly, and had a blast walking the students through the process while helping encourage them to ask questions and understand the entire system, instead of just memorizing the sequence of events required. It was great, and absolutely scratched that itch to teach that I’ve had in the back of my head.


It would be a few more weeks until we actually climbed real rocks together at Horsethief, but I still got to see the shift in people as they become more and more confident… going from someone fumbling with a carabiner to someone confidently hopping off a ledge with their rappel device locked into place.



I did, of course, get a quick climb in myself. You can’t blame me! Assistants get to have fun too, sometimes!

Aug1

Volunteering with a summer camp and Teaching people to climb again!

Posted on by
Standard

Friday, 28-June-2019

It’s been so long since I’ve taught someone to climb… I think the last time was sometime back before I came to Oregon, maybe?

I forgot how fun it can be!

I even learned that the age of the new climber doesn’t matter – previously, I’d mostly taught mid-20s people the ins and outs of climbing… Today, I taught kids age 4-10 how to climb!

Or… more accurately, I just made sure they put on harnesses safely, and then belayed them as they scampered up the walls like spider monkeys, and gave out more high-fives than I’d given out the entire rest of 2019.

Let’s go back to the beginning – Sarah’s working for a summer camp this year as their resident climbing coordinator, and I came to help belay on my Friday off.

It was a more complex process than I’d expected, but it’s good to know that working with young kids not only requires the usual belay checks, but also a full background screen. Trivia fact – not a murderer, still.

It’s my Friday off, but we’re still getting going early. A quick breakfast, then off to the Mazamas Mountaineering Center to set up for the kids. Harnesses get laid out, ropes uncoiled, and crash pads are put out below the routes.

It’s incredible how different the Mazamas gear room is from the NUHOC gear locker. They’re so much better funded, and so much more climbing-focused… They have two entire rooms dedicated to rope storage – two rooms, each one bigger than my entire gear locker!

With all the glorious gear laid out, we gave belay tests to the other volunteers, and braced ourselves for the swarm of campers… The schedule was oldest to youngest, not that it really mattered though.

I belayed, gave encouragement, and high fives. At one point some kids tried blindfolded climbing, and then we evacuated after an attempt to clean the blindfold set off a fire alarm.

Trivia fact: microwaving a wet hankie for 10min can start a fire.

Second trivia fact: kids love fire fighters. We had a good time.

Aside from the fire fighters showing up, the day was pretty chill. I particularly enjoyed climbing with the youngest kids though; we had extra volunteers, so I was able to climb up to the top and provide encouraging high fives to everyone who topped out!