Practical tips to break into the world of outdoor rock climbing.
Making the leap from gym climbing to real rock can feel huge. Let’s be real—heading outside isn’t as simple as showing up for your first “Intro to Top Rope” class at the gym.
But while the vastness of outdoor climbing—different rock types, routes, anchors, and gear—can make the experience intimidating, it’s also what makes it so rewarding. Unlike climbing in the gym, outdoor climbing requires a deeper connection to the environment and a new set of skills, from reading the rock to building anchors, to learning how to manage risk.
When I first transitioned from gym walls to crag, I had no idea where to start—I didn’t even know any outdoor climbers.
But by finding the right information and amazing mentors and guides, I quickly moved from never having climbed outdoors to building my first top rope anchors, to leading my first sport routes, then my first multipitches, and now have begun my foray into trad climbing.
In this post, I’ll share the steps I took to ease into outdoor climbing, from finding the right mentors to sending that first outdoor climb.
Disclaimer: I’m not a guide or climbing professional, and this isn’t a technical tutorial on setting up climbing systems. This article is here to help you figure out where to start and to point you toward the skills and knowledge you’ll need to climb outdoors, ideally after you get instruction from trained professionals.
1. Where to Get Started
Whether you’re top roping or leading outdoors, you will need a basic understanding of climbing anchors. You should also learn about mitigating risk (like rockfall), climbing ethics and any local considerations you need to be aware of (like not climbing on wet sandstone).
The right path for you to gain all that knowledge will depend on your budget, geographical location, and risk tolerance.
Assuming you already are a competent indoor climber and belayer, here are 4 tips to get started:
- Check your gym’s community board and website to see if they (or any kind of affiliated organization) offer a “Gym to Crag” style class. If your gym doesn’t offer a class, then a community-based group like a women’s climbing group or ethnic affinity climbing group, might offer workshops for a reasonably low or subsidized cost.
- Take a class from a reputable outdoor organization like REI. REI offers some basic bolted and natural anchors classes. These typically run $70-130 for members, depending on location. I’ve never personally taken one. But these classes seem to run fairly consistently and across a wide variety of regions.
- Find a local rock guide, guiding company, or climbing school that can teach you anchor building skills. Your best option to learn to climb outdoors is going to be from a certified professional guide. They will likely have better client to guide ratios than a gym class or REI workshop. A local guide can also become a great resource to direct you which crags to go to, what equipment to buy, and more. The downside of hiring a guide is cost; the upside is personalized curriculum and top notch expertise.
- Get a friend to show you the ropes. I know many climbers are self-taught off books or YouTube or taught by friends. The benefit here is the lack of cost, and there are some super seasoned, experienced climbers out there who are willing to share knowledge. Just keep in mind this method may be riskier, since you’re likely relying on non-professionals. Your friend being able to safely do something may not translate to them being able to comprehensively and safely teach the same skill. So while this may save you a lot of money, it may cost you in knowledge gaps (and this is your life we’re talking about).
When I first was looking to break into rock climbing, I was frustrated with the amount of Reddit posts and Mountain Project threads that just said “find a friend who knows what they’re doing….”
I didn’t have climber friends at the time. I also didn’t want to just meet more experienced climbers and trust my life to a non-professional I didn’t know very well. I wanted to learn enough to be able to take a look at what someone else had set up and know whether it was right or wrong based on a foundation of knowledge.
I ended up going with a local guiding company after a recommendation from a woman at the gym. I took an 8-hr Anchors and Self-Rescue course that was about $160 or $180. In my opinion, it was absolutely worth the cost. The guide supplied all the gear, and I learned not only how to build anchors and how to ascend a line to an injured climber (and lower them), but i also learned the underlying principles around best practices.
2. Basic Climbing Gear Checklist
Once you know how to safely climb outdoors, you’ll need a bit of gear to get started.
At minimum, if you’re just tagging along with friends to the crag, you’ll need climbing shoes, a harness, and a helmet. This is assuming you can borrow a belay device and chalk if you need it.
If you do not have friends with gear already, you’ll need to grab some key items beyond a helmet, shoes, belay device, and harness. The main expense will be the rope, then your hardware (carabiners, quick draws), then your soft goods (slings, anchor material).
The table below is what I personally started out with, with rough cost estimates. I could talk a lot more about this in a lot more detail about my specific choices but will keep it simple. Keep in mind, I added quickdraws (used in sport climbing) later, so this first kit was just for top roping.
| Item | Quantity | Price (Rough Estimate) |
| Rope (70m, Dry-Treated, Bi-Color, with middle marker) | 1 | $260 (on sale) |
| Locking carabiners | 4 | $80 |
| Non-locking carabiners | 2 | $14 |
| Cordelette | 1 | $15 |
| 60 cm dyneema sling | 2 | $20 |
| 120 cm nylon sling | 1 | $12 |
| Prussik cord | 1 | $17 |
| Tube-style belay device | 1 | $35 |
| Total | $373 total (before tax) |
So for me, the initial cost to break into outdoor climbing was around $600 between taking a professionally-taught class and buying gear. Your mileage may vary, and I’m sure retrospectively I could’ve cut that cost down.
Some items in that table might be things you can wait on if you’re really on a budget and looking to save money on climbing gear. For instance, I wanted a prussik and ATC (tube-style device) to learn to rappel. You may not need that right away if you are just setting up top ropes in places where you can walk around back to the anchors.
My sling purchases were also a bit overkill as I typically use the very popular quad anchor for top rope setups, and that typically requires cordelette or a 240cm sling, plus 2 lockers and 2 non-lockers.
This list also excludes key items you should have anytime you’re in the wild, like a med kit, water, sunscreen, etc.
3. Finding Climbing Partners & Mentors
I’ve found climbing partners in a variety of ways: from talking to people working on my same bouldering project, asking for lead belay partners on Bumble BFF (seriously, I met one of my favorite climbing partners on that app), and getting introduced to friends of friends.
My first year of climbing, I had just 1-2 people I consistently climbed with, but I found it quickly snowballed once I hit about 3 people I knew. Those people had other climber friends, and they introduced me to their friends, and so on. Some more concrete tips to find climbing partners:
- Attend community nights at your gym, and do it more than once. Go to your gym’s “find a belay buddy” night or women’s climbing night or other affinity group night. Then go the next month and the next. You’ll start to recognize faces and make connections.
- Take an outdoor climbing class. If you’re looking for outdoor climbing buddies, there’s no better place than to grab the contact info of the people in whatever class or instructional setting you’re in.
- Go to a local crag and chat up some climbers. I’m not suggesting you ask to crash anyone’s session, but I’ve found the line “That’s a cool route! I’m looking to get into outdoor climbing, how’d you do it?” opened up a lot of doors for me. Read the room and use basic social judgement. Don’t interrupt anyone’s attempt on their project or disrupt a belayer. Just start by saying hi, be polite, maybe bring some snacks.
I went on to seek more professional instruction and took a series of courses on more advanced rescue and rappel skills, multi-pitch climbing, trad gear placements, and more. Many of my friends took the courses with me, which proved invaluable for sanity checks on systems and “wait, what was that concept again?” review sessions.
It’s a good idea to approach climbing relationships slowly because you want to make sure you are climbing with competent, safety-conscious people who understand and do their best to mitigate risks. I rarely climb with people outdoors if I haven’t first climbed with them in a gym.
4. Getting Out There
Now that you’ve got knowledge, gear, and a trustworthy climbing partner or two, you’ll start looking for routes to climb.
I use Mountain Project to find routes. The interface lets you filter to find routes based on type (trad, sport, top rope) and grade. With grades, be prepared for outdoor grades to feel a lot stiffer than indoor grades. A 5.8 indoors will feel 2-3 grades easier than a 5.8 outdoors, especially if you’re in an old school “sandbagged” area like Yosemite.
I began outdoor climbing before I actually knew how to lead climb, so at the time, I began on top rope climbs where I could walk up to set up the anchor. Read descriptions and the comments on Mountain Project to help you select your first few climbs.
Get to know the local ethics of your crag and any rules you should follow beyond basic Leave No Trace principles.
Finally, climb safe and have fun.
Have a different take?
Share your experience or advice in the comments below.
Resources and Further Reading
- SERENE Anchors from the American Alpine Club