Certification

This past weekend I completed my certification as a Climbing Gym Instructor (Level 1) by the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides (ACMG). I wrote earlier about my thoughts on establishing high standards at the new gym, and this is a key part of that. I want to share my experience going through the certification, and some of what I learned from it.

I headed into this because I want to be able to teach introductory top rope lessons at the gym, and if I'm going to ask my instructors to pursue certification, I should set an example by doing so myself. But I did not really have a full understanding of what it took to go through this course, and what I was putting myself through.

I started in August by getting my first aid training done (needed for other reasons as well), and learning to lead climb. Although I had been climbing since 2004, I had put off learning to lead climb because I didn't feel I was ready, based on my technical proficiency (top roping 5.9s and some 5.10- climbs in the gym). That was a mistake, because learning to lead climb has helped improve my climbing, and being able to do 5.9s well was enough to get started on lead. I wish I had done it earlier.

Part of the assessment for the CGI level 1 certification is based on demonstrating your climbing ability, both on lead (at the 5.9 level) and top rope (at 5.10a, and while speaking during the climb, to demonstrate to a group of students how easy a 5.10a, and how you approach each move). I was intimidated by this requirement, and focused a lot of my preparation in the weeks before the course on being ready for those climbs. Since the course was hosted by Rock Oasis, I started spending time there, climbing once or twice a week in the past month (in addition to my weekly sessions at TCA), to get used to the walls and routes there, and acclimatize myself to climbing where I was going to be assessed. Initially I found the ratings significantly tougher at Oasis than at TCA (where I am a member and have done most of my climbing over the past 5 years). Now I just feel it's different, with a lot more smearing required to compensate for "missing" footholds. The style of setting is going to vary from gym to gym (and from setter to setter), and it helped a lot to get some good experience with how Rock Oasis sets their routes. By the time my assessment came around Saturday evening, I was comfortable climbing on those routes, and did better than I had expected. I had one fall on the top rope route, but got good scores overall, and was really happy with how it went. That was by far the most stressful part of the course for me (and for several of the other candidates as well).

The bulk of the scores for the certification comes from assessment of each candidate's instruction, based on 3 lessons that are presented in a team teaching format. Two of the sessions are introductory Top Rope lessons, one using a belay tube, one with a gri-gri, and the team members shuffle roles so each gets a chance to present two of the topics of the course. The topics cover putting on the harness, tying in with a figure 8 follow-through knot, safety checks and communication, setting up the belay device and the belaying hand sequences for taking in slack while the climber ascends and then lowering the climber safely. The other instruction session covered a range of basic movement techniques, with each candidate presenting one topic from a selection including weight transfers, balance and footwork techniques.

As part of the pre-requisites for the course, I had observed a total of 10 intro lessons at two of the local gyms, so I was very familiar with how these are typically presented. What I learned over the weekend is that there is a pretty big difference between the local standard and the ACMG standard (more on this below), and there is a big difference between observing an experienced instructor and understanding the material, and being able to teach it yourself to a group of 4-6 students. While I passed this part of the course, and did very well at some sections of it, I also struggled a bit in places, and learned that I will need to practice and improve before I can consider myself to be an excellent instructor. Most of the other candidates at the course have been doing this for some time, so I was playing catchup, giving my first real top rope lesson on Saturday during the first assessment!

Another section of the course was on rigging for routesetting. I learned how to rig a top rope for self-belay using an ascender, and the importance of setting up a backup system so that in case of emergency a self-belayed routesetter can be lowered by someone on the ground. This stuff was brand new to me and intimidating at first, but despite all the gear involved (jumar, two gri-gris, daisy chain, étrier/aider, mutiple carabiners, locking and not, two ropes, extra knots, ...) it all made sense together and it was really fun to learn how to do it and then try it out. This may come in handy when I need to change light bulbs up high!

I mentioned earlier that there are differences between the ACMG standards and local standards. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Some examples include:

• which belay devices are used for both top rope and lead climbing
• the hand sequences used to belay, for both kinds of climbing
• the extent to which a perfect figure-8 follow through knot must be tied, including dressing of the knot
  
• whether or not to teach new climbers to tie the initial figure 8 knot in the climber's rope

Some of these differences made it more challenging to prepare for the course and satisfy the ACMG standard. I'll be having discussions with my Head Instructor (once hired) to figure out the policies that are appropriate for my business. There are some trade-offs between climber freedom, ensuring safety as well as we can, teaching new climbers without overloading them at the start, and operating the business efficiently (how long should an introductory lesson last?). That said, I appreciated learning and understanding the ACMG standards for each of these things, and the reasons behind them.

The weekend was a very intense and exhausting experience. I spent about 30 hours at Rock Oasis from Friday evening through Sunday evening, and got little sleep in between sessions. It was very stressful preparing for the course, and going through the assessments, sometime on topics I had just learned myself. And at the end I was feeling quite a strange mix of emotions, including the thrill of passing a very challenging course (including passing each of the sections within it), and some disappointment that I did not perform as well as I had expected on the last instructional part, and that I will need more practice to get where I want to be.

Perhaps the best part of the course is the people I met in the process. This starts with the instructors (2 full instructors and two Level 3 candidates who assisted) led by Cort McElroy who is an amazing instructor, and who provided valuable support helping me prepare in the weeks leading up to this weekend. The staff at Rock Oasis and TCA were also great, welcoming me as I observed them teaching during several intro classes. I'm very grateful to Karen McGilvray (owner of Rock Oasis) and Chris Mack (proprietor of Toronto Climbing Academy) for their support in letting me get in my observation hours. And perhaps most important of all was the opportunity to meet and work with my eight fellow candidates, from Ontario, Quebec and Newfoundland. They were a great bunch of people, and I learned from each of them as well, and I hope those contacts stay alive as my new gym gets going.

Looking back on the course, I accomplished my personal goals of getting certified and preparing to be able to teach intro classes (though I will continue to work on those skills to improve them further). I learned a lot of other things I hadn't thought about as well:

• Now that I understand the details of what it takes to get through the certification process I am better prepared to hire instructors, and make sure they are really ready to head into certification
• I have much better insight into developing many of my gym's policies and procedures, covering instruction, belay tests, waivers and routesetting

This course was one of the toughest challenges I have gone through in my life. If I had really understood what it entailed, I may well have waited longer before doing it, but I'm glad I did, and I feel great about completing it. I recommend it for anyone serious about raising the standard of their instruction abilities.