Many climbers try to learn climbing by themselves as they do not have the money to hire a climbing coach or take climbing lessons. Climbing is expensive enough as it is and lessons can seem like a superfluous expense. There are certain ways to go about teaching yourself rock climbing in a safe manner.
As a general rule, you can teach yourself to rock climb by practicing at an indoor climbing gym, watching instructional videos, and reading books and blog articles. Reaching out to experienced climbers at the gym and joining online climbing forums or groups can be helpful for answering questions.
Just teaching yourself the fundamentals of rock climbing will not be enough to allow you to go climbing alone. I recommend you read this article to not only educate yourself how to rock climb, but how to do it safely. Climbing can be an extremely dangerous sport even when taking the proper safety precautions. Don’t make it any more dangerous than it already is by doing something stupid.
Learn Rock Climbing By Yourself
The majority of us are not lucky enough to know a very experienced climber at the beginning of our climbing journey. As you continue on your climbing career you will meet these people and eventually become one yourself. Until that point, learning how to climb will rest on your shoulders.
It is important that along your climbing journey you are brutally honest with yourself about your climbing knowledge and skill level. Jumping in over your head and doing activities that you have no experience or confidence in is a recipe for disaster. Only perform activities when you are confident in your abilities and have taken all of the necessary safety precautions.
With that in mind, lets jump into it.
How To Start Teaching Yourself To Climb
To start teaching yourself how to rock climb I recommend joining a climbing gym. I am a firm believer that the majority of climbers should learn the basics and get accustomed to rock climbing in a controlled gym setting before climbing outside.
Climbing gyms will allow you to get in and practice everything that you are learning in a safe environment. Not to mention, gyms will provide you a wide variety of bouldering and top rope routes to practice on. In addition to this, most gyms will offer classes to teach climbers how to tie in and belay properly.
I know, I know. Attending a class to learn how to belay and tie in isn’t technically “teaching yourself”. However, there are certain things that should be taught by a certified instructor and these are some of them. Learning how to properly tie in and belay will not only save your life, but your climbing partner’s as well. Attending the class(es) and obtaining a belay certification is necessary. Do not be reckless and skip it.
Before you get to that point, you will be able to practice on the gym’s auto-belays and bouldering walls. That is how I started and what I believe to be the best method. Here are the different resources I used to teach myself:
Watch Climbing Videos
I am a visual learner and as such, this was my preferred method of learning how to climb. YouTube is by far the most popular video platform to watch instructional climbing videos. However, it is not the only platform to go to. Online teaching platforms such as Udemy will offer instructional climbing videos as well; however, most of these must be purchased.
I personally have found a tremendous amount of helpful information for FREE on YouTube. There are so many great climbing content creators out there that you can find almost anything you are looking for. A lot of the videos are centered around tips for beginners that help them learn how to climb (like the one seen below)
A few of my favorite climbing YouTube channels I have watched to learn new climbing techniques and tips are linked below (most of these are quite entertaining as well):
Read Books and Blog Articles
Reading books and blog articles are very helpful tools especially for those leaners who prefer reading about the subject than watching it.
I will give myself a shameless plug here and say that I have an entire section on my website just for beginners called Beginner Basics. For example, you can find well written and well researched articles on topics such as:
- How Much Indoor Climbing Costs: A complete list of expenses
- Are Beginner Climbing Shoes Worth it? An in depth analysis
- Why Climbers Use Chalk: Climbing smarter and harder
If you are more of a book person, I have found two books that do a great job of talking about everything a beginner climber needs to know when starting on their climbing journey. The two books (with links to them on Amazon) are:
- Rock Climbing 101: How to Rock Climb and Become the Best Rock Climber You Can Be From A to Z
- Rock Climbing for the Absolute Beginner: A Complete Guide to Bouldering, Mountaineering, Top-Rope & Trad Climbing- Includes Knot Tying Tutorials
Reach Out to Experienced Climbers
While this again isn’t necessarily “teaching yourself”, I would be remiss to leave it out. As I started to frequent my climbing gym I began to make friends with other frequent climbers. Naturally, most of these climbers were a lot more experienced than me and were able to share valuable tips.
One of the best ways to get better at climbing is to have a mentor or mentor(s) showing you the ropes. They will be able to see where your knowledge/skills are struggling firsthand and help you improve.
Be careful with this however as most of the climbers at your local climbing gym will be self taught as well. Although they may think they are helping you, they may be teaching you something dangerous. If you ever feel uncomfortable with advice they share and think it could potentially lead to injury or harm, do not do it.
As I said before, take everything you hear/learn with a grain of salt and only do activities that are safe and you are comfortable with.
Join Climbing Groups and Forums
Another potential option to teach yourself to climb is to join online groups and forums. This is my least recommended method to teach yourself however because you will have no idea how qualified the people are who are lending advice.
I recommend using these forums to get a general consensus on a topic and not taking the shared advice as gospel. Using these to fill in knowledge gaps or get opinions is much better than relying on these for the majority of your information. In addition to this, you may be able to meet fellow climbers in your area and make new climbing friends! You can never have enough climbing buddies.
Finding climbing Facebook groups can be helpful in finding climbing partners, used gear, inspirational stories and getting niche questions answered.
Popular forums I have consulted when looking for information about climbing include:
Always remember to be very cautious with any information you receive online and do not trust everything you hear. Keeping yourself safe should always be your number one priority.
The Bottom Line
Teaching yourself to rock climb can be fun and rewarding. I recommend to watch instructional videos, read blog articles, reach out to experienced climbers, and become a member of climbing forums and groups. Be sure that you do not blindly follow the advice of these so called “experts” however and always make sure you are staying safe.