Stop clipping what someone else left behind. Two days learning to protect a route with cams, nuts and judgement — and unlock the classic mountain lines of Catalunya where there are no bolts at all.
Book NowOn a sport route, your protection is a decision someone else made years ago. On a trad route, every piece is yours — you choose it, you place it, and you find out whether you were right only if you fall. That shift is the single biggest step in a climber's development, and it changes how you see rock permanently.
It also opens up terrain you simply cannot otherwise reach. Enormous amounts of Catalunya's best climbing has no bolts at all: the granite ridges of the Pyrenees, the classic crests, lines like the Aresta GER on pink granite with nothing fixed on it whatsoever. Those routes aren't harder than what you already climb — they're just closed to you until you can protect yourself.
And there's a quieter benefit that experienced climbers talk about more than the access: trad makes you a better climber on everything. When your protection depends on your own judgement, you read rock differently, you climb more deliberately, and you develop the kind of mountain sense that no amount of bolted mileage produces.
Anyone can wedge a cam into a crack. The actual skill is knowing whether the placement will hold, whether the rock around it is solid, whether it will walk or lift out as the rope moves, and whether three mediocre pieces are better than one good one. That judgement can't be read in a book or watched on a video — it's built by placing gear repeatedly with someone experienced telling you what's wrong with it. That's what these two days are.
Day one builds the toolkit on accessible ground. Day two puts it on a real route.
Cams, nuts, hexes, offsets, slings and extenders: what each does, where each shines, how to carry it so you can find the right piece without looking, and what's actually worth owning when you start buying your own.
The core of the course. Placing gear repeatedly, at ground level and then on the wall, with immediate feedback on every piece. Reading cracks and constrictions, judging rock quality, understanding direction of pull, and recognising the placement that looks fine and isn't.
How to test a placement without wrecking it, and how to clean gear efficiently as a second — including the pieces that don't want to come out, which is a skill in itself.
Building a belay from nothing but the rock: multi-piece anchors, equalisation, redundancy, and the honest assessment of when an anchor is good enough and when you keep looking.
Why trad routes wander and bolted ones don't, how to extend placements so the rope runs, and how much drag will quietly stop you halfway up a pitch.
Body position for crack and chimney climbing, jamming basics, and moving efficiently on the kind of rock these routes are made of — quite different from pulling on bolted features.
A genuine semi-bolted or fully clean multi-pitch line, chosen for your level — typically well within your climbing grade, so the challenge is the protection rather than the moves.
Placing while pumped, deciding when to place and when to keep moving, and the mental shift of committing above your own protection for the first time.
Anchors on a wall, with consequences, under time pressure — very different from building one on the ground with a guide watching from two metres away.
Descending from a route with no fixed anchors: building rappel stations, what you're prepared to leave behind, and getting down safely when retreat isn't optional.
A short introduction to weighting gear directly — the fastest way to genuinely understand what a placement holds, and useful the day a move is beyond you and you still need to get past it.
Honest feedback on your placements and your judgement, plus which routes to go and do next, and which ones to leave for a season.
Second trad routes confidently and lead easy, well-protected trad lines with a competent partner — placing gear, building anchors from the rock and retreating safely. Trad judgement matures slowly, and we'll be straight with you about that: the two days give you a sound foundation and the honest awareness of what you don't yet know, which is precisely what keeps new trad leaders alive.
Day one happens somewhere with abundant, obvious placements at ground level — crack systems you can place in from your feet, so you can do fifty placements in a morning instead of five. Day two moves to a real route: semi-bolted or fully clean multi-pitch lines on Catalan granite and limestone, including the classic crest terrain of the Pre-Pyrenees where these skills genuinely earn their keep.
The exact venues depend on conditions and on how the group is progressing. What doesn't change is the principle: enough placements on day one that it becomes instinctive, then a route on day two where it matters.
Trad routes are almost always multi-pitch routes, which means placing gear and running the whole multi-pitch system at the same time. If you're not already comfortable with anchors, transitions and rappels on bolted routes, that's too much to learn at once and you'll spend the course overwhelmed. Take the Multi-Pitch Course first, climb a few routes, then come back. Almost everyone does it in that order, and it works.
Pick your dates below. Instant confirmation by email. Not sure you're ready? Message us and we'll tell you honestly.
What trad actually is, whether you're ready for it, and what two days can honestly give you.
If you're not yet fluent on bolted multi-pitch, start with the Multi-Pitch Course — it's the recommended precursor. If you'd rather someone else handled the protection while you enjoy a classic line, book a guided ridge or multi-pitch day instead.
